Back to the Homeland

London, Ontario
August 16, 2013

Our international experience is now over and it's time to head back to the states. The tournament finished up yesterday and we are en route to Bedminster, N.J., for our next tournament at Fiddlers Elbow Country Club.

The AJGA / CJGA Junior Championship was unique for reasons other than its location. First of all there was only 78 players in the field. We have had primarily 144 and 96 player fields this summer. 78 created a change a pace for our crew. We still had to get to the course at a very early hour, but we were done much earlier than normal. The Operations crew had the golf course broken down by 2 pm every day. This was quite the difference, but a welcomed change.

The second unique part about this tournament was the weather. It was extremely cold. I understand we were in Canada, but it’s still mid-August! Every morning we had our sweaters and rain gear on, and we were still cold. The first two rounds also had high winds. Since I wasn't taking pictures this week I was rules officiating groups. The weather plus the wind made rules officiating a cool experience, literally.

To run our tournaments successfully we rely heavily on help from volunteers. Volunteers help get scores, times, spot balls, and deliver water. At some tournaments we have 50-60 volunteers. At this particular tournament we only had 5-6. The tournament still ran as smooth as ever thanks to these volunteers. There weren't many of them but they did a great job, and their positive attitudes made the tournament that much better. Big thanks to Joyce, Khyle, Cal, Taylor, and Alex for great work! 

Here I am with some of our great volunteers in Canada

We left Friday morning and had little trouble crossing the border. I was surprised at the fact that both ways we had no trouble crossing the border. I thought with all the stuff we had crossing would be a lengthy process. Luckily this was not the case. 

We were at the Niagara border this morning when we were coming back to America. Niagara Falls was right next to the border. Naturally we got out of the cars and looked around for a few minutes. This was a great experience. I hadn’t been to the falls before, I was really glad to check it out. In person it is quite a thing to see. The force of the water coming down is remarkable. Great job by Canada and the US with the placement of this border station. 

Our view before crossing back into American soil 

Paul, Michael, and I at Niagara Falls

Corssing the Border

London, Ontario

August 11, 2013

Within the first driving hour from Detroit team five made its way to the Canadian border. We had heard that crossing the border may be a tough task with all the luggage we had. Luckily the process went smooth and we were in Canada in no time. 

We got acquainted with the local law enforcement right away. Five minutes into crossing the border we got pulled over by a cop in a pick-up truck. He couldn’t have been nicer and talked with us for a few minutes. Apparently in Canada if you’re in the left lane you need to be driving fast. He told us that you basically can’t be going the speed limit if you’re in the far lane. It was quite funny, and we learned that in Canada we are right lane people. 

Team 5 at the Canadian Border

This week’s event is unique because we are working with the Canadian Junior Golf Association. The event is going to be co-run by both organizations. We picked up two interns this week from the CJGA that will be helping us out. 

Even though we were traveling internationally this was one of our shorter rides. It only took us about two hours to get to London. This week should be a unique experience for our team, and one that I’m looking forward to.

Detroit

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

August 8, 2013

Our week in the motor city is now over and we are on our way to the Canadian border for next week’s event. Our week in Michigan was great, and the tournament went really well. The Forest Lake Country Club staff was great to us, and made the week run really smooth. The club was really excited to have an AJGA tournament at their course, and they helped us with everything from meals, to breaking down boxes.

The FLCC course was an interesting one. It was fairly short, but not easy at all. The greens were as slick as they come. Three and Four putts were not uncommon. According to the juniors our staff set some pretty tough hole locations throughout the tournament. The greens made for an interesting week of golf. 

The food situation was a little different this week. Instead of the normal boxed lunches we had buffets everyday in the dining room. This was different but great. The food was really good and the chocolate chip cookies were dynamite to close out every meal. 

The Girls Division went into a playoff and had a thrilling finish with Ally Geer draining a 17 foot putt for the win. Geer has been at a few of our tournaments and is always very nice to the interns, and helps us out with Care for the Course, and other social activities. She finished birdie, par on Nos. 17 and 18 to force the playoff.  I was glad she was able to win her first one. 

