Day 9: Packing up

Bridget and Landon packing up the trailer.

Today was our last day at HQ! We packed up the trailer and miraculously still had room to spar! I never thought we could fit all of our equipment in our 16 foot trailer, but we did! It took us about 3 hours to account for all of it and load it, but we are now ready to go! All of the equipment we will need this summer, including rope, banners, golf bags and tools are all in that trailer.

My parents came to see me! 

After lunch, we went through a CPR certification class that was a good refresher for me. Afterwards, we had about an hour and a half left before dinner so we took the car and trailer out to practice driving with the trailer completely full! When we practiced driving last week, the trailer was empty. The truck drove so differently with the trailer packed up! We took the car and trailer on a loop around Braselton with one of the roads being a small two-lane road and the highway. The highway was a breeze! The small road was so scary! There was probably a few inches on either side of the trailer when we were driving. We passed an 18-wheeler and I about had a panic attack! I slowed down like crazy, but we made it though!

After dinner and repacking my suitcase, my parents drove up to Braselton to bring me a few things that I forgot and to take somethings that I didn't need... and to see me of course! We talked for about an hour and it was so good to see them! It was weird just sitting in the hotel lobby catching up, but I loved being able to tell them all about my experience so far in person!

Day 8: First Rulings

The sunrise over the golf course this morning before we
took the carts out for the round.

Today was the second day of the tournament at Chateau Elan. It was a shotgun style round, so all of the golfers started on different holes at 8 a.m. My group today was so sweet, but we did have a couple rulings, which I had to handle. Besides calling a ground under repair a water hazard and almost giving the wrong ruling, it was a pretty successful day. I got to talk with all of the parents of the girls in my group which was wonderful as well!

I also worked on the tournament story that would normally be posted to the tournament website. The story I wrote today was just for practice, but I needed to work on my golf lingo and writing style  Michael and I were the first comms team done again today, which was exciting! Hopefully we can keep getting our work done quickly and getting off at a decent hour. Once our comms work was completed, we went ahead and packed our equipment into two large birds, or tubes, in preparation for our departure on Wednesday.

Before we left HQ, Katie, the Tournament Director, did a small trivia game and the people who got the questions correct got a golf club towel from the tournament today. She had four towels to give away and all four towels went to my team! Looks like we can expect great things from Team 3 this summer! We also got to go to dinner on our own as a team tonight. We went to O'Charley's and had a great time. I laughed so hard that I cried at one point, which seems to be becoming a trend with my group! We were still in our uniforms when we went to dinner and got more than one strange look from others. We also went to Target to get a few things before we leave and then headed to a small bar to hang out with some of the other interns. It was a nice and relaxing way to end the day and get to know some of the other interns that are not in my group!

Tori and Brett with Ox, one of our trucks.

Pat, Tschida and Brett walking into Target in our uniforms.

Day 7: First tournament

Today was the first day of the preseason tournament at Chateau Elan, which is where the AJGA headquarters is located. Today was also the earliest that we had to report to HQ: 6 a.m.! We got to HQ this morning and went straight into morning assignments. Michael and I were with two other intern teams and we set up the a-frames on the first tee. All interns acted as walking rules officials today, so Michael and I started the 7:50 a.m. group and walked all 18 holes with them. Today was my first time walking a course and I am exhausted! I didn't even have a golf bag to carry! I didn't have to give any rulings, which I'm a little disappointed about since I am still uncomfortable with that aspect. However, I did get a bad time warning, so I at least got to go through the motions of talking to the players.

After my group finished, I went to 18 green and took some action photos, which came out really well! I also took photos of the BBQ and Care for the Course party, edited all of those photos and uploaded one to the website and one to Twitter. There were a few other little tasks that I completed and we finished the day with a meeting. Comm interns had to stay after (which will be the norm for the summer) for an additional meeting. From the time I got to HQ this morning to the time I left, I worked a 15 hour day. That's just a small taste of what will be a regular day this summer! Now, time for bed... It's 10:15 p.m., which is now considered late! Night!

