Choudrant's won my heart

I am getting the royal treatment this week.  Seriously, you're not going to believe this.

Choudrant is turning out to be one of the coolest place ever, even though it's not even big enough to represent a quarter of land that makes up a zip code.  It appears that the most exciting thing to do is smash pennies on the railroad tracks, or head to the hip-happening Log Cabin, but who am I to judge?  I have found out that you can't judge a book by its cover, especially here in Choudrant.

When we rolled into town, it didn't look like much.  The course is beautiful, of course, but the town is very, VERY small.  It definitely has that old town feeling, where there are only enough people to fill a classroom, and everyone knows everybody.  But this place is awesome.

After visiting the course and setting up headquarters, we left to get settled in this week's humble abode.  Holy cow, I did not expect this.

This is what I first saw (minus the groceries) when
I walked into the "lodge"

Annie, our tournament director, prefaces our arrival by telling us that this "lodge" was once the lodging provided for George Bush and George W. Bush.  Now, all political feelings aside (for or against), this is pretty cool.  I get to stay where former presidents have kicked back.  My celebrity status is rising.

The "lodge" is about seven minutes from the course, so not the hour-long commute that we faced last week.  Upon arrival, I was a little taken aback.  After hearing Annie's description, my snooty celebrity self expected the Ritz.  From the outside, the "lodge" looks like a summer camp cabin.  I was a little nervous.

Of course, there was absolutely no need for my anxiety.  We walk in and are met with cool air and straight class.  Tile floors, three kitchen tables, leather couches, big screen T.V., three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a grill, a smoker (wish we had time to use this for some salmon), and a fireplace.  Keep in mind, this is only the first floor!  We head up the world's most narrow/most winding staircase, and are met by another living room with big screen T.V., another full kitchen, master bedroom complete with patio, and two more bedrooms and bathrooms.  Oh, and don't forget the wrap-around porch looking over the driving range, putting green and bunker.  Off in the distance you can see a lovely little pond, which I'm sure is stocked for our fishing pleasure.

You can't see all of them, but there are THREE kitchen
tables.  See the fireplace and T.V.? Royal treatment

So, now that you have my living quarters in mind, I was now given the opportunity to go shopping for groceries, without a very strict budget.  You know what I went for first?  Fresh veggies and fruit.  I stocked up!  Tangelos, bananas, grapes, strawberries, blueberries...you name it, I grabbed it.  Ally and I were given the task of gathering groceries for seven days for breakfast and lunch.  We went nuts.  Then, Annie was unsure about how much food we had - she thought we needed a bit more, and so we ran all around the store pretty much grabbing whatever looked good for snacks.  Dried fruit, granola bars, yogurt covered pretzels, yogurt...Mmmmm, I'm having chills thinking about all the healthy food.

Now, I'm not quite sure how happy the boys are that us girls went grocery shopping.  Chick food!!! Max walked into the kitchen and said, "It smells like a garden in here."  Disgruntled, he, Teddy, Aaron and Ben ordered pizza and chowed down in the living room while Ally and I made sandwiches, ate cucumber and hummus, and popped grapes into our mouths.  Don't worry, they were all very happy when we made a big breakfast for them this morning, complete with biscuits, bacon, sausage and eggs.  Chick food isn't so bad!

Note the daunting staircase on the left.

Days like today remind me of weekends in college, or summer days at the lake.  I didn't even feel like I was here for work.  It seemed like I was on a mini-vacation.  Ally and I were finally able to go to The Hunger Games, which we have been trying to do since our first day off on March 25th, sleep in, and not have any reason to be anywhere at all.  We are in the midst of great company, amazing views, and incredible golf courses.  Right now, I am extremely content, and I look forward to the remaining two weeks of my internship.

Another view of the staircase.  I successfully dragged my
50+ pound suitcase up this monster.

Work starts tomorrow for this tournament.  It's another Under Armour tournament, and so we get to wear our sweet new Under Armour shirts (love them!).  I can't wait to take some photos of the Squire Creek course.  You all will be blown away.  They sure know how to do it down here in the south.

The second kitchen and living room.  No big deal.

My own bedroom!