Shot out to junior Devin Deogun and his family for letting us stay at their awesome house this week. We had fun hitting balls on the simulator, chipping in the backyard, and hanging out by the lake. Last night his mom cooked us a meal that was one of the best of the summer. Fantastic salmon, chicken, potatoes, and pineapple cake.

It was a solid week in Michigan, off to Canada. 

OB:

The highlight of the week came off the golf course. Coincidently we happened to be in Detroit the same week as Jay-Z. So naturally we had to check it out. We went to Ford Field for the Legends of the Summer tour. This is a tour featuring Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. The duo put on a fantastic show. It was a lot of fun, and I was glad I was able to see Jay-Z in person. It was also fun to see Ford Field. I had seen it a lot on TV, but it was nice to actually be there. Ford Field is neighbors with Comerica Park

Legends of the Summer Tour 8/6/13

There was no opening act, but they played for a solid 3+ hours. At first they played some songs together, then split up, then closed together. The highlight of the concert for me was when they played Empire State of Mind. Timberlake played the intro and outro. I was sending a fair amount of snap chats during the concert, and some of my friends informed me they are going to the same tour this Sunday, when the duo comes to Fenway Park. We had a great night in Detroit; it was definitely one of the highlights of the summer thus far.   

Jay Z and Justin Timberlake had Ford Field Rocking

Hitting Balls

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

August 4, 2013 

After an exciting final round in Indiana that saw the winner post a 63 to take the title, we headed a little further west to the Detroit area. The ride was not bad, only about four hours to get to the motor city. Once we got to the area we headed straight to the course.

The course is Forest Lake Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which is an extremely nice suburb of Detroit. The course looks fantastic and the building is enormous. This is probably the biggest country club building I have ever seen.

I also got a pretty nice tour of the city when I had to pick up Brian from the Airport. My first thought was that it did not look like an American city. My second thought was that Ford Field is huge.

Detroit may have a shortage of economic stability, but Michigan does not have a shortage of lakes. It seems everywhere we have been there has been a lake. There are a couple lakes right by the course, and a few more on the road to our host house. Then our house is even on a lake. I love lakes so it’s nice to see a lot of them again.

Speaking of host houses. This week our house is once again amazing.  With the Orchard Lake as our backyard the outdoor portion of this house is outstanding, but indoors may be even better. Paul, Brian and I all have our own rooms with bathrooms. The basement is one of the best of all-time. Downstairs they have a huge TV, full-size bar, pool table, and a golf simulator with a 12 by 9 screen.

The golf simulator is ridiculous, I’ve never used one before but I was glad to give it a try. After a summer filled with watching plenty of golf, it was nice to hit some balls of my own! The first night we were there we played a few holes on the legendary Oakmont course. The simulator has 14 loaded courses, some of which are the best in the world. Staying at a house like this makes me wish we had more free time.

Paul and I took some whacks on the golf simulator with host Devon who is playing in the tournament 

Last night we were done fairly early and we were able to go to a cookout at a member’s house. Go figure this house was also on a lake. This time we were at Square Lake. All of team five had a great time at this cookout. We went swimming, tubing, and ate exceptional food off the grill.  It was real nice to get in a lake for the first time this summer. This cookout was awesome and definitely made me miss the lakes in New Hampshire.

The sunset over Square Lake after our cookout. 

We had a good weekend. Tomorrow will be busy, and the tournament starts Tuesday. 

The Hoosier State

Winona Lake, Indiana

August 1, 2013

We are wrapping things up with our tournament in Indiana and getting ready to hit the road once again, this time to Detroit. We leave tomorrow and we have about three and half hours of driving ahead of us. Relatively this will feel like nothing compared to our 13 hour commute to Indiana.

This week has gone really smoothly so far. This has been my first week in the state of Indiana and everything has gone well.

 There is plenty of farm land in this state including tons of crops right along the golf course.  One crop they are definitely nailing is corn on the cob. We had some at our tournament chairman’s house and it was spot on.

The tournament chairman at this event is a high school golf coach locally in Warsaw, Indiana. He has a lot of his players in the field. One of his players is currently T3 heading into the final round. This is not just a unique story because this is his local course. William Petro of Warsaw, Indiana is playing in his first ever golf tournament outside of a high school match.  His career low going into this tournament was 73. In the first two rounds he went 69-68. This is quite the story through two rounds. We will see how it turns out in the final.