The sun rising over the Pro Shop this morning (left) and the
sun setting as I left HQ tonight (right). It was a long day!

Day 6: Cross Training

I had to snap a picture on No. 12 green. It
was too pretty to resist!

Today was all about learning what the operations interns have done this week and will do for a normal tournament. There is a preseason tournament this weekend at Chateau Elan that we will be working, so all of the work we did today actually went towards the tournament preparations. Since today was the practice round for that tournament, ops were in charge of checking hole locations. So, I went out on the course with the ops on my team and watched them check the holes and mark the teeing grounds. It was really cool to be out on the course and see how the paperwork/computer work that I have done all week coincides with the work done on the course.

We then moved to another area of the course and walked through many different rulings. We went step-by-step through each ruling while using the walkie talkie. It was so helpful! I think I am most nervous about giving a ruling, so it was good to go over all of those again.

Brittany finally hit her limit!

After lunch, it was back to comm stuff. We set up the headquarters for the tournament this weekend and went through many different steps, programs and procedures for what we would normally do during a practice round. It was so nice to be able to get on the computers and play around with the programs again! They are starting to make sense, which feels really good! I was going to take a picture of HQ, but then I saw Brittany and had to take a picture... I think it explains how we are all feeling this week: tired, overwhelmed and ready to work a tournament. We have learned so much, so now I think that we are all antsy to get to a course and start working. During our break in HQ, I got to practice starting a group of players from the first tee, which I hadn't done yet so that was really helpful as well.

During dinner we had a team meeting and went over assignments for the first round of the tournament tomorrow. We then headed over to the Parents and Players Meetings where we completed player registration and got to sit in on the Players Meeting. It was nice to hear the Tournament Directors talk to the players about Pace of Play and certain course markings. I doubt the players were actually paying attention, but they were given the same information that the interns have been working on all week. Hopefully, with they information, they will get in some great rounds of golf tomorrow!

On the way back to the hotel, I asked my car to stop by Publix because I wanted krokies for the tournament tomorrow and the rest of the summer. We were searching for awhile and just dying laughing the whole time. Our version of "fun" is walking around Publix... do what you got to do! I don't think anything was actually funny; we were all just so tired!

Day 5: Holes can be moved...?

Our custom pin flags from Leupold!

This is going to be a pretty quick post since we have a preseason tournament to run at Chateau Elan this weekend and I have to be up at 5:45 tomorrow morning. Today was our last full day of training and we actually ended up reviewing a lot of material in the afternoon. We learned a few more computer programs that we'll be using as well as a few other random bits of information, like what copies we'll need of which papers.

Debbi, Brittany and I on the driving range. 

For lunch we had Chick-fil-a! It was really funny because there were a lot of interns from the North who had never had Chick-fil-a, so we had to explain all the different sauces and the company philosophy. Everyone loved it and it made me realize how thankful I am that my team is staying in the south! We'll still be in Chick-fil-a region! During lunch we had a representative from Leupold, the official rangefinder of the AJGA, come and speak to us about the different types of rangefinders so that we could identify legal and illegal finders on the course. It was really helpful because I would have no clue what to look for and it was interesting to see the science behind the devices. They also gave each intern a pin flag with the AJGA logo and his/her name on it!

After lunch we got to go outside! It was a GORGEOUS day! We learned about the videography role of the comms internship at the driving range. We practiced interview set-up and swing videos. Once we learned how to upload the videos to the computers we learned about hole locations.

AJGA tournaments are unique in that the hole location is moved every round, so the hole location sheets must be updated each day. While the operations internship actually decide on and mark hole locations (holos), comms interns are responsible for creating the printed sheets for the players. We actually use an intense formulas sheet in Microsoft Excel to create the sheets. There are probably close to 20 different spreadsheets in the document. It was a really impressive document! While we were talking about holos, it occurred to me that we were making sheets for each round meaning that the hole location was moving... It had never even occurred to me that the hole could moved. My mind was blown! Golf is a pretty cool sport! There is a lot of cutting edge technology that is being used and some really smart people in the industry!

