The afternoon always seems to slow down so I did the best I could to stay busy and continue to learn as much as possible. I did manage to sneak a quick 9 holes in after work which is like millionaires golf with no one out there. I shot a lovely little 32 on the front nine with some really solid play. My wedge game was loving the softness of the greens and I managed to attack quite a few of the pins. The front nine I believe is the easier side and it would've been great to see what I could've done for 18 holes but sunlight wasn't on my side and called it a day after nine. Onto tomorrow...
So as I mentioned it was the afternoon shifts for me this week due to the morning soccer camps. I certainly wasn't complaining about the little bit of extra time in bed this morning... The first thing on the agenda was helping the morning guys clean all the clubs, carts and general tidying of the facility after the morning play. This really does make the first hour of work fly by and isn't a bad way to start your shift at all. I was then primarily located in the pro shop with Kelly for the afternoon working on merchandising inventory and sales learning the further ins and outs of the Jonas operating system that I hadn't yet discovered.
The afternoon always seems to slow down so I did the best I could to stay busy and continue to learn as much as possible. I did manage to sneak a quick 9 holes in after work which is like millionaires golf with no one out there. I shot a lovely little 32 on the front nine with some really solid play. My wedge game was loving the softness of the greens and I managed to attack quite a few of the pins. The front nine I believe is the easier side and it would've been great to see what I could've done for 18 holes but sunlight wasn't on my side and called it a day after nine. Onto tomorrow... After a great but short weekend in Pittsburgh I was back in the pro shop ready for the afternoon batch of play. However, the weather was again a little sluggish meaning my duties were somewhat restricted. Kelly had a planned family event for the afternoon and since the range wasn't open there was only the need for myself to be on the clock... all on my lonesome. The afternoon flew by to be fair with a few customers entering the shop and purchasing merchandise. I did get chance to speak to my old boss Gary Welshhans who was now a full member of the club and plays regularly. It was great to catch up with him for a little while and talk about everything surrounding each others golf game. I have certainly learnt a lot from Gary over the years and he always provides me with an excellent amount of useful information.
All in all a very quiet day at the club but looking forward to a busy week of all afternoon shifts..... Why you ask, well I'm volunteering at a soccer camp for a great friend of mine who I stay with so thats filling up my mornings. It'll certainly be a nice change of pace anyway. So it was still a little wet out but the course was finally back open and this meant we could continue with the junior golf programme! A great result indeed. This week we had a slight decrease in the numbers, which was most likely due to it being a big vacation time of the year, lets hope they're back to normal next week. So what Kelly decided to do for each section was to have each coach play the holes up the driving range and really challenge the kids to think about their shots and how they wanted to play them, with help and tips form he other coaches of course. After they were all completed we had a putting clinic for half the group and driving contests for the other. I solely led the putting tutorial and had the kids working primarily on the inside 5 feet putting and then some real length lag putting to end. They all seemed to enjoy the session and a marked improvement could be seen by many of them. It would've been great if Kelly could've seen what I was doing with them but I'm sure one week we can combine putting sessions and he can see the session in action.
The early afternoon saw very little play so when I had clocked out I ventured out onto the (somewhat drier) back 9. To say how wet it was I had a decent stretch of holes and finished with a 2 under 34. The wetness really shouldn't affect my game too badly as I can carry the ball pretty far therefore am never reliant on roll, however, speaking to those guys that are the course is currently eating them alive. Not too many happy campers in the pocket change this week.... Tomorrow I'm off to Pittsburgh to see my former roommate from Tiffin. A trip I've been looking forward to all summer. So I shall be back on Sunday posting about my one day working weekend... whoooo. Unfortunately due to the horrendous weather that we are currently experiencing I was not needed in work for the past couple of days. No doubt we have some very unhappy members who are just itching to get back out on the golf course... as am I.
So I though i would share with you a journal article that I found which is definitely worth a read. It demonstrates the true importance of going to a PGA professional for advice about the golf swing rather than just your average joe friends who think they know what they are talking about. So here it is. http://www.adamyounggolf.com/#!GOLFERS-quit-taking-advice-from-your-friends/cdmo/557dc6300cf2eb01de3d70ff Saturday was a long but absolutely tremendous day. I was in work a little earlier than usual to help get the guys off for their final matches and waited tentatively for them to come in to see who would be in the widely coveted shootout. When they finally came in absolutely drenched from the rain, it was great to see the excitement around the entire club. The shootout really is a good ending to the event and one that I had yet to watch, so this year was my lucky year and I joined the crowds and watched it live. It starts on the first hole with a double elimination of two flight winners, followed by a single elimination on the second and finally a one on one match on the great par three tenth! It really was exciting stuff and was great to see the eventually winners who played some great golf.