My own bathroom!  Complete with Aveda goodies : )

Bienvenue en Louisiane

We are on our way to Louisiana!  I am very excited for this new trip, as we have been in Texas for the last three weeks.  Nothing against Texas, but I’m ready for a new state.  Louisiana it is!

The route to Choudrant

This last tournament went by fast, but it was a lot of work.  Sure, we didn’t have a Junior-Am or a Qualifier, but somehow we managed to work our longest day yet.  On Saturday, we arrived at the course around 6:15 or 6:30, and I didn’t leave the course until 10:30.  I was the lucky intern who also was given the duty of driving one of our full-time staffers to the airport Sunday morning at 5:00 am.  Woke up at 4:40 after a short nap Saturday night : )  Luckily, I wasn’t as tired as I thought I would be Sunday, and actually ended up being more awake than the entire rest of the week!

Sunday morning I was also given a new assignment: starting players.  Now, this might not seem like a big deal, and it really isn’t, but I was excited about it.  I was also a little nervous about it, due to the fact that we have some tough names to pronounce.  Try to take a whack at these names:

Joseph Desmond Mullarky Ruiz-Zorilla (Not too hard to pronounce, but a mouthful)

Sarun Arjparu (This kid was awesome.  He is originally from Thailand)

Issa Abou el Ela (Such a great kid! He is originally from Egypt)

Byongjoon Park (Awesome kid! Tough name)

Anyway, you get the picture.  I messed up on a couple names.  Funny though it was Micah I messed up on…I said Michael instead.  Whoops!  All these juniors are really good sports about it, though I’m sure they get a good laugh out of it.  I’m sure it’s also very annoying when your name is always pronounced wrong.  I did my best though!

I have decided that I will name my child Zilksitysd (pronounced Lynn). 

Houston ended up on my good side toward the end of the week.  I wasn’t a fan in the beginning, but I think I can handle it in small doses if need be.  I was able to meet Hank Haney, stay with a great host family, visit my former teammate Tiffany, and meet some great new juniors and parents at the tournament.

We are now on our way to Choudrant (pronounce Shoedrint), Louisiana.  From what I hear, this course Squire Creek is supposed to be in impeccable condition.  I am really excited to see it! 

We only have about a five-hour drive from Houston, essentially backtracking from our initial trip into Texas.  Louisiana here we come!  Gonna get me some frog legs and Cajun shrimp gumbo.  

Young and wild and free

I am now a celebrity by association.

I have made this decision on my own, and I think it is pretty legitimate.  Here are the facts:

1)  I have met/seen/worked with more celebrities in the last week and a half than I have in my entire life.  My briefest encounter with an A-Lister was on my way to Mexico with my parents my senior year of high school.  We were unfortunately bumped up to first-class (not bad huh?) on our flight to Xtapa, and guess who was sitting in front of us?  The lovely Jamie Curtis.  Pretty cool to see one of these specimens up close and personal.  I kept a respectable spying distance from the back seat.  Not creepy at all.

Hunter Mahan!

    2)  I am working at high-class golf courses that cater to celebrities.  (I might be working, but I can pretend that I am enjoying the golf course in the same way as Tony Romo and his brother-in-law Chase Crawford.  If you watch Gossip Girl you know who I’m talking about.)
   3)   I was Hunter Mahan’s personal photographer for about two hours.  He might not remember my name, but he’ll definitely remember the 5’11” blonde photographer decked out in Under Armour gear with a tucked in shirt and dark circles under her eyes.  I’m telling you, he’s going to remember me.

   4) While I was at the Mavericks game, I swear both Jason Kidd and Dirk Novwiski pointed to me after they made a shot.  (Just forget the fact that Kevin Hart was sitting in directly in line from me to the court.  They weren’t looking at him!)

   5) Hank Haney shook my hand like we were old friends.  I could have reminisced with him about the Masters and he probably would have thought I was there by his side giving him tips about coaching Tiger.  (It doesn’t matter that I know absolutely nothing about golf.)

That’s all I’ve got for substantial evidence, but I think I have a pretty strong case.

Anyway, leading a life of a celebrity is very time-consuming and exhausting, and that is why I have not had a chance to write in awhile.  Seriously though, it’s a tough life.

Hank Haney!