Every week our tournament has a social activity for the players. This week the social activity was pretty unique. We held a fishing tournament on a pond surrounding the No. 9 fairway. This was a great fun for the kids and staff that were involved. The social activities are always fun, but this event was really unique that made for a good turn out and great experience.

Fishing was this weeks social activity

The food this week has been fantastic. Along with the great corn on the cob, I also had a roasted duck sandwich for the first time ever. I wasn't sure about how I would like it, but it was delicious. My host dad was telling me this area has a ton of duck and is known for producing it. I was glad I was able to try it here because it was delicious.

Tomorrow we head out en route to Detroit for our next event.  

The sun making its way over Stonehenge Golf Club before the first round

Indiana

Winona Lake, Indiana
July 28, 2013 

Maryland is in the books and we arrived in Indiana on Friday for our next event at Stonehenge Golf Club. This summer is flying by, it's crazy to think that by the end of this tournament it will be August.

The drive was our longest to date. In total it took us about 12 hours. In between the Maryland Eastern Shore and Indiana are a lot of farms and wind turbines. We got a good look at Ohio and Indiana, and I think both states are doing fine filling their farm quota. We also drove through Pennsylvania for a good portion of the trip. This was our second time in Pennsylvania and Ohio, but the first time we crossed in to Indiana.

After a few weeks in the Northeast we are back in the Midwest for the first time since our week three trip to Cleveland.   It's nice to be in a new state this week. This is my first adventure in the Hoosier state and its off to a good start. First off when I got to my host families house they gave me their basement to myself. They also had the movie poster of Hoosiers framed in the basement. I would expect nothing less from an Indiana home to frame the poster of one of my favorite movies ever.

The tournament field this week is 144 comprised of mostly payers from the Midwest. The tournament starts Tuesday. It was a long commute to get here, but now that we're here it should be a good week in Indiana.

Maryland Eastern Shore

Easton, Maryland

July 24, 2013

Tomorrow is the final round of the Junior All-Star at Talbot and we are leaving the Maryland Eastern Shore for Indiana. This has been a really cool week so far and I will be looking for more of the same out of tomorrow’s final round. 

Talbot Country Club has been a great host in their first year with an AJGA tournament. They have made us feel welcomed and the support has been terrific. Many TCC members have volunteered their time to help the event. This staff really appreciates the event and I think the AJGA will be back for many years to come. 

Although the final round is tomorrow we already had a big winner in the first round. Sam Jung broke the TCC course record with a 10-under-par 62. He made eight birdies and an eagle. Jung was fired up about breaking the record and the club was pumped to have a new low. They had Jung remake his scorecard so they could display it in their proshop. 

His round included six straight birdies on the back nine. Astonishingly his 62 only included 23 putts. It was cool to watch him finish out his round and then interview him. 62 is one incredible round of golf. 

Life at the manor this week has been great. We have been by the pool or bay almost every night. The experience of staying at this house has been unreal. The house is famous enough to have a history plaque out in front of it. 

The Manor is so important it has its own historic plaque

I enjoyed my time at the MCM Elegente Hotel in Abliene, Texas, but I got to admit this week was a little bit of a step up. Tomorrow is the final round, and after the champions are crowned we pack up and head to the next one in Indiana. 

Sunset from the backyard of the manor

OB:

Wedding Crashers is on my short list of favorite movies of all time along with Superbad, The Departed, Almost Famous, Old School, Fight Club, and A Football Life: Bill Belichick. When I saw our Manor in Maryland the first thing I thought of was “this looks like the house from Wedding Crashers.” It was a big white house on the Maryland Eastern Shore. Then we found out that the house was in fact in our town and right near us. 

Not only was it near us, but it was right across the street. We saw the front of the property called Ellenborough. This was a cool experience. Crab cakes and Football, That’s What Maryland Does. 

The house from Wedding Crashers is right across the street from us this week

Fun times this week on the Maryland Eastern Shore with team 5