Day 73: Multitasking

Today definitely sets a record for the number of different tasks that I completed. I started the day by putting up tent tops and table skirts. While I was out we realized that there was an error on the live scoring sheets, so I reprinted those when I came back in. From there, I headed over to the starting tent to take equipment surveys as well as start the groups. The first group got off on time, but we had to delay the round due to severe weather before the second group went off. When I got into HQ, Casey, our TD this week, had me make some signs and post them around the clubhouse. I was going to stay awake throughout the delay in case we needed anymore signs or website updates made, but after the second 30 minute delay it was nap time. Tori had claimed a club with a soft head cover on it, so I took the little nook that Megatron (our paper carrier) and the starting boxes made. I didn't want to be seen by people walking in the door and I think I accomplished that!

When the weather finally cleared and we headed back out on the course, Brett took my spot in the starting tent so that I could help Casey in HQ with other tasks. I ran out and took some photos of the leaders. While I was out on the course I gave a ruling, which is bound to happen. I was also sitting on No. 17 green when the current leader boy slammed his club down after a bad shot. I was sitting right next to our Senior Rules Official and we went to check out the spot once they holed out. He had taken a divot when he hit, but the club slam caused a three inch impression just off the green. It was a penalty that kept the player from leading the round.

When I got off the course from taking photography, there was a huge ice cream truck sitting next to the putting green. I walk over and it's complimentary snow cones for players and officials. It was the best surprise of the day! I got all of the photos uploaded on Facebook and we got out of the office just 20 minutes after the ops. We went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner, which is the first restaurant that we ate at for our first tournament. Tonight's dinner was my last restaurant meal so it was cool to start and end with the same place.

Day 72: Getting to play some golf

Coffee and photos... I love my job.

Today was my last day of first round action photography. We only have 78 players in the field this week so thankfully I didn't have to sit on No. 3 all day. I was done by 1:30 p.m. and I was able to head in and get all of the photos renamed before Michael even came in to do scorecard entry. Our headquarters is in the FedEx St. Jude Classic, the PGA TOUR, conference room. It's a really nice set-up... and by really nice I mean a 72" flatscreen television hanging from the ceiling, wheelie chairs, a great wifi system, a copier in the next room, and a coffee pot (with coffee) in the kitchen. Long story short, this week's HQ is a comms dream come true.

Today was the first day this week that we got off before the sun went down. We got off around 3 p.m. and Michael, Brett and I went down to the driving range and then actually got the okay to play a round of golf. The guys were all about it, but considering I've only hit probably 20 golf balls in my life, I didn't want to put anyone in danger and tee it up. So, I drove one of the carts, kept score and looked for lost balls. Seventy-two days ago, I never thought that I would have wanted to stay on the course after working so many hours. However, 80% of the memories I have from the summer have occurred on the golf course and I am not ready to give those up yet.

Teeing off on No. 1

We went to the famous barbecue restaurant, Rendezvous, in downtown Memphis for dinner. I didn't realize until we parked and starting walking to the restaurant that I had been there before. It was just as good the second time! We all walked around Beale Street after dinner and then Brett and I went on a walk when we got back to our host homes. The weather has been so mild (with a little rain and a few clouds) that I've been bugging people to go on a night walk. Between the nice weather and a stomach full of barbecue, the walk was a great and relaxing way to end a wonderful day!

Rendezvous is in a small alleyway in Memphis.

Day 71: Under Armour swag & Scott Stallings

Scott Stallings (fifth from right) and the gang.

We had a visitor today. PGA TOUR Professional Scott Stallings was on-site to welcome players and hang out the tournament that he is helping to sponsor. He was a really down-to-earth and nice guy. We got to just hang out in HQ as a group for awhile and talk, which was really neat! He asked us as many questions as we were asking him and he seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say.

There was a lot going on today and I was on a mission to capature each individual thing to highlight my inalienable tournament. I think I did just that! I uploaded 29 photos to the tournament Facebook album today. Normally, I have 30-40 photos/album total, so the fact that I have 29 photos before the first round of the tournament is a little crazy. I'm really happy with my work today!