Then came the real fun.... cleaning the carts which were caked in grass and mud because of the weather. Between us we got this done rather quickly and I was happy to be out of the rain. The forecast isn't great for this week either so lets hope for a break in the rain so that some good golf can be played! It was also great to see Kelly in full flow over the member guest weekend and he really portrayed the club very well. I learned a great deal of things of how to run such a big event and he did thank us all in his closing speech, so we must have done a decent job... Here it is, the first official match of the 2015 member guest tournament and the weather was absolutely perfect for us. The guys were all prepared well with their clubs all being kept in storage overnight so that we could simply unload them in a timely and orderly fashion that morning. Everyone was raring to go and anxious about getting their first points on the board. the way the tournament works is that the event is split into five flights based off combined handicap. Then each team plays each other in their individual flight and the match is scored off the low ball (player with the lowest handicap). A win on a hole gets you one point with a half giving each team half a point, therefore, offering nine points per match.
After the first two nine hole matches the players all went for lunch and I reorganised the carts and made sure each tournament scorecard was where it needed to be before they want out for their final nine holes of the day. Overall, the day went splendidly and the whole team did a great job. Every year I get talking to all the members and their guests and is a great learning experience each year. It was finally here, member guest 2015! But first it was junior golf time and it was an especially big day for me. Kelly was well needed back at the pro shop so I took lead for both the sessions and had the head coaching role. Fr Gabriel was an outstanding help to me and I couldn't have done it without him. So with that being said we decided on teaching bunker shots in both sessions for a couple of reasons. Number one it was a vital part of the game and number two, it stopped hundreds of balls being hit everywhere on the range which meant we could open the range up sooner, in preparation for the 12:00 tee times. The kids really enjoyed learning about bunkers shots and I even pulled off my dollar bill demonstration.... maybe I'll have to upload a video of it to show you guys. They also loved the magic imaginary gnome that I used to explain how we get plugged lies in bunkers and then how to get out of them.
So after the juniors were all done with it was onto the member guest practice round. I was in charge of handing players their scorecards for the day and directing them towards the tee when they were due to tee off. I also sorted out carts and bags to be in the correct place and generally just managed the pro shop area. It was a great start to the member guest tournament and you can see the entire packet that was sent out to all members in the projects section. Very kindly I was given Tuesday off due to working so many consecutive days and the fact that we had a mega busy week coming up. Wednesday sparked the start of the busy times ahead with the majority of the members not playing in the tournament (and a great deal of the ones that are) had a chance to get one final 18 holes in. So I was rather busy in the morning and had scheduled an afternoon game with Kelly which I certainly looked forward to.
After my daily duties and shift had ended me and Kelly went to play a friendly round. It was the first chance we got to play the full 18 after work and was extremely enjoyable. We talked about the few days that we had ahead of us and how they would work and what roles and responsibilities he wanted me to partake in. Looking forward to getting it all started tomorrow. The weekend was a nice change to the mega busy week that we have had at Wooster Country Club. After a couple of days of outings the regular guys were more than pleased to get their usual time slots back and play just as much as they wanted. I managed to play 9 holes before work with another one of my colleagues Anthony. he is entering his junior year of high school and has great ambitions to be involved in the golf industry. I see it as a great way to pass on my recently acquired knowledge that I learnt at university and my time here at the country club. He also loves to pick my brains surrounding the golf swing and I'm always more than happy to oblige.
Overall, it was two nice and quiet days at the club in which I fully completed my regular weekend obligations. Onto a very busy week! Once again, I don't normally work on Fridays but because of the annual buckeye division outing I was needed. This outing is again one of our larger ones and needs our full staff on hand to make sure the guests have a great day at Wooster! Just like normal we arranged the carts and got the bags from the parking lot and bag drop. Whats great at every outing kelly has to give a speech on the days proceedings and rules of the event, so each outing gives me a chance to learn what he says and promote my own ideas about how the day should go.
The outing was a great success and after cleaning up we had some very happy guests who all thoroughly enjoyed their day at the club. |