If I am to be honest, I have to say that Houston is definitely my least favorite city we have visited so far.  Houston is very, very big, and in its size, the southern charm that I wrote about earlier seems to disappear.  Sure, they still say y’all with a southern accent, but they are so damn impatient.  I apologize for the expletive, but seriously, they are just rude.   Our first dinner in Houston, Ally was trying to park the beast of a Yukon we drive.  We are required to back into every parking space just in case our battery dies or something goes wrong and we need to get to the car easily.  While trying to back up in this cramped parking lot, at least five or six impatient Houstonians would zoom behind us, honk their horn, or flip us the bird.  They sure rolled out the Welcome mat for us.  Therefore, it took even longer to park.  It was ridiculous.  I don’t know why, but Houston just isn’t as cool as Dallas. 

We were lucky this week though, as we were able to stay with a really cool family in The Woodlands, a ritzy development on the outskirts of Houston.  It was an older couple with kids who were married with kids, and they definitely knew how to be hospitable.  The first night, they took myself, Ally and Teddy out for dessert, the second night they took us to the Carlton Woods Country Club and told us to go wild.  I let loose ordering a Cosmo (my first ever), a delicious beef appetizer, smoked salmon, and a berry tart.  I was pretty stuffed by the end, and had quite the experience.  (To add to my celebrity argument, Roger Clemmens had a locker at this place.)  Our host family was really quite lovely, and the only downside to staying out with them is that it was an HOUR commute to the course everyday.  That is actually how I have time to write this, is that I am sitting in traffic at 6:30 in the morning.  At first we were not happy about this commute, especially since Aaron, Ben and Max get to stay 25 seconds from the course, but after meeting out host family it wasn’t so bad.  My body might tell you something different, as I will be fighting off sleep all day.

At the Texans stadium

We ended up getting off work early on Tuesday, and the boys had mentioned something about Hank Haney being in town for a book signing.  I know I work for a golf organization, but my ignorance of golf gets more and more apparent everyday.   I didn’t know who Hank Haney was, but upon finding out that he coached Tiger Woods, I was interested.  I picked up a copy of his book, chatted for a few seconds with Hank, had him sign my book, and started reading.  It’s actually a pretty interesting story so far.  It’s called The Big Miss, and let me just say that more and more people claim Tiger is really a jerk.  If it wasn’t obvious after he cheated on his wife and slept around, Hank Haney says so, so he must be.

Wednesday we had a day off, and I slept in until 6:30, then drifted until about 8.  At least I can say I don’t miss out on anything because I oversleep.  Ally and I went to get our nails done, and then we headed to meet our team at the Texans facility to tour the arena.  It was pretty cool, but the tour was about 15 seconds because we couldn’t see more than the stadium since the players are on site.  I swear, they protect these professional athletes like a rare Panda bear gearing up to give birth at the San Diego zoo.  You can’t look at them, you can talk to them…they need their privacy – they are working out.  Well, call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t gawk at someone that looks like the Incredible Hulk.  Not quite my cup of tea.  I just want to see their facilities!! Gosh, I’m glad I’m not the kind of celebrity that doesn’t allow the average human being to look at me or be in the same room.

He's just a little guy!

After the tour, we drove the hour home and then I went for a run in 80-something degree heat.  Probably not my best move, but I really needed to exercise, especially after our host-mom Jackie set the alarm and we were greeted by sirens and a convenient call from ADT.  I pretty much set out running to avoid the police, but no worries, it was fixed before they could arrive and throw some handcuffs on me.

After my run, Ally and I went to dinner to meet one of my teammates, Tiffany.  I had remembered that she was from Houston, and we were able to meet.  We went to Ragin’ Cajun and had a bucket of crawfish.  They were delicious! My brothers and I used to catch them in the creek during the summer.  We would call these critters crawdads, and I think they are the same thing.  My friend Ally told me you have to suck the head to get all the good juices out - she was right!

  It was awesome to see Tiffany.  She’s doing well and is going to move up to Seattle soon.  It really made me miss college and how easy things were back then.  I knew what I was doing, where I was going, and I knew who my friends were.  Now everything is an unknown, but I kind of love the adventure so far.