This tournament is unique for a number of reasons, one of them being that the tournament pairings are unveiled at a party the night before the first round. So, we had the True Temper Pairings party complete with barbecue and two live bands tonight. It was another 16 hour day, but our team has really come together after our two boys left. They were the heart and soul of the team, so we've had to work to keep our spirits high and put in more hours, but we've really stepped it up. I'm so proud of everyone and I'm glad that we can go out on a high note! It also doesn't hurt that we got a bunch of free Under Armour swag today. We had gotten four shirts to wear as our uniforms this week since Under Armour is sponsoring the tournament, but one of their representatives was there today and had a ton of extra stuff so we got to grab a few things. Scott Stallings even autographed hats for the team!

Day 70: Starbucks

Today I worked my last qualifier! My alarm went off at 4:35 a.m. and I thought I was dreaming. It was just way too early. I was flying out the door at 5 a.m. to be to the qualifier course by 5:30. This qualifier was a little different not only because it was off-site, but also because it was in Mississippi, while our tournament course is in Tennessee. It was cool to cross over the state line, but not cool that I had to get up so early. Tori, Brett and I worked the reg tables and got all of the players signed in and ready to go.

I ran to pick up the Regional Director from the airport around 8:45 a.m. What I didn’t tell him was that I had Starbucks orders from the entire team (including the TD), so we were going to stop. I plugged Starbucks into the navigation system in the comp car and it ended up taking us to the Starbucks that was inside of Target. Nine drinks and two cup carriers later, we were on our way back to the course with energy in hand.

I got to be gatekeeper for scoring, which I had never done before. I pretty much just made sure that each person returned their sand bottle and that each member of the group was present before sending them to a scoring table. It was fun to experiment with a new position!

We headed back to TPC Southwind while the ops broke down the qualifier course and were able to finish up the qualifier and prep for the Junior-Am tomorrow morning. We got out of the office around 7 p.m., went straight to dinner and I didn’t pull back into my driveway until 9 p.m. Driveway to driveway time was 16 hours, which officially makes today my longest working day of the summer! Just wow! 

Day 69: Numb

This internship is an emotional roller coaster. One moment you're laughing uncontrollably, the next you're annoyed or insanely tired and the next you're crying. Yet through everything, the difficult situations and the ones I will never forget, are my teammates. We're in this crazy journey together. Although most of the full time staff at the AJGA have completed the internship and there are other intern teams, no one can understand what we're going through except our teammates. We lean on each other for support and rely on each other to complete a task or just talk.

Today, we said goodbye to two of our guys. It was one of the most, if not the most, difficult thing I've had to do this summer. The emotions were just so strong. No one was ready to say goodbye or see the team slowly start to go back to our respective states. I'm not sure if shock or sadness describes it better, but my heart simply aches to have my team broken up. Through everything this summer, I've relied on Bridget, Landon, Tori, Brett, Tschida, Michael, and Moe to help me. I don't know what I am going to do without them by my side. My final goodbyes on Friday are going to be so hard!

Although it was a somber afternoon, we still had tasks to complete. I went with Tori and Brett on the product run, which was the first time I got to pick up the water this summer. We headed to dinner at a host home and they had GiGi's cupcakes! Goodness, I love those! 

Day 68: Walkin' in Memphis

We said goodbye to Louisiana today. I took my last car ride with the group and we headed to Memphis, Tennessee. We rolled into town around 2:30 p.m. and unloaded the comms equipment from the trailer. We're at the TPC Southwind course and, although I haven't ridden the course yet, I can tell it's amazing!

We went to dinner at a local burger place that has some of the best sweet potato fries I've ever had! I checked in with my host mom, Terry, afterwards. I found out that her daughter and son-in-law are the tournament sponsors and her daughter was a Gamma Phi! I saw a photo on the refrigerator and had to ask. Such a small world!

