Ashland, Ky.
This summer marks my first summer as a college graduate, it also marks my first summer away from the state of New Hampshire and the New England area. Currently I have started a summer long internship with the AJGA. The American Junior Golf Association is a non-profit organization who aims to develop and grow young men and women who are looking to earn a college golf scholarship. I am a traveling summer intern for th AJGA, I will be going around to all different parts of the United States (and Canada) working at golf tournaments on the communication sides of things. I am a little late to the party on the blogging. I actually began this internship on May 19. I am going to try and update daily from now on. First a quick catch up on the beginning stages of my journey.
Training May 19-May 30:
Eight days after my college graduation ceromony in Manchester, NH I was at Logan Airport in Boston getting ready to catch a plane down to Atlanta. I was very excited to get the summer started. I wanted to do some traveling domestically, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I arrived at the airport around 2 pm. AJGA staff took me to their headquarters in Braselton, Ga. I had been there once before for the intern recruiting weekend the company had held in March. I arrived to my room first at the Country Inn & Suites, shortly followed by my training roommate Zach. Zach had just finished up at LSU. The first day was relaxed with with pizza and conversation. The next morning is when things really got going. We went heavy on the training right away. There was a lot to learn in a short amount of time. Sometimes the learning process was overwhelming because of all the content, but luckily the communications staff gave us a descriptive
binder with extensive information on our tasks. This binder eases the thought of everything that needs to get done, all together the jobs look endless, but one by one in the binder it should flow smoothly. The AJGA has six intern teams this summer to cover all ends of the United States. I was assigned to team 5, we are all over the place, as far east as Vermont and as far west as Texas with many stops in between. Team 5 seems like a solid group of people, I think our team hit it off pretty good from jump street. May 19 through Labor Day is a long time, luckily I have a good group to travel with. Training went on, and concluded with no causalities and limited fireworks. By May 30, team 5 was as ready to hit the road as they were every going to be. Our first stop was Ringgold, Georgia, for the Evitt Foundation RTC Junior All-Star.
Stop #1-
Ringgold, Georgia:
Our drive from Braselton to Ringgold only took about 2.5/3 hours. Compared to other teams our
commute was a laugher. Ringgold is an interesting place, it lies right on the Tennessee border. I stayed with a host family, and they have to pay property taxes in both states because their house is literally on the border. The event was played at WindStone Golf Club. No. 1 at WindStone is unique because players tee-off in Georgia, but putt in Tennessee. Our first tournament was a great experience. Couldn't have asked for a better week. The sponsors, Ringgold Telephone Company were outstanding and treated us fantastically. Our host family was ideal. My roommate at this house was another teammate Michael, our host family was so great that Michael and I had our laundry and ironing done for us on more than one occasion. The tournament went smoothly aside from the four hour rain delay, but that's golf. Highlights from the week included going to a music festival in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., lowlights include having to go to the hospital after having an allergic reaction in a Chatanooga restaurant, but hey you can't win em all. Guess I need to stay away from chickpeas and hummus from now on. Thankfully I had stellar help especially TD Katie, ATD Johan, and fellow teammate Paul. Interesting start to the summer to say the least, but I lived to hit the road once again
with team 5. This tournament was the first in a long line of tournaments for team 5 this summer. Time in Ringgold flew by and before you knew it we were on our way to Ashland, Ky. The ride was a little longer this time about 5.5/6 hours. We made a stop in Knoxville, Tenn., for lunch. I thought this was a really cool small city. I had never been to Tennessee before, but after seeing Chattanooga and Knoxville I would definitely classify it as a cool state. Ashland awaits us with an extremely busy schedule.
-Tim Hamilton
My travailing companions this summer. Team 5 has many different hometowns and backgrounds.
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