Food, Food, and More Food!

Well today was our first "real" day on the course!

We started off our morning by going to the course that will be hosting the Qualifier round on Sunday. We rode the golf course and got a feel for what we would be marking and officiating over the next few days. After riding the course, we split up into two different groups to mark the course - our group had the 9 holes with a thousand different hazards, while the other group had a TON of out of bounds!

After we finished marking the course, it was time to head to Panera for lunch! This was a welcome break from being outside and I was super excited to eat my first chicken noodle soup bread bowl in about a month...this was a BIG deal! :) haha

After lunch, we headed back to the Qualifier course to ride through the holes one more time and review the markings that the other groups had made. It was great to sit back and take in the scenery, while also getting to know the course that much better! Overall, our time at the Qualifier course was a ton of fun and there were some great laughs throughout the day!

Once we finished there, we headed over to Steelwood to trade out some of our equipment and put in a couple hours of work at the main tournament course for the week. When we arrived, we were greeted by our communications teammates - it was great to see them :) - and then we proceeded to go and unpack the trailer to find our supplies for the next few projects. Once we rounded up the paint, stencils, buckets, and a few other miscellaneous items, we headed out on the course to take a closer look at the markings that we will be working on tomorrow. Let's just say that we will be using a WHOLE LOT of red and yellow paint!!!

Our tournament director this week, Greenie, was nice enough to give us a couple of hours to relax before we headed to dinner! Some of us went and hung out by/in the pool, while others went for a run/walk, and others took a nap! It was great to have some time to just relax and hang out with the team members...these are the times that we will all remember the most! :)

For dinner, we headed to Ruby Tuesday where I had some great sirloin and a baked potato....it was a great end to an awesome day! Once we were all done eating, we decided to head over to a frozen yogurt shop known as MooChiChi's (or something along those lines!), which was sooooo good! And yes, I know that I can't have yogurt....but this place was awesome enough to have dairy-free options as well! That dessert was the best way to end our night!

Tomorrow, we are headed back to the qualifier course in the morning (assuming the rain stops!) and then back to Steelwood to work on marking all afternoon! I am sure it will be a hot and humid afternoon, but hopefully I will have the chance to snap a couple of pictures and get them all up for you guys tomorrow! Hope that everyone has a great night! :)

Welcome to....

ALABAMA!!!!

Well...today was the day! We finally hit the road and left the wonderful Headquarters of the AJGA and were on our way to our first tournament site in Loxley, Alabama! The drive went off without a hitch and at about 2:30 central time we rolled into a very private and beautiful Steelwood Country Club! 

Before we get into the rest of the events for the day, let's backtrack to last night for just a bit. So I know that I mentioned we were headed to the laundromat and I was sure there would be interesting stories to be told. Well, Team 3 did not disappoint! The picture below shows us all having a good ole time hanging out with random locals! We took along two girls from Team 4 and they were great to have around! The most interesting part of the night was when one girl from Team 4, Kelli, pulled her clothes out and realized that they had shrunk! While they were still wearable, it was a noticeable difference...especially when compared to the other girls! I think we all learned some valuable lessons last night! haha

But now, back to this afternoon! When we arrived at Steelwood, we were greeted by our Tournament Director, Andrew (Greenie) and Assistant Tournament Director Matt. I can already tell that this is going to be a great week as we are going to learn a lot, but also have a ton of fun! The first thing we did was take a tour of the clubhouse. This was AMAZING...it looked like it had been plucked straight from a old Southern Plantation...it was absolutely beautiful! I will hopefully get the chance to take a couple of pictures tomorrow or Friday and will put them up ASAP! The picture below is one of the female operations staff members (myself, Camille, and Kiley), just outside of the clubhouse and overlooking the large lake that comes into play during the last 3-4 holes.

After taking a tour, we worked to unpack the trailer and set up our headquarters for the week. This will be located in the clubhouse, overlooking the view in the picture...I think I can take that! haha We then went on a ride-around and viewed all 18 holes on the golf course. We literally drove the entire course without stopping, from hole 1 to 18. Let's just say that I have never been on a course that is so isolated and so refreshing...I could use this course as a personal retreat any day!

After the ride-around, it was time for us to head out for the day!

We then headed to the hotel to check-in and relax for just a little bit before dinner. Tonight, we went to Mellow Mushroom, which is a really good pizza place down south. Everyone was able to order their own 'exotic' types of pizza, while me and my lactose-free buddy Alexis (our Communications Assistant/my roommate this week) ate some pretty darn good food as well! I had an amazing Parmesan Chicken Sandwich (without the Parmesan, of course) and I can't wait to eat the last part for a snack tomorrow!

After dinner, almost all of the team decided to take a trip to the local Bass Pro Shop as some team members were looking for water proof shoes to wear out on the course since we are working in the dew almost every single morning! The boys had a lot better luck with shoes than the girls did. However, I am very confident in saying that the girls had a heck of a lot more fun! :) After enjoying the winding nature walk within the 2.5 story waterfall pictured below and admiring all of the clothes within the two-stories, we found some toys to play with in the general store! This was literally one of the coolest places that I have been...we probably could have spent hours just exploring and a bajillion cool things to do! 