Day 67: Best comp meal of the summer

After the headache that was yesterday, I was determined to have a better day today. I loaded up on coffee, chose my cart carefully—I found my lucky numbers—and geared up for a long day. I was supposed to have the first groups off of No. 1, but I ended up starting all of the groups for Bridget since she is just starting to get her voice back. So Bridget followed my groups on the front nine while I started and they were just making the turn when the last group went off, so I just followed them on the back nine. One of the groups got a red card on No. 5, so they were flying though the round because they didn’t want to get a penalty stroke. Since Bridget dealt with that red card, I didn’t have to give out a single red card today! It was like Christmas in July! I only had to give two rulings as well: cart path relief and relief for a drain near the green. Both are just nearest point of relief, one club length and drop, so they were quick and easy rulings.

When I got inside after my groups finished, I got to work imputing the scores that had already come in. We go through each scorecard and enter hole-by-hole scores. It’s one of my favorite tasks because it doesn’t require too much thought and you get into a groove. It was killing me to be inside though because the Girls Division had a playoff. The girls in the sudden death playoff were both in the group that I gave a double red card to yesterday, so it was just crazy to hear the play-by-plays over the radio. One of my favorite players, Kesaree Rojanapeansatith of Nonthaburi, Thailand, ended up holing out for birdie and winning the tournament. She has been at our past three tournaments so I’ve gotten to know her and her family. This was Kesaree’s first win and she was nearly speechless when I interviewed her for the story. It was so cute and I was so happy for her!

After the interviews, Michael and I were able to wrap things up fairly quickly and pack up our equipment. For dinner, we went to Superior Steakhouse, which is owned by one of our player’s fathers. He reserved the wine room for us and we ate in there. It was a fully complimentary meal and he insisted that we order any- and everything that we wanted. Just to give you an idea, the average appetizer was $16 and the average entrée was $30+. We ordered one of their lesser (yet still extremely nice) bottles of wine that was $82 for the table. I had the special of the day, which was crabmeat stuffed flounder. I got chocolate cake for dessert and the waiter suggested a 2004 Far Niente Dolce Napa to compliment it. So he brought out this little glass of wine; there was a little less than a ½ cup of wine in it. Out of curiosity and because our waiter was super chill, I asked how much that glass of wine would cost…. $30! The dinner for 10 of us cost over $1200. Just crazy stuff!

Said goodbye to Brian Philips, one of the
TA's today. Such a goofy kid!

Day 66: Double red card

Creeper pic of Brian giving a ruling.
Couldn't resist.

I knew before my first group holed out on their first hole that they were going to have issues. They squeaked by the first three timing stations, but went over on No. 17 (they started on No. 10). They were only one minute over gap time, so it should have been easy to make up. I was taking random times on each player to be sure that one player wasn't taking forever to hit her shots and sticking with their group in case they needed help with a ruling. Even with a red card in their hands, they didn't pick up the pace, which caused them to fall further behind the group ahead of them and go over time par. Since they didn't make up any time and didn't show any sort of urgency, they failed to extend their red card so I had to issue a one stroke penalty for slow play. When I issued the penalty, one of the spectators, who I took for a parent, but was actually a coach, became very upset. He started pointing at me, getting uppity and demanding to speak with the tournament director. I tried to keep my cool and sympathize with him, but he really just gave me a headache and made me want to hide. Did he think I wanted to give them a penalty? I'm there to help the groups, not penalize them. It was tough. And to make things even better (sarcasm), the group behind my double red group also went on red card. What a morning!

Jeremy only had three edits on my story!
Such an improvement from past weeks.

When I got into headquarters, I helped the timing stations get caught back up with live scoring. Just as I got caught up with that we had a huge storm pop up and we had to pull the players and spectators off of the course. When we went out to shuttle the players into the clubhouse to wait out the storm, there was a lighting stick every other minute. It was so cool, but pretty scary at the same time. It ended up being a two hour weather delay, but we were able to get the juniors back onto the course to finish the round. Michael and I used the delay to get ahead on all of our work, so it was nice in a way.

For dinner we went to the restaurant that David Toms co-owns, Bistro Byronz. It was a cute little French place. We were all so tired at dinner that we were just being absurd, saying the most ridiculous things and laughing hysterically. It was so much fun!

