John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic

I suppose it's about time I report on my experience working at the golf tournament last week. My main job was to sit across from the golfers as they finished their rounds in groups of three and add their scorecards once they had checked the numbers for each hole. Christina Kim was in the very first group that came into the trailer and she stared at me intensely while I added the numbers. Inside, I was panicking and thinking, "What if I added them wrong. What will she think?" It was quite disconcerting, but of course I had to write a number down and so I had to get over those thoughts pretty quick. The golfers were all pretty nice, but naturally matter of fact as they were going about their ordinary business of course. A few were especially friendly and made small talk while waiting for the others from their group. A few were a little more sour simply because they hadn't played well and just wanted to get on with their days.

On Friday afternoon, I worked at the 18th hole scoring trailer, and took the role of the scoring volunteer who made sure that we got the walking scorer's tabulation. This meant I spent plenty of time out by the green and was able to watch most of the women play the hole. The hole placement was pretty difficult and very few birdied it. One of the grandstands provided plenty of shade where I was, so the heat was not unbearable. On one of the very few groups when I stayed busy in the trailer, a golfer overshot the green. I, minding my own business, found myself under attack with a sudden startling loud Klunk! as her ball