Tiff and I after dinner

Now, we are on our way to the course.  This tournament is a little lower-key than some of the others.  It a preseason event, we don’t have a Junior-Am, a Qualifier, and we only have a practice round and two other rounds, each on a separate day.  It’s still a lot of work, but definitely not as stress-filled as the first three tournaments. 

I promise I will try to write more, but my celebrity status just does not allow me the same time as I once had.  It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.
And right now, I guess that someone is me : )

The Crew and I went to play some ball.  Raining 3's : )

My very first Cosmo - I expected to be in
a little black dress as opposed to a golf polo, but
I guess I can take it.

While we were at the Texans stadium, there were
draft negotiations in progress!

Ally and I at Ragin' Cajun!

Instagram Texans!

Mavs!!!

This week has been pretty great so far.  We had an off-day Monday, half-day Tuesday, and have been done before 8 every other day.  AND we got to sit 2nd row at a Dallas Mavericks game on Tuesday night.  Let me tell you, there is quite an interesting story behind those seats.

First of all, I have always been kind of a closet Mavericks fan.  Whenever anyone asks who my team is, I just tell them I don't care for the NBA.  But really, all those years, I've been secretly loving the Dallas Mavericks.  And by the way, this was before Jason Kidd was signed and they won the Championship.

Anyways, Monday night, my teammates were telling me they found tickets about 11 rows up behind the Mavs bench for $60.  Well, I'm a cheapo, and even though they were about $100 cheaper than the original, I wasn't buying.  I would be perfectly content up in the nosebleeds with some binoculars.  The boys worked their magic, and negotiated the price to $50 a piece.  They also offered to pitch in so Ally and I only had to pay $40.  So we agreed.

We were to meet "Nancy" the next evening around 5:30 to make the switch.  Sounds more like a drug deal than a ticket purchase.  After arriving at the previously decided spot, we waited and waited at least 40 minutes when a pretty sketch man starts approaching our car.  Eventually, we discovered this man was the go-between between us and Nancy.  That should have been a pretty big warning sign, but we were too eager to get to the game.  Cash was exchanged, and the tickets were ours.

American Airlines Arena from our parking spot

As soon as we parked, I was able to grab a shot of the American Airlines Arena.  This place is massive, and it looks pretty sweet from the outside!

We walked across the street, up to the doors, unfolded our tickets, the beer and hot dogs are within reach and...

"I'm sorry, but these tickets have already been used."

WHAT?

Yeah, as you probably would have guessed from the Craigslist purchase, the sketch go-betweener, and the photocopied tickets, we had been scammed.  The best part is, only three of us six were scammed. This clever con had sold 12 tickets; six total seats he sold to twelve different people.  Funny thing is, there were other people sitting in the seats that myself, Ben and Aaron weren't able to use, and their friends hadn't come in time so Ally, Teddy and Max had used those tickets.

Needless to say, we were furious.  I knew this was a possibility, but seriously?  It's a Mavericks game on a Tuesday night.  Apparently we were dealing with some pretty desperate people.  We headed to ticketing, asked what we could do, and of course were pretty much told "You kids are idiots.  Why in the heck would you purchase tickets on Craigslist?"  Well, because we are young, cheap, and broke.  That's why.

What I saw walking into the arena

Ben, Aaron and I were fuming, on our way to a sports bar to watch the game, when we happened to run into a nice man on the sidewalk.  He casually asked if we were looking for tickets.  Of course, we immediately told him our sad story, how we had already been duped that day and really weren't in the mood for it to happen again.  This guy ended up being our lifesaver that evening.

He had connections with the Sacramento Kings (the team the Mavs were playing), and he had extra tickets for the family section.  He was willing to sell them to us for $40 a piece.  We made him walk with us to the door and get us in before we paid him anything.  We got in without a problem, and went straight to the beverage line.  You can guess what we purchased.

Turns out, we were sitting second row, right near the basket.  At one point, comedian Kevin Hart walked right past us to his floor seats.  We could actually see Mark Cuban, the Mavericks owner.  Sure, we had to spend $40 extra dollars, but it was totally worth it.  I had the best time!

Nancy" definitely got a piece of our mind.  We are currently scheming an idea to get this mastermind caught in the act.  Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

2nd row!