Loved the drink pitchers at dinner!

True teammates spoon feed each other ice cream.
Honestly, I don't even know.

Day 65: Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red card

Mr. Rogers!

Started off the morning following groups; I had the first three groups off of No. 1. Having the first groups off of the tee is a huge responsibility because however fast the first groups of the day go, it how quickly the field will usually go. So, the first rules official really has to be on their A-game to get the kids around the course. I gave all of my groups a little pep talk in the starters tents to get them motivated to walk and play quickly... first group of the day gets a red card on No. 2. Not a good start. To make things worse, my last group (or the third group of the day) also goes on red card on No. 2 just as my first group is going back on green card. It was a serious joggling act between those two groups.

Our host home this week!

When I got back into the clubhouse I started entering scorecards and getting ready to write the story. The last group finished around 2:45 p.m. and I was able to write the story and get everything preped for tomorrow by 5:45 p.m. I was pretty happy with that. Although with the work day ending so early, we had to say goodbye to Rogers for good. He has been at four of the eight tournaments we have run as either the TD, SRO or Regional Manager. He is definitely one of the best TD's we've had this summer and I'm really going to miss him!

Tonight for dinner everyone came over to Tori, Bridget and mine's host families and hung in their pool. Unfortunately, Bridget has strep, so she stayed inside. When the mosquitos got to be to much, we moved inside and played Cards Against Humanity, which is a grown up version of Apples to Apples. It is hilarious! I need to buy it!

Day 64: 16 hours straight

There's nothing like working a 15 hour day. Literally, though. I am exhausted! I was at the course and working from 5:45 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. There is something just so wrong about that, especially when it's already super hot at 5 a.m. Hello, Louisiana! This morning, Michael and I put up tent tops and side banners on the five tents around the course and then I stuffed the Junior-Am carts (meaning that I put player bios, hole location sheets, and Nuun tablets in each cart). When we were about ready to send off the 8 a.m. shotgun, Michael gave me any corrections that needed to be made on the scorecards and then I was able to print those out. I will say that, while Monday is an exhausting day, we eat really well on Mondays. We eat off of the Junior-Am breakfast and lunch buffets--much better then box lunches--and then we eat whatever food is at the Players Meetings, which tonight was pasta.

An unusual part of my Monday was my one-on-one sit down with Lauren, who works in the HR department and is pretty much in charge of the interns. She has gone from team to team, speaking with everyone for a mid-summer evaluation. We talked about the good, the bad and the ugly about the internship and my experiences as well as what I wanted to do in the future. It was a nice break in the middle of a hectic day and I was able to reminisce a little bit about my time this summer.

David Toms is on the left.

Next, I inputted all of the amatur's information that played in the Junior-Am. I then jumped to working on finalizing pairings and making copies of those. I also set up the screens and projectors for the Parents and Players Meetings and helped to set up registration. By the time all of that was done, it was time for registration. Normally I take pictures at reg, but Jeremy had me working one of the table, so Lauren took pictures for me, which is why I actually have a picture of me working reg! There was a Q&A session before the meeting with David Toms, the PGA Tour Professional. He is the main sponsor of the tournament and his son is playing in it, so he spoke to the players and parents about his past experiences and junior golf. I had heard a lot about him, but I had never seen him or met him, so I was happy to finally put a face with the name. Not being a golfer, I felt a little out of the loop since he is kind of a big deal. Now, I know!

Day 63: Stake and rope

Tori and I got to sleep in today; we didn't have to be to the qualifier course until 11:30. It was about a 45 minute drive to the qualifier course, so by the time we got there groups were almost done with the round. Our TD came up to use as soon as we got there and asked for use to stake off the scoring area. Normally the qualifier scoring area doesn't get stake and rope, but it was a wide open area and we didn't want parents coming to the table with their player. Now, stake and rope is a total ops job. I've only helped tighten rope in the morning before the round and that was during training in May. So Tori hammered in the stakes while I looped the rope them. I'm not going to lie, the rope was pretty taunt. I wish I would have gotten a picture, because that it probably the first and last time I will be able to do that job.

