Well its Tuesday and I am still in recovery mode!
I have just returned from working 6 days at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at St Andrew’s.
To be honest it was an education to see what goes on behind the scenes.
Without the army of volunteers no professional golfing event could ever take place, these are just ordinary people like you and me who give up their time year after year to help. They are people who love golf.
They are the back bone of any event.
95% of these people are brilliant and are there for the right reason, I have to say 95% purely because, as in life, there are those with their own agenda and the “do you know who I am” brigade, we have all come across those so you know exactly what I mean.
But lets concentrate on the 95%, the genuine ones.
Prime example was a great guy called Craig McEwan, Craig was there from 530 till at least an hour after play, why ?
Well for the 4 tournament days Craig sorted the caddies bibs and carry boards, sounds easy eh? Well not a bit of it.
On the Wednesday he starts by getting all the bibs together and getting the players names on them, then he has all the carry boards to get sorted out.
Now by sorting out I don’t mean putting the players names on them, I saw Craig physically take damaged boards to bits and re build them to make sure they were 100% fit for purpose. Then he had the go through the draw sheet assembling names on the boards, checking the spelling and allocating the bibs to the right groups.
But that’s not were it ends.
Then the logistical nightmare begins, allocation of the sign boards.
Each group needs to have a sign carrier, on Thursday and Friday many carriers did 2 rounds. Can you imagine carrying a sign board for 36 holes ? Over 9 hours out on the course?
Trust me these things are not light!
This was Craig for 5 days, could you do it? I have to be honest I would struggle not to hit the panic button or stress out, but Craig, for 5 days all I seen was him smile!
But if you want stress then try the main scoreboard!
We have all seen the huge scoreboard that sits in the tented areas of tournaments.
The guys who work it have a wee tent behind it with a lab top and a printer. On completion of a hole the scores get printed out, they take the numbers, in the right colours, and up date the board.
Sounds simple eh? Ok imagine that printer when there 18 groups out on the course? And of course as in anything that involves communication mistakes happen and the incorrect information gets passed on.
Now we all know that mistakes can happen, well apart from the golfing public that is. There are certain people in life who enjoy nothing better than finding fault and criticising. 1 guy in particular stood around there all day with an app on his I phone pointing to scores saying “that’s wrong, they birdied that hole” with a smug smile on his face, I think the technical term for these people are wankers, but I could be wrong.
The guys putting up the scores can only act on the information the printer gives them, but still get “experts” correcting them.
And heres a thing about the scoreboard guys, could you go to a golf tournament and never see a shot getting hit ? Well they do!
All day from the first tee shot till the last putt is holed they are on that scoreboard, now ladies and gentlemen is what I call real dedication.
So next time you go to an event look at what goes on away from the public eye and if you see a volunteer then say hi, give them a smile or better still thank them, because if they were not there then neither would you.
I have just returned from working 6 days at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at St Andrew’s.
To be honest it was an education to see what goes on behind the scenes.
Without the army of volunteers no professional golfing event could ever take place, these are just ordinary people like you and me who give up their time year after year to help. They are people who love golf.
They are the back bone of any event.
95% of these people are brilliant and are there for the right reason, I have to say 95% purely because, as in life, there are those with their own agenda and the “do you know who I am” brigade, we have all come across those so you know exactly what I mean.
But lets concentrate on the 95%, the genuine ones.
Prime example was a great guy called Craig McEwan, Craig was there from 530 till at least an hour after play, why ?
Well for the 4 tournament days Craig sorted the caddies bibs and carry boards, sounds easy eh? Well not a bit of it.
On the Wednesday he starts by getting all the bibs together and getting the players names on them, then he has all the carry boards to get sorted out.
Now by sorting out I don’t mean putting the players names on them, I saw Craig physically take damaged boards to bits and re build them to make sure they were 100% fit for purpose. Then he had the go through the draw sheet assembling names on the boards, checking the spelling and allocating the bibs to the right groups.
But that’s not were it ends.
Then the logistical nightmare begins, allocation of the sign boards.
Each group needs to have a sign carrier, on Thursday and Friday many carriers did 2 rounds. Can you imagine carrying a sign board for 36 holes ? Over 9 hours out on the course?
Trust me these things are not light!
This was Craig for 5 days, could you do it? I have to be honest I would struggle not to hit the panic button or stress out, but Craig, for 5 days all I seen was him smile!
But if you want stress then try the main scoreboard!
We have all seen the huge scoreboard that sits in the tented areas of tournaments.
The guys who work it have a wee tent behind it with a lab top and a printer. On completion of a hole the scores get printed out, they take the numbers, in the right colours, and up date the board.
Sounds simple eh? Ok imagine that printer when there 18 groups out on the course? And of course as in anything that involves communication mistakes happen and the incorrect information gets passed on.
Now we all know that mistakes can happen, well apart from the golfing public that is. There are certain people in life who enjoy nothing better than finding fault and criticising. 1 guy in particular stood around there all day with an app on his I phone pointing to scores saying “that’s wrong, they birdied that hole” with a smug smile on his face, I think the technical term for these people are wankers, but I could be wrong.
The guys putting up the scores can only act on the information the printer gives them, but still get “experts” correcting them.
And heres a thing about the scoreboard guys, could you go to a golf tournament and never see a shot getting hit ? Well they do!
All day from the first tee shot till the last putt is holed they are on that scoreboard, now ladies and gentlemen is what I call real dedication.
So next time you go to an event look at what goes on away from the public eye and if you see a volunteer then say hi, give them a smile or better still thank them, because if they were not there then neither would you.
Thanks for your support I worked as a Marshall for 5 days and did a double on the Sunday its good to know we were appreciated.
ReplyDeletePS were you the guy who was carrying 3 golf bags to the tee on the Pro Am day ?
Hi Ray. Well said! Without the volunteers, the event would not go ahead. As a volunteer for the BBC that traveled up from Leicester to cover the event, the work that i do ensures that the commentators have the detail that they need. Many of the team that worked at St Andrews had traveled up from as far south as Portsmouth at private expense. A big hearty round of applause for all the volunteers at all events. All the best. Nobby
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