Yes, I do realize that we probably didn't use the best common sense with our purchase, but it all turned out well, and we all had a great time.  These are the great perks of this internship, among other things, but I love the fact that we have the opportunity to go and enjoy things like an NBA game.  Don't worry though - I did learn my lesson.  Even though I wasn't the one doing the actual negotiating, I did give some crazy my money, without a paper trail, and I was duped.  Next time, I'll spend a few extra bucks for insurance and use StubHub or Ticketmaster or something.

Anyway, it is pretty late here and we have a long day tomorrow.  On top of it all, I was an idiot and left my phone charger at the private housing I was in for a few days.  I have to drag my embarrassed self 20 minutes out of the way to pick up my iPhone charger.  Nice.

The team outside American Airlines

Catching up

REALLY green bananas at the hotel breakfast

What a week, and how quickly it goes by…

Let me just start by saying, I know I haven’t checked in in awhile, but that is not because of lack of interest.  It’s lack of time.  This isn’t a complaint; it’s just a fact.  Really, it is.

In any job in the sports industry, the saying “9 to 5” does not apply.  Ever.  For all of us, it is grotesquely morphed into “6 to 10 – AM TO PM!!” or “Don’t worry, you’re not going to make it to that”.  But, that is just the way it is.  The people I get to work with, sure we are bummed we miss some of the big time sporting events like the Masters, but, we put on a helluva tournament, so yes, it is worth it.  All the time, all the hard work, the lack of sleep, it’s worth it to see these kids have a great tournament and grab that college scholarship.  Plus, it’s a pretty sweet gig.  On a golf course all day for a week?  In the sunshine and warmth you say?  Don’t mind if I do.  All of you stuck back in the Northwest, eat your heart out!  This is my office every day for the next four weeks : )

Snake on the golf course - I think it's
a water moccasin

I also love the fact that I get instant gratification.  I can see my hard work paying off right before my eyes.  Late the night before, my comms teammate and I are working on pairings.  The software we use creates a list for us, and then we proof the pairings and make necessary changes.  Such as, if there are two kids in the same tee time of hole No. 1 that have the same first name, or are from the same hometown, we manually change that pairing.  We like diversity, and it is also much easier when it comes to scoring to keep the kids’ names straight.  The hard work is printed out, and distributed to all of these kids at registration.  Then miraculously, the very next day, each junior shows up at their designated tee time, they tee off, and play.

Another example is our microsite, the website specific to the event that we are working on.  Our pictures, stories, pairings and results all go on the microsite, and myself and my comms partner are the ones that create, edit and upload all of that information.  It’s really pretty cool to see everything I did myself or assisted with up on the Internet for the world to see.

This week my assignment was photography.  Basically, we have to take a ton of photos of everything for archives, sponsorship uses, website uses, among other things.  My favorite was taking the action shots of the players. 

There is a lot that goes into an action photo, at least in junior golf.  We aren’t allowed to take pictures during their backswing for obvious reasons, and we can’t start taking photos really until they are already in their follow-through.  This limits the creativity aspect, but you do get really good at taking these photos because they are all very similar. 

Also, you are kind of in stealth mode while attempting to photograph these juniors.  You have to park your cart out of view so that it doesn’t distract them, and you kind of have to hide yourself so they don’t notice a gigantic lens staring them in the face.  Instead, they notice a gigantic lens sneaking up on them out of the brush, so I don’t know which is worse.  It doesn’t seem to bother them though.  Probably because we take these photos at every AJGA event, they are used to it by now.  Apparently the parents aren’t used to it.  I don’t know how many comments I got about my failure to hide myself.  Epic fail at stealth mode, but my options of camouflage were limited.

Our route to Plano!

Other than photography, I was able to take a whack at interviewing a public figure.  I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Willie Wood, the first AJGA tournament champion and first Rolex Player of the Year for the AJGA.  Not to mention he played professionally on the PGA Tour for over 20 years, recorded 1 tour win, and over 20 top ten finishes.  I was pumped, and the interview went swimmingly.  Mr. Wood seemed to be more of an introvert, but like anyone, when you get them talking about something they are passionate about (in his case golf, obviously), they become much more animated and talkative.  I was prepared for this too; I had two voice recorders and a video camera, just in case.