When the qualifier was over, Jeremy and I headed back to the tournament course since all of our equipment was still there. I had entered scores into the computer as groups finished, so all of the scores were entered before we even left the course, which was great! We were about to get on the highway when Jeremy saw the Sonic sign and, almost to himself, said "I wonder if there's happy hour on Sunday's." I replied that I thought Sonic happy hour was every day 2-4 p.m. Jeremy kind of glances toward Sonic again and says, "It's a chance I'm willing to take. What do you want?" So, on the 45 minute drive back to the course, I sipped on a cherry limeade while writing the post-round story. I finished the story on the car ride, so all I had to do when we got back was upload it to the website and check scorecards. It was time well spent.

I finished up the Junior-Am work since Michael got off early today and I got everything ready for tomorrow. The last thing I did was make copies of the assignments for tomorrow. I noticed that I was working a full day tomorrow. So I asked Jeremy how hours worked. I thought it was dependent upon how many hours you had worked as well as your role that week, which he confirmed was the case. So I asked him why I was working registration tomorrow night since I have worked registration for the past four weeks. He gave me a funny look and opened his assignments. He looked at a few things and goes, "I guarantee that your TD's have been entering in your name wrong on the spreadsheet so it keeps filtering you in to the wrong slots." Awesome. So I ask if Michael and I could switch tomorrow since I haven't had an afternoon off in weeks. The answer, not surprisingly, was no. It's one of the things that I really dislike about this internship. Things never seem to be fair. It's completely luck of the draw when it comes to time off and even when it was confirmed that the reason I haven't gotten an afternoon off is because of an error on the TD's part, it's not corrected. Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper tonight and I probably won't be tomorrow.

Something that did lift my spirits, however, was our host mom when we got home. We all just started talking and we somehow got on the topic of New Orleans and the conferences that she has spoken at there. So she started pulling out all of her Mardi Gras memorabilia from when she was the Queen of Mardi Gras. We had a full photo shot. It was hilarious and so much fun!

Day 62: Second guessing ourselves

The girls get the Toyota Equinox comp car this week!
Complete with XM radio, navigation and just eight miles
on it when we picked it up from the dealership.

Comms got to sleep in today, so Michael and I went to the course at 10 a.m. this morning. We got there and went straight to work getting ready for the qualifier tomorrow. I proofed and formatted the pairings for the qualifier. When we make the pairings, we take into account the player's name (we don't want two John's in the same group), hometown, performance level, and siblings (we try to put siblings in back-to-back tee times. So I go through the players and look for discrepancies in the pairings that the computer automatically creates. It can take anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on how many changes you have to make. Then, one the TD approves the pairings, you export and format them in Word so that they look nice and pretty. I actually love formatting the pairings, it's just fun to finally be at the point where you can print it out on letterhead and start making copies.

When I finally printed the pairings, I showed Jeremy, our TD, and he said that we printed it on the wrong letterhead. Michael and I looked at each other and at the same time said, "wait, what?" We had been printing the pairings on the wrong letterhead. Once Jeremy pointed it out, it made sense, but we had no idea. For the rest of the day, whenever we went to print something, we always double checked that we were printing the right thing on the right paper.

For dinner we went to this yummy Mexican restaurant owned by one of our junior's father. We were looking at the menu and Moe leaned over to me and asked what quail tasted like. I explained to him what it was, but I've never eaten it, so I didn't know what it tasted like. He decided that it sounded interesting so he ordered quail with a side of french fries and rice. It was an interesting combo to say the least.

Just a little side note, our host family has the most precious dogs! They are rescue dogs and they are so fun to come home to at the end of the day!

Quail. Yum?

Day 61: Goodbye Texas, hello Shreveport!

I rode shotgun while Brett drove part
of the trip.

We left bright and early this morning for Shreveport, Louisiana. It was a five and a half hour drive, which took about seven hours with the trailer, so we rolled in around 2 p.m. Brett, Bridget, Landon and I drove together again. Bridget insists that there constantly be music playing in the car. Silence or even a radio commercial is unacceptable, so she started out as DJ. We ended up listening to a bunch of Bill Engvall skits and were dying laughing!