Tschida might love his BBQ a little too much.

 Tonight for dinner we got to go out to eat for the first time! We went to a local BBQ place. As you can tell from the picture, Tschida really liked it and made a mess. We ran to Target afterwards where I bought a larger suitcase. I thought I was good on packing space, but now with our uniforms, I am all out of room! Also, I have been having to iron everything... I am so bad at it! I've always just used the dryer to get out wrinkles  so I have been trying to learn how to iron. I feel like a kid again!

Day 4: Team Assignments

Trying to sort through all of our equipment.

First day of driving to headquarters on our own and we were on time! It was my first glimpse into what the rest of the summer will be like and I am so insanely excited! Doing it all on our own was so strange since we're used to having a full-time staffer with us constantly.

When we got to HQ, we rotated around stations were we learned about different equipment, set-up procedures and tournament stations. For the most part, it was all fairly easy for me to grasp. Again, my tournament volunteering helped me greatly today! We also learned about our different team roles and how to complete those. I am comms equipment, so I'm in charge of keeping track of all of the comms equipment. Since we already went over most of the equipment I will be responsible for, I helped the inventory captains start counting the equipment that will be in our trailer. We must count every single item in our trailer at the end of every tournament. For example, it's not good enough to say that we have a box of towels. We have to open the box and count the number of towels and identify what type of towels they are. By the way, we had 100 towels.

After lunch we went to more stations where we learned how to announce and start groups at the first tee, work timing stations and speaking with players. Before dinner, we put on our uniforms and took intern staff and team photos. It's going to take me a little while to get used to putting on a nice polo and shorts to go running around the golf course and work hard. My team is still just as awesome and hilarious as the first day we all met with even more inside jokes and laugh about!

Team 3 in our uniforms!

Day 3: Driver Training

Landon and Bridget in their respective chairs working on
a few different word puzzles in the newspaper.

Good news! Even though we were picked up earlier today, I wasn't as tired when I woke up. My body is starting to realize that it will be getting up before 6 a.m. (usually before 5:30 a.m.) each morning. We are all falling into a routine, especially Landon and Bridget, who sit in the exact same chairs each
morning... Cute, right?

Today was the same format as the past two days: seminars in the morning and split up in the afternoon. This morning we covered the Pace of Play proceeders. Pace of Play is a policy/philosophy/rule that creates an overall time par for the course, meaning that a time is set in which all players and groups try to compete the course within that designated time. The policy is groundbreaking! It helps to speed up the playing time so that no player has an advantage (by taking a longer amount of time to evaluate a shot) and allows the tournament round to end in a timely fashion. The inner workings of the policy can be a little confusing at first, but thankfully I was able to volunteer at a tournament two months ago and see Pace of Play first hand. For the first time all week, I understood something and was able to help those around me. It was a good feeling even if it did just last for a few minutes. Next we moved into stroke penalties... I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'll just leave it at that.

This is Ox, one of my groups GMC trucks.

Stephan Hamblin, the executive director, came to speak to the interns during lunch. He's a really cool guy. He speaks so passionately about the organization that you know he cares about it so deeply. It makes me even more determined to do my job effectively and efficiently this summer. Once lunch was over we moved into the fun part: driver training! Finally outdoors, we moved through five different stations to learn how to drive with a trailer, take care of the vehicles, hitch a trailer and park a trailer, drive a Yukon, and change a tire on a trailer. We were learning all of this for 7.5 hours today, but it flew by!

Driving with a trailer was different, but not too bad. The hardest part of the day was backing up the trailer  Michael was my spotter and coached me into the spot after a few tries. I always overturned the wheel and just messed it up. When I was the spotter, I was able to cox Michael into the spot the first time. It somehow just clicked. Needless to say, I will be the spotter for the summer! The exciting part of the day was that after dinner each team actually got to drive their vehicles back to the hotel. We aren't allowed to run errands or anything, but it is still nice because no one will have to wait to be picked up, which means more sleep and less waiting around for everyone! Who doesn't love that?

Checking the oil.

Changing a tire on the trailer.