Goodman Networks Junior at Traditions at the Traditions Club at Texas A&M (quite the tournament name huh?) was the largest tournament my team and I have worked yet, and we did awesome.  We had a TaylorMade-adidas Qualifier round, a Junior-Am, a practice round, two days of two wave, a final round, 144 players, and 4 days.  We rock and we know it!

Now, we are on our way to Plano to run the Under Armour/Hunter Mahan Championship.  I have been told that we will be able to meet Hunter Mahan and hang out with him for a little bit.  This is pretty sweet in itself, but how cool would this have been if he had won the Masters?  He was among the leaders in the first couple days…AND we are receiving more clothes!  A girl can never have enough clothes : ) I think Max, my teammate, would argue that.  He hoists my suitcase up into the truck every week, and it seems to get heavier and heavier.  Anyways, since this tournament is an Under Armour event, we will be outfitted in Under Armour clothing.  It’s only appropriate, and I couldn’t be happier!

Dallas skyline

So far, I am really enjoying Texas.  We are fortunate enough to be driving to Plano while the wildflowers are blooming.  Patches of bright reddish-orange, bluish-purple and bright yellow dot the grass alongside the highway.  Looks like the photos out of Texas Highways.

 I have also noticed how the South in general has much better manners than the rest of the country.  Most of the juniors who are from Texas call me ma’am, regardless of the fact that I’m only a few years older than most of them.  Random people we see, either in restaurants, on the golf course, at the gas station, stop to say hello.  I have noticed that I am in an overall much better mood, just because everyone is so darn friendly!  I love that.  Not that the public in Spokane isn’t friendly, but let’s just say they don’t hold the door open for you like they do in the south.  Let’s work on that.

We arrived in Plano around 3:45ish, and we had the day off.  Ally and I headed to our private housing accomodations and were we in for a treat.  As soon as we walk into the house, I see University of Texas gear everywhere.  I knew myself and this family would get along just fine.  We met our host family, well, two of them at least.  David, the dad, is in town along with his daughter, Caroline.  His other daughter is a senior at Texas Christian and his son is a freshman golfer at Kansas State.  Pretty sweet.

The Ginger Man!

After we settled in, we headed out to dinner.  We had a bite to eat at the Taco Diner, and then headed over to The Ginger Man for a few drinks.  I was the DD, so I only got to marvel at the beer selection…see for yourself – it was pretty incredible.

We finally made it to the course today, Tuesday, and started to get to work.  We worked hard for about four hours, and then our Tournament Director Katie gave us the rest of the day off.  This course is gorgeous; Gleneagles Country Club is one of 12 courses in the world that has a TaylorMade fitting program.  This is high-tech stuff.  I have yet to see it, but I’ve heard it is incredible.  And, on a sour note, I also heard that the men’s locker room is equipped with a pool, barber shop, bar, and restaurant.  Us ladies?  Well, we do get toilets, so I guess that’s a plus.  Just a hint of jealously here.

After our lovely short day of work, the gang and I headed to IN-N-OUT.  Long time coming, as it has been probably about a year and a half since I’ve been.  I had a chance last spring break, but unfortunately my peers preferred the giant burrito of Chipotle.  Sad, sad day.  Today was worth every bite.  Now, usually I’m not a fast-food eater, but IN-N-OUT is an exception.  I will stuff my face and clog my arteries without hesitation.  Double-double animal style with fries and a chocolate shake please!

Heaven

I’m really looking forward to tonight.  We were able to find lower level tickets for the Mavericks/Sacramento game tonight in Dallas.  Unfortunately, the tickets are a whole 12 rows back from the court directly behind the Mavs bench.  I guess I will have to live : ) I’ll definitely have more pictures of that experience as soon as I can.

Anyways, I have to get working on some graduate applications.  Time is scarce, as I have pointed out an annoying amount, and I need to take advantage of the few hours I have. 

And I have yet to try frog legs.  Will keep you posted on that adventure.

Don't Mess With Texas

Today was a blur.

