Volunteer Named Hero After 33 Years at Arnold Palmer Event

After 33 years of showing up, Mary Ann Stead finally got the recognition she never expected but absolutely deserved.

Stead was named the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational Volunteer of the Year, chosen from among more than 1,500 volunteers who help run the prestigious golf tournament at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida. Together, these volunteers contribute over 56,000 hours of unpaid work to make the event possible.

Stead started volunteering in 1992. Back then, she manually updated the tournament leaderboard by hand, changing scores throughout each round.

For the next 25 years, she served as a walking scorer. That meant following golfers around the course and keeping their official scores, often walking alongside some of the biggest names in the sport.

She kept score for Tiger Woods. She walked with Arnold Palmer himself, and the experience left a lasting impression.

"Being with Arnie was just the best. He's such a classy man. He treated everybody with respect and made us all feel appreciated," Stead said.

Now Stead works in caddy hospitality, making sure the professionals who carry the bags are taken care of. But the job has never been the main draw for her.

"A lot of what I look forward to is seeing people that I worked with and come to know, but don't see the rest of the year, because they come from both coasts, they come from even other countries," Stead explained. "Being part of Arnie's Army. That's what it's all about."

Sunny's Take

What makes Stead's story so beautiful is how humble she remains about it all. She calls it a privilege to support the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation's work, never treating her decades of service as a sacrifice.

Her husband volunteered at the tournament too, before he passed away. Now her son continues the family tradition, making tournament week even more special for Stead.

Every year feels like a homecoming, reuniting with volunteers from around the world who share her passion for giving back. That sense of belonging and purpose has kept her coming back for over three decades.

The honor was unexpected, Stead said, but it represents something bigger than one person. It celebrates the thousands of volunteers who make events like this possible, asking for nothing but the joy of being part of something meaningful.