When we finally rolled up to Shreveport, we unloaded a little and set up HQ, which is larger than Horseshoe Bay, but not big enough for the whole team to hang out in. Thankfully there is a large sitting room with three wall-mounted flat screens in it, a popcorn machine and coffee right next door to our HQ. Not to mention that there is a copier five paces from the tables where our computers are (aka a comms dream come true)! Freyman is our TD this week and he has been doing tournaments for years now, so he was fully prepared with yardages, time par and volunteer information for Michael and I. It was so much more efficient that it normally is on our first set-up day.

Our dinner receipt: 9 people for $0.27. 

Around 5:30 p.m. we went to meet our host family for the week. Bridget, Tori and I are all staying together with the Allen's, a really sweet couple who lives on No. 5 green. It's a beautiful house complete with pool and spa! Right now only Mrs. Allen is home and she gave us the grand tour and invited our entire team over for dinner on Tuesday for a relaxing night by the pool. We went to dinner with the team at this yummy Cajun place. Our meal was complimentary, but Freyman wanted to leave a tip, so he asked our waitress to charge something really inexpensive, like a soda, so that he could leave a tip on the credit card. She charged us for a cube of cheese, so it looked like a group of nine ate a cube of cheese for $0.27. High rollers, right?

Day 60: Three rounds in two days

The sunrise was amazing this morning! Photo credit
goes to Landon.

It was another early morning today. We had to finish the first wave of the second round, which the groups took a cart back out to the hole they ended on yesterday at 8:30 a.m. At 8:45 a.m. The second wave of the second round started off of the Nos. 1 and 10 starting tees. Once all the groups made the turn, the ops crew and golf course staff followed behind them to cut new hole locations for the final round. Unlike a normal 1- and 2-tee start where the round can start with holes still being cut, all of the holes have to be cut and tees set for a shotgun since there is a group starting on every hole.  The second wave of round two finished at 2:10 p.m. and Michael, Tim and I had about 30 minutes to make the cut, repair, print and copy pairings, print and check scorecards and get all of the paperwork distributed to the players so that they could drive out to their holes at 2:50 for a final round shotgun at 3 p.m. It was a hectic hour, but we were able to blow the air horns signaling the start of the round at 2:59. I couldn't believe we did it and that it went really smoothly. It was definitely a successful 1.75 rounds. 

We were saying at the beginning of the week that we almost had too much staff for how quick the golf course was--time par was 3:50--but it was such a blessing that we had 12 interns and two full-time staff members because it was all hands on deck the past two days. It was a lt of fun to have Tony, Tim, Paul, and Kathleen with us this week, especially because Tony and Kathleen were two of the order people I met at IRW in Marcj. 

The clubhouse was great! It was close to the cart barn,
had a large room for HQ and could fit all of the players
in the ballroom for the meetings.

Everyone was presently surprised that we were able to get in a full 54-hole tournament in just two days. We were at the golf course and working for 32 of the past 48 hours to make it possible, but we did it! Now, time to catch up on some sleep!

Day 59: Keep the camera dry!

It was an early morning with all hands on deck as we planned on getting one and a half rounds of golf in today. Since the cart staff was stuffing cart signs, I was able to update our new General Information (GI) board. The GI has clear plastic sleeves where we put and can easily change paper with important info on it. The sleeves are attached by Velcro, so I, for some reason or another, tried to take the Velcro off of the sleeves. My method: scissors. I got about half of an inch before the scissors slipped and sliced my left pointer finger. That cut made sense. What doesn't make sense are the two huge chunks that I took out of my right fingers. I'm right handed so I was holding the scissors with my right hand am yet my right hand got the worst of the damage. It's still a mystery to me, but thankfully Tony, one of the guys from Team 5, had a first aid kit and Kathleen bandaged me up. 