It began around 5:15 am when I got my behind out of bed to go for a run.  I know that I most likely won't be able to this week, so I'm trying to get in a few miles whenever I can.  But, for some reason, the Holiday Inn Express in Beaumont, Texas, has a thing about energy preservation in the exercise room.  By this I mean they have motion detection lights.  You would think that this wouldn't be a problem, since by definition you would be moving in an exercise room.

Well, this clever little contraption was located on the wall right next to the door, and all of the exercise equipment, such as the treadmill I was running on, was on the other side of the room.  Apparently I don't move enough when I run, because about .75 miles into it, I was in the dark.  I also found out that this little motion detector thing seemed to control the air conditioning as well.  I don't think I have every sweat so much in such a short period of time.  Literally dripping within about two minutes.  Little flecks of sweat were flicked in every direction as they jumped off my elbows.  Gross.

This is one of the entrances to the course.

Eventually, I left this sad little room and got ready for the day.  We were on the road by seven, and arrived in Bryan around 10:45 or so.  Julie, our Tournament Director, met us and took us on a tour of the course facilities, another gorgeous place.  This is the same course both men's and women's golf teams use from Texas A&M.  I have to admit, even though my family comes from Longhorn Nation, these are pretty snazzy facilities.  I wouldn't mind practicing there everyday.

We got right to work.  There is so much more to do for this tournament because it has a Qualifier round, a Junior-Am, and three tournament rounds.  Our last tournament in Savannah will seem like a breeze compared to this.  We only had a Junior-Am and two rounds.  And, our tournament field is 132 instead of 78.  But, we have been through a tournament, and we have great staff surrounding all of us interns, so I know we will run a really smooth tournament.  Not to mention this is Julie's third or fourth time running this event over Easter weekend, so she definitely knows what she's doing.

We ended this evening around 7, and then we headed to dinner.  We were meeting a few of the people who have helped us plan the event at a great steakhouse.  We were all hungry, and there were already appetizers when we arrived.  No one in my group is shy, so of course we stuffed food in our faces as soon as we sat down.  After chowing down on fried Jalapeños, I snuck a peek at the menu.  Before I left my mom told me that I needed to try frog legs.  I will try anything once, for the most part, and so I have promised myself that I'll try them.  These frog legs were about $18 though, so I thought I'd conduct my food experiment on a less expensive froggy.  Instead, I ordered a steak.  Can't beat that.

If you all have been following the weather or news, I'm sure you know that Texas has been getting its fair share of severe weather.  Dallas had a few tornados touch down today, but no worries, we're about 3 1/2 hours from any of that.  But we are enjoying an awesome thunderstorm right now.  I haven't seen lighting like this probably since the last time I was in Texas.  I wish I could just sit outside and watch the storm pass by.


I'm a little cranky at the moment...can't go to sleep because I have to wait on a load of laundry.  This is never fun.  But, on the bright side, I will have some clean clothes tomorrow.  I'm on my last pair of tidy whities...TMI, but I had to share : ) 

Marathon

Oh my gosh – I didn’t know what a long day was until this weekend.  Remember a couple of posts ago how I thought 6:45 to 7:45 was a long day?  Not even close.  Try 6:45 to 10:15.  Now that is long.

This past weekend was a complete success!  The AJGA Junior at Savannah Quarters finished without a glitch.  Well, that’s not completely true…we did have a rain delay on Saturday for about two hours, and then I almost wasn’t able to get quotes from our Champions for the microsite championship story.  But never fear, the sophistication of our technology helped me track down our juniors within fifteen minutes, grab a few great quotes, and finish my story.  Flying by the seat of my pants…I learned my lesson though!  Grab the juniors RIGHT after they receive their trophy and take their pictures.  I’m going to follow those kids around like a shadow.

Other than a few minor bumps that were taken care of without delay, this tournament went great.  It was a really fun experience too. 

I am learning a lot, especially with the sport-specific technology that the AJGA uses.  I have learned how to use their golfing program InfoScore.  This program essentially creates all of the documents that are used to organize the entire tournament.  It helps to upload information onto the website, create tee times for all of the participants, keep track of scores, generate media stories…you name it.  I kept telling my mentor Kristi that I was just in awe, fascinated by all that this program could do and how everything was connected. 