Keep an eye out for pictures to be posted either on here or on Facebook within the next couple of days! We had quite some fun partaking in a photo shoot while the boys were paying for their shoes! Never a dull moment when you are travelling with Team 3!

With that, it is off to bed for me! It is a busy day of marking golf courses and set-up tomorrow! Have a great night everyone! :)

Laundry, Packing, Cleaning..say what?!

Let's just start by saying that the two extra hours of sleep this morning were amazing!! Granted, that meant I stayed up later than I had been, but it was soooo nice to spend the evening talking to and catching up with people back in the central time zone! :)

When we finally arrived to HQ at 8 this morning, we jumped right into the day's activities! Our team started off by packing up our trailer with all of the equipment that we will need for the next 10 weeks. This was absolutely crazy....I don't even know how we fit all of that stuff in one 16-foot trailer! I am sure that when we try to pack this up again next week it will be quite an interesting experience...

After we finished packing up the trailers, we all sat down and listened to a couple different departments of the AJGA talk about what they do for the organization and how we can help them while we are out on the road. We were then able to eat lunch with people from various departments and get to know them even better!

After lunch, my team went through CPR training. This was quite easy as I have completed it multiple times, but it is nice to know that my certification is renewed and ready to go for this upcoming year! This was also an interesting time as my partner, Camille, is apparently extremely ticklish. I couldn't even pretend to roll her on her side without her curling up in a ball. Although, I should give Camille a big shout today...she saved my life twice during CPR training! Wouldn't be here without her! ;)

After CPR, we were able to come back to HQ and hang out/clean the basement and complete random odd jobs that needed to be done. I spent some time moving sand bags, trying on free golf shoes - none were my size :( - and taking apart some random, old wooden frames. While all of this was going on, we also went out and practiced driving with the full trailer one more time before we hit the road in the morning! It was great to get out on the highway one more time, and I definitely feel comfortable with the fact that we are hitting the road and driving 6+ hours tomorrow!

After all of that fun, we grabbed a quick dinner and then we were able to leave for the evening (before 6:30 even)! Since then we have all been trying to pack and squeeze everything into our suitcases. But, with that, we are off to the laundromat to wash our last couple of loads before our first tournament this weekend! Knowing our team, I am sure that there will be great stories to share by tomorrow evening!!

I can't believe that our 9 days here at the AJGA HQ are already over... :( Next time I talk to y'all...I will be in Alabama! :)

Tournament #1 is in the books!

Well..this is it! Our training is basically over and we are hitting the roads in just over 24 hours!

Today was the final round of the tournament and I spent most of my day following a group of great juniors as they worked their way around the golf course with some awesome scores! Today was a shotgun format, so we were on the course a bit longer, but it was still a beautiful day! I also was able to work with the rules official a couple of times and learned even more about the particulars of the rules of golf! 

To back track a little bit, we were at the course about 5:45 this morning and it was off to the races to get all of our assignments done before the shotgun start at 8 am. I was on the crew that was in charge of checking/fixing all of the banners and stake/rope throughout the course. We were able to finish our tasks pretty quickly and the whole team worked really hard. This hard work was rewarded with the fact that we were able to start the round 5 minutes EARLY...I would say that is pretty darn good! :)

After the round, we were each responsible for scoring our own groups and then completing various tasks. Since I am the Sponsorship Captain, I was able to learn about all of the tasks that I will get to complete at the end of each final round. I am responsible for prepping the Champions for their acceptance speeches, completing a video interview with each of the Champions, recording the awards ceremony, and ensuring that everything is prepared for the communications staff during this time. I can already tell that I will really enjoy these responsibilities due to the interaction with both the juniors and their parents!

After the Awards Ceremony was complete, the entire operations staff worked together to break down the golf course and combine the materials with our inventory that we have received for the summer. This was quite the task, but I am pretty sure that we got it done! After this, we had some dinner and then we were able to leave about 6 pm or so....it was great to have an early night! 

My team headed off to Wal Mart to collect some miscellaneous items that we all needed before we hit the road on Wednesday. It was quite the adventure and led to some great laughs, as always! Since we returned to the hotel, I have spent my evening catching up with people and Skyping away! It is great to hear from people back home and all about what they are up to! 

I am off to bed now, going to enjoy some extra sleep since we don't have to be at work until 8 tomorrow...it is sleep in day!!! :D (never thought I would consider getting up at 7 to be sleeping in...but I will take what I can get!!)

Hope everyone is doing well..check in tomorrow for one last post from Georgia! :) 

Tournament Round #1...and many more to go!

Today was the day! Everything that we have learned over the last week came into play as our tournament began this morning. Each of the 48 interns were paired with another individual from our teams as we followed one group around the golf course the entire day. While this is not the method that we will be using when we get on the road, it was a great  first step and bonding experience within the teams.

