Tournament Round #1 = Rain Delay #1

Well....today was quite a day! I am actually struggling to remember how the day started...

I believe we left the hotel at 5:20 this morning and headed out to Steelwood for the first official round of our tournament this week! When we arrived, I found myself running errands throughout the golf course to ensure that Volunteer Check-in was all ready and that other miscellaneous tasks were complete. Once check-in was up and running, I headed out with Matt (our Assistant Tournament Director this week) to ride along in his cart and observe his methods on the course as well as ask any questions that I may have.

By the time I was done riding with him, it was time for me to start following my groups! Today I was responsible for four groups and I found myself running (or driving) in circles most of the day trying to catch up and check in with all of the players and parents. Today was a long round as there are many long walks from green to tee and it is overall a very difficult course for the players.

Just as my groups finished up their round, it began to look like a storm may be rolling in. We were able to get another couple of groups in before our weather detector went off and we had to evacuate the golf course. We were able to get the remaining groups off of the course just before the rain really started. At this point, we only had players left on holes 16-18 and we were just hoping to get back out soon and finish up for the evening. However, Mother Nature had a very different idea. The short delay became a delay of 2 hours and 50 minutes that included torrential downpours, VERY high winds, and even hail that we upwards of golf ball size.

Luckily, Team 3 has an awesome staff and we were able to come up with some fun activities for the juniors during the second hour or so of the delay. We set up a putting obstacle course and the juniors partook in a competition for fruit snacks. Check out the AJGA picture page on Facebook for some of the pictures and other activities that we did!

We were finally able to get the players back on the course at 7 and they were all done with their remaining holes by 8 pm or so. We are all very glad that we were able to get the round in, even though it has created a really late night for us! After the round, we finished up our operations tasks and grabbed some pizza/sandwiches that were delivered to us at the course.

But, with that, I am off to bed! We have another 5:20 departure time tomorrow! Definitely time to get some sleep!!! Night!! :)