For example, I could update something on InfoScore, go to our Administration page, check a little box and voila! – updated players scores, in order from lowest to highest, are on our website.  Check out everything that I updated on our website!

http://www.ajga.org/MicroSites/pages/tournResults.asp?TN=2012005&RD=2 

I have to admit, the amount of information that I was learning this weekend was a little overwhelming.  There were just so many different things to remember to print off, copy, and give to players/coaches/parents.  Saturday night was probably the most stressful, as we had a few technological glitches.  I was really proud of myself though because I did not lose my cool – I kept control and figured out what to do.  Guess that means I’m growing up! 

Anyway, we had another round to prepare for, so we had to re-pair players for Sunday based on their first round scores.  We had to upload all the first-round scores to the website, upload photos, write the first round recap story, email the media, update our Twitter and Facebook pages, update the media and college coaches packets – I can’t remember what else.  We have checklists to follow because there is too much to remember otherwise.  We were there on Saturday until about 9, but I have to say, it was really rewarding to see all of our hard work making the tournament run smoothly. 

So far I really love this internship.  During the tournament play, all of us interns are helping rules officiate, keep track of pace of play, taking pictures…really just doing what we can to ensure a smooth round.  I haven’t had the task of starting players yet though, and I am a little nervous for that.  Looking over a few of the names of our juniors, I have absolutely NO idea how to pronounce them.  And I am the type of person that, when I think a name is pronounced a certain way, my brain struggles to pronounce it any other way.  I’m guessing I will start at least once at this next tournament – this is going to be interesting : )  Wish me luck!!

Ok, so now onto some of the other fun: driving.  After the final round on Sunday, we drove straight to Jacksonville, Florida.  So my state count was up to two.  We downed a meal at Waffle House (I am getting VERY familiar with their menu), then headed to bed.  We needed to rest up for our 17, yes SEVENTEEN, hour drive to Bryan, Texas today.  Someone told me this was the most desolate drive.  Excuse me?  There were green trees lining the highway from Jacksonville to Beaumont.  Try driving in the 100 degree heat from Flagstaff to L.A.  There is nothing but desert and heat.  I think I've got them beat in the desolate driving category.

Our route from Savannah to Bryan.  We
made it to Beaumont

This was what I was looking at all day...the back of
that giant white trailer.

Since our long hours and tough work has prevented me from exercising for the past three days, I made a pact with myself that I would get up and run.  And so, 5:10 am rolls around and it’s time to lace up my running shoes and put on dirty exercise gear.  (We haven’t had time to do laundry yet, and I only brought three exercise outfits, so you can imagine we have to make due.)  20 minutes and three miles later, I’m felt much better than when I woke up.

We departed on time at 7 am and we were off.  With the sun rising in the rearview mirror, we started our long trek toward Texas.  The drive doesn’t seem as long as you would think though.  I love it because we are driving places I have never been like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.  State count is up to five now.  And my teammates can attest to this, I went ballistic when we were driving on I-10 through the swamps of Louisiana.  This was insane!  I felt like we were driving over a lake.  A gigantic, never-ending body of water.  The swamps are so interesting because the vegetation just grows directly out of the water.  There aren’t any visible shores, land breaks, nothing that I am used to.  I think that’s why I was so ridiculously fascinated by it all. 

The Swamp!!!!

Do you see the road on the left side?  That's I-10 and
it was like that for probably 5 or 6 miles

Any minute, the Swamp People cast might jump out of the trees, missing teeth and all, and hand me some fried alligator.  One could only hope.

I was also really excited driving through Baton Rouge.  My old assistant college coach is now an assistant for the women’s team at LSU, and it was cool to see where he was living now and working.  I wish we could have stopped to say hello, but we needed to keep on schedule.  Baton Rouge seems likes a pretty cool city, different from UCLA and L.A., and I hope he has adjusted well.  Can’t be too bad – the LSU women’s team made it to the NCAA tournament this year.  Congrats Tony!

Still driving as I write this draft on my computer.  Watching the sunset out of the passenger side window, crossing another swamp, and inching closer to Texas.  I am excited to get working on this next tournament, and I am excited to experience a new city, some great BBQ, and a packed tournament.

Oh, and we were able to watch the National Championship after all...boring game at first but thank goodness it picked up!