To start off the morning, we all met at HQ to eat a quick breakfast at 6 am. From here, all of the different teams completed their morning assignments to prepare the course for the first tee time at 7:30. Team 3 was in charge of setting the tees and checking the hole location (holos) for holes 7-12. Once we completed everything, we headed back to the 1st tee to complete equipment surveys with each of the juniors before we started the round.

Jake and I were paired together and we followed 3 of the junior boys! It was a ton of fun to get to know the guys in our group and their parents/spectators as well. This group was an ideal group and there were very few timing or rulings issues throughout the day. Jake and I each took turns listening to different channels on the radio and were able to learn a great deal about other rulings that were occurring on the course.

After the round, our team spent quite a while filling divots and fixing ball marks before we ate Stonewall BBQ again. It was still just as good as last time! :) After dinner, we hosted a cornhole tournament for the juniors and hung out with them while filling divots on the driving range (this is also known as a Care for the Course Party)! Once again, it was fun to hang out with the juniors, even though we were all exhausted after a long day of walking the course.

Finally, we spent the last few hours on the course setting up different tents and other items for tomorrow's shotgun start at 8 am. It was a long 14 hour day at the course, but it went by really fast - and that is a good thing!

I can't wait to do it all again tomorrow....but with that, I am off to bed! It is another pre-5 AM wake up time again! I think I may be a morning person by the end of the summer. (yeah right....who am I kidding?!)

Juniors are Here!

Wow! It has been a long and busy day today!

Today was the day of the practice round for what will be our first AJGA Tournament event! This weekend, we are all in Braselton (next to AJGA Headquarters) running a tournament for the newest members of the AJGA organization! This weekend is just a small taste of what we will be doing for the next 10 weeks!

We began our work today earlier than any other day that we have been here. We started by completing all of the set-up tasks that we have been practicing all week! This was a blur of setting up tents, placing tee markers, checking holos (hole locations), and other general set-up tasks. The best part was that we got to spend this time with Curt, who is an honorary member of Team 3 (as we will see him A LOT over the summer :D)! Then the operations interns headed out on the golf course to review a couple of basic rulings and radio etiquette and procedure when calling over the radio for the senior rules official. We were able to experiment with a lot of different situations. I am amazed at how much I have learned about the rules  over just a few days! Here is a picture of the crew when we got back from setting up the course:

After this activity, all of the interns completed "cross-training." During this activity, the communications interns went out to the course to learn more about rules officiating, hole locations, stenciling, and other tasks that they may be asked to complete on the course. The operations interns were allowed to go play Minesweeper and sit on Facebook like the communications interns do all day....just kidding! haha We learned how to insert scores into the InfoStat program, complete equipment surveys for the players, and other miscellaneous items that we can do to help the communications interns complete their work more quickly after the rounds are over. 

After this, we grabbed some Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then headed back out on the course to interact with some junior golfers and learn even more about the course. We rotated through three different stations where we learned more about course rulings, the markings that had been placed on the course (and the method behind the placements), and finally about Junior-Ams and Qualifiers. The afternoon was filled with a ton of fun activities and it was a blast to be out on the course!

After this, we all grabbed a quick bite to eat and stuffed the gift bags that the players would receive at the Player Registration/Meeting this evening. After all of that work was done, we had a quick staff meeting and then it was off to the hotel to meet with all of the juniors and their parents. Below is a picture of Team 3 at our first Player Registration with the awesome table display that we made! It was a ton of fun to interact with the juniors (if I haven't said that enough...) and I am definitely looking forward to being on the course with them tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the earliest morning of the experience to date and I have a feeling that 4:45 is going to come around all too quickly! So with that, I am off to bed! 

GREEN TEA

Well....it only took me a couple of days to figure out how to actually title these entries! haha Better late than never, I guess!

Well, today was another day spent mostly outside and the weather was beautiful!

We started off the morning by participating in "tent games" where we worked within our teams to set-up the starting tent based upon what we learned over the past few days of training. Once we got everything else set up, we were able to practice the starting process and pretend to take a couple of tee shots as well! We repeated this same process with the scoring area and were able to run through a couple of practice scenarios here as well! While this may sound kinda redundant...it was a ton of fun to be out in the sun and just enjoy our last few days of hanging out with all of the interns and full-time staff!

This afternoon, we were able to get out on the course and begin to prepare for the tournament that we are hosting here this weekend. We rotated between a bunch of stations while learning how to clean/stock the coolers, fill/place the sand buckets and bottles for the players, prepare the tournament scoreboard, place the recycling cans and product coolers, place banners in good locations, and choose the location for a scoring tent near the 9th green. This was another 5 or so hours spent outside on the course and we were definitely tired by the time we were done!

However, the two best parts of today was the fact that we got to interact with a couple of juniors out on the course and we were taken to Green Tea for dinner by one of the full-time staff members! While I am not usually one to eat a lot of Chinese/Japanese food, this sweet and sour chicken was some of the best that I have EVER had! There was sooo much food and I enjoyed every piece of it! haha

Well, I am exhausted and we have a early morning tomorrow since our tournament weekend begins with a practice round and parent/player meetings tomorrow...guess I should probably head to bed! Can't wait to start our tournament season!!