Catching up!

The last couple days have been crazy! We have been prepping for our first tournament, the Preseason Junior at Chateau Elan. We've learned about all the equipment that we use, starting and scoring players, code of conduct rules, rules officiating, hole locations, setting tees, pace of play and Operation Hydration.  

Thursday consisted of lots of stations, including timing, weather delays, Care for the Course, and Pace of Play.  The weather system they use is way more advanced than our tiny lightning detector in the pro shop! It even has a name - Thor!  I was assigned to be the inventory captain of our team.  I took inventory of everything that will go on our trailer on the road.  I was amazed at the amount of things that will fit in a 16 foot trailer.  After going through inventory we got to go outside again (we love going outside).  Our team put up the starting tent, stake and roped it off, set tee markers, and practiced starting players.  You would think that after the number of starts I've been through I would be pretty seasoned at starting... wrong.  When it was my turn, I froze, and forgot everything I needed to say.  Thank goodness it was just practice!  Code of Conduct and Operation Hydration closed out the day for us and we got to go out to eat with our first week Tournament Director!  I'm super excited to be working with Andrew Greenfield our first week.  He is incredibly knowledgeable about the game and rules of golf - it's amazing.  He took us to a barbeque restaurant named Stonewall's BBQ.  It was delicious.  Their cheese potato casserole stuff is amazing!  It reminded me of my housemom's party potatoes (minus the beef).  Thursday was a relatively short day and it was super nice to be able to get back to the hotel a little earlier.  The boys and I decided to go get some duck shoes (epic fail) and then needed to do laundry to finish the week.  The closest 24/7 laundry mat was supposed to be about 15 or 20 minutes away - I think.  Turns out, iPhone GPS systems may not always be the best.  We got lost and ended up taking about 30 or 45 minutes to just get to the place after a 20 minute loop that took us to where we started!!  I think the laundry mat experience was a first for all of us, but we were sure glad to find it when we did. (I think I need to learn better proportions of soap)!

Friday was also an eventful day! We started with staff photos at 7:30 and quickly moved on to setting hole locations.  I had never really thought about all the variables that can go into picking a place to put the hole.  You have to think about the competitors, the distance of the hole, the size of the green, the previous hole locations, the geography of the hole, the potential errors when going for the green.  Seriously, there is so much to it!  I actually really enjoyed this part of the day though.  It was a beautiful morning and we got to be outside.  Plus, there's close to no wind here.  It's WILD.  After hole locations we got to have a little bit of fun.  We set up a starting and scoring tent, complete with stake and rope and tee markers and they played music over the speakers.  It was a nice change of pace for the week.  Then the entire afternoon was spent setting up the golf course in preparations for this weekend's events.   That evening we went out to eat with Kristi for dinner at a Japanese/Sushi restaurant.  DELICIOUS!  We even had some free time to go grab a drink after hours with some of the team and some of Team 4!


Finally, I get to today!  Today was a loong day.  We started at the course at 6:45.  As a team, we went around to check our assigned holes.  Hole locations and tee markers were checked and set for the practice round.  These were our "morning assignments." Once again we went over more rules and Pace of Play (very important around the AJGA - very much unlike collegiate golf).  Following that refresher we were able to learn about some of the communications side.  On our team of eight people, six of us are operations interns, and two are communications interns.  Operations interns are responsible for the set up of the golf course, while the communications interns are responsible for all of the pairing, scoresheets, publicity, social media, etc and so on.  Lunch was Chik-fil-A again! I could definitely handle this being in the south thing.  The afternoon consisted of more stations, some review, a stuffing party and dinner.  We had registration and the players meeting at 7:30 and finally got home around 8:30.  It's been a long day!  




In between all the working, Team 3 has become quite the team.  A few words to describe the team and a few members would be... sarcastic (#1), ditzy, leaders, smart (for the most part), loud, different, fun, and probably some other awesome adjectives like terrific and outstanding and magnificent!  We have definitely had some long days, but this has yet to feel like a "job."  I've learned so much in the last week and have worked, but I still enjoy going in the morning and I especially enjoy the people I get to work with everyday.  

Have a GOOD 'UN!
-Kiley

P.S. I nearly forgot.  Meet Tank (the white one) and Hutch (the grey one).   We get to drive these all summer long!  They are pretty legit.