While the course was still really wet and there were a few puddles throughout the course, it was playable. The first tee times were delayed an hour so that the golf course staff could pump water out of the bunkers and so that our staff could repaint some hazard lines that were still underwater. I made my way out to No. 12 for action photography. Just like the tournament two weeks ago, this tournament has 136 players, so I was out there for a long time and the weather just couldn't decided what it wanted to do. It would be sunny and hot one moment and there would suddenly be a torrential downpour that lasted four or so minutes. The mission of the day was just to keep the camera dry. I ended up ripping a hole in a plastic bag and sticking the lens through the hole so that the camera body was inside the bag at all times. I'm sure I looked ridiculous taking photos with a camera over my bag, but I wasn't about to take any chances.

Even with rain throughout the day, we were able to complete the first round of golf and send off the first wave of golfers again to start their second round of golf. We did have to call in the groups due to inclement weather and darkness around 7:45 p.m., so the first wave will resume play tomorrow wherever they left off, then second wave of the second round will tee off, we'll make a cut and play a final round shotgun tomorrow afternoon. That is the plan if the weather wants to cooperate with us. We shall see!

Day 58: Rained out

No. 11 got a new lake. If you can see the little patch of
grass in the water to the right, that is where the lake used
to end. Everything on the left of the picture is new.

We were expecting a lot of rain over night. It rained all afternoon yesterday and into the evening and we could see water begin to puddle around the course. However, we weren't expecting the course to be turning into a lake overnight. The fairway of No. 18 was completely underwater when we got there this morning. The lake on No. 11 over flowed and created a waterfall into a new lake to the left of the teeing ground. Our tournament assistants were riding the course at one point to check the damage and as the drive on the cart path past No. 7, a fish flopped under their cart.

No. 18 fairway was ready for a pool party.

We immediately delayed the start time two hours (9:45 a.m.) and the ops staff got to leave. About 45 minutes later, at 6:45 a.m. The other comms got to head back to the hotel. Ben, our TD, had me stay to make updates on the website and make new signs every time we had a new announcement. After the rain didn't let up, we delayed the start time until 11 a.m. When it was 8:45 a.m., we pushed it back seven hours and 15 minutes to a 3:00 p.m. start. At noon, it was eight hours and 45 minutes delayed for a 4:30 p.m. start and finally at 3:00 p.m. they called it a day and announced that tee times had been delayed until tomorrow at 7:45 a.m. When it was made pretty clear that we weren't going to be playing golf today, I went ahead and made signs for every possible situation as well as type out the rest of the updates that we would post throughout the day. Around noon, I asked/begged Ben to let me go back to the hotel and take a nap. I was so tired! I could update the website from the hotel and, since it is just a five minute drive, I could always head back to the course if I needed to. Tschida, Moe and Brett came to pick me up... They're officially the best!

I hung out with the boys and watched Sports Center when I got back to the hotel--nothing will put me to sleep faster--and got in a little cat nap. When we were deciding what to do this afternoon, Tschida mentioned this indoor gaming place; we looked it up and couldn't resist! For just $30, you got unlimited bowling, bumper cars, laser tag and $10 worth of arcade tokens. Tschida, Moe, Brett, Michael and I went and it was so much fun! We were there from about 3:30-8 p.m. and had a blast! It was the perfect break from the chaos at the course.

Laser tag! Reliving our childhoods!

Day 57: Laundry in hotels

The past two days I could not find my laundry bag. It was in the back of the truck that was going to the dry cleaners, but it never made it into the store and it wasn't in the back of the truck. After walking through each step of Moe's day we finally figured out that my laundry was in the back of one of the courtesy vehicles, so I was able to do my laundry this morning in the hotel. The had the old time quarter crank set up. It was a throw back!

While my laundry was going, Kathleen and I ran to the store to pick up a few random things. They had my go-to carbinated flavored waters sitting on an aisle display and I had to grab some. I drank one of these waters almost every day during school and I had not had one in two months. It tasted so good!

Since a few of us got to sleep in, we headed to the course around 12:30 p.m. and jumped right into helping restage the carts from the Junior-Am round for the practice round. It's usually a little hectic with so many people and carts going every which way, but it was insanity today because it was also raining. We got all of the carts staged and got the players sent out into the rain on time, but we were all pretty soaked by the end of it. It was fun though to be able to use my rain gear. We've only gotten to use it once during our first tournament and I love our Footjoy rain suits! They are so nice!

