So the afternoon shift on a Wednesday brought about the return of league, After I had arranged all the carts and the members bags I was in charge of skin money and making sure all the entries were correct in the golf genius software system. This was something that was particularly useful for me as I hope to be using it in the near future on a daily basis to organise and score golf tournaments. Overall the day was a great success.
Today I decided to get myself up and spend the entire day at the country club. With an afternoon shift I'm sometimes reluctant to do this but the weather was fantastic and so I decided to play with the pocket change in the morning then clock in for the afternoon proceeding my round. I had a great time and actually scored really well shooting a not so shabby 69. The guys were certainly impressed with my level of play and I always love hearing all their stories.
So the afternoon shift on a Wednesday brought about the return of league, After I had arranged all the carts and the members bags I was in charge of skin money and making sure all the entries were correct in the golf genius software system. This was something that was particularly useful for me as I hope to be using it in the near future on a daily basis to organise and score golf tournaments. Overall the day was a great success. So Tuesday brings about a new working week for me and it starts with the weekly LGA fixture. This week was a guess your score competition in which the ladies had to guess their final net score of the day. I feel that this is indeed an excellent competition and can be a lot of fun, however, to my slight surprise some of the ladies were guessing for their scores to be significantly higher than their handicaps..... I think they may need a little higher intrinsic motivation to do well in the future. Despite this the competition went very well and we actually had tow ladies correctly guess their net score of 75 and they didn't even blow up on the last few holes in order to do so. Well done ladies!
The rest of the day went particularly well and I managed to get out on the golf course in the afternoon. I played rather well hitting 8 of 9 greens and finishing up with a 3 under par 33. Not bad really. So with some nice sunshine finally entering the vicinity of Ohio, play was certainly up for the weekend, which is great! I manage to keep extremely busy and use this as a tool to interact with as many members as possible. Saturday evening itself was particulalry good as we had a great volume of play later on in the evening, which for the club itself is extremely beneficiary. All too often I have to stay late for one member to be out using the course, meaning that the club actually looses money during those hours. Now with many people using the course later on in the evening, my wages are covered and the club reaps the rewards... benefits for all.
Sunday afternoon wasn't quite as exhilarating but was still fun all the same. We tend to get a lot of play during the mid morning meaning that my early afternoon is probably the busiest time. A great moment that particularly stands out was seeing two former members who had made my previous time at Wooster and exceptional one had come to play. It was really great to see them, catch up and talk about their golf game. Not being able to participate in junior golf today was a blow to the system but I was informed that they had a great time and some of the kids even asked where I was... a positive sign for sure. So onto the afternoons proceedings and it was finally good weather... about time Ohio. This meant there was indeed a lot of play, particularly in the morning so I had lots of cleaning up to do when I got there.
A very rare Thursday afternoon shift meant that I finally got to work with my good friend Warren Barnes. He only works a few days a week and never on my slots so it really was good to spend the afternoon working alongside him. I've got to know Warren really well over the last couple of years and couldn't speak more highly of him. He's a tremendous colleague and an overall great guy to be around. Having a working relationship like this really sets up for a productive amount of work which is of course healthy for any business and a model that every employer should strive to meet. Its certainly something that I will keep in mind when I become in the position of employer rather than employee. Overall a great shift and even as an Englishman I'm looking forward to the holiday weekend! WOW, July is here already, where on earth does the time go? Next thing I know I'll be back in Tiffin preparing for a great season with the dragons golf team. Anyway onto the days events, unfortunately again weather had played its part and thunderstorms constantly interrupted the afternoon tee times. So all in all it was quiet but the weather certainly teaches you to be on your toes. A lot of the members seem to think I'm a meteorologists with all their questions surrounding the incoming weather but I'm certainly throwing out some accurate guesses to them....
No league either tonight as they were on a mid season break, however, it'll be back strong next week with the pairings itching to get back out there and compete. 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... |