While the ops staff broke down the course in record time (the rain really motivated them to go quickly), I was inside make copies of the Notice to Competitors and hole locations, which the players get each morning of the round, the staff packets for tomorrow and the pairings. I fixed a couple cart signs and made a few more for tomorrow and set up the projectors for the Players and Parents Meetings. The Parents Meeting was in the Sports Bar of the clubhouse and I was able to hook up the computer to one of the massive televisions in the bar area. I'm not going to lie, I was geeking out about how nice the television was and how cool it was that we were able to hook up the computer to it! It was a sweet set up. I made my way out to the trailer as well to take a paper inventory. I'm in charge of keep track of our equipment, which includes paper. I just have to be sure that we have enough of everything that we'll need for the next two or so weeks. 

So excited to have my flavored water again!

Thank goodness for hair dryers in the
women's locker room, so that we can
dry our clothes after the rain storm.

Day 56: Steakhouse

See of carts at the trailer in the pitch black.

We got up bright and early to get over to the qualifier course by 6:00 a.m. The hotel opened up the morning breakfast for the pilots that are staying here, so they're allowing up to get that early too. When we got to the course it was still pitch black. Thankfully there were a few street lights around so that we could see what we were doing. I was assigned to registrations set-up with the boys, so I let them design the boxes of balls. They got so into it and made this huge wall on the edge of the table. They were pretty excited about it.

I was following groups throughout the Qualifier, so I went out on the course to find the holes my groups were starting on and I got hands-down lost. My groups were starting on Nos. 15 and 16, so I was hoping to ride No. 18 backwards  but I got so turned around and ended up on the front nine. I did finally find the correct teeing ground and was able to help my groups throughout the day.

After the qualifier, Michael and I went back to the tournament course and completed the rest of the things for tomorrow's Junior-Am and practice round. We got back to the hotel with just enough time to change before we headed to this rustic steak house. I'm not a big red meat eater, but I had to just go for it. I got the petite filet and a sweet potato! The filet might have been the best I've ever had! It was so delicious! They got the seasonings just right. We repped our tournament t-shirts that the tournament chairman had made. It was so nice to be at a dinner and not be wearing golf attire! It's the little things!

Day 55: Snooze

Moe & Tschida were awesome and
stuffed the Qualifier bags! Huge help!

Michael and I got to sleep in this morning, so we headed to the course around 9:45 a.m. and jumped right into getting everything printed and preped for the Qualifier tomorrow. We went to eat at this little hole-in-the-wall burrito place; it was delicious! We worked until about 3 p.m. and then headed back to the hotel. I was planning on catching up on some emails, but after five minutes of looking at a computer screen, my eyes were shut.

I was able to sneak in a 45 minute nap before Bridget, Michael and I headed to mass. The church was welcoming a new priest to their parish; the priest was maybe late 20s. He introduced himself and told the congregation a little bit about himself. It was just really neat to see such a young guy dedicate his life to Christ. It made me really excited for the youth in that parish because the young priest will be easier to relate to and will hopefully make them want to go to church and learn more about the Catholic faith.

The church we went to had a gorgeous chapel!

After mass we went to dinner at a Mexican place--yes, Mexican for lunch and dinner. Everyone was in such a cheery mood since almost everyone on the team had taken naps this afternoon. When we got back to the hotel, we stopped in the lobby and played a little foosball. The hotel we are staying in is all suites and it seems like it's a hotel for long term stay. The hotel has the normal pool and work out room, but it also has pool, ping-pong and foosball in the lobby as well as a restaurant and banquet halls inside. It's quite the compound. It just feels so good to be in a hotel again after staying with host families for the past five weeks. I was able to go workout tonight after dinner and just hang out, whereas I would normally have to make small talk with a host family during my off time. I have met some wonderful host families and I am so appreciate to them for hosting me, but it is really nice to have a some time to myself and have the option of just hanging out.

Foosball in the lobby

We gotta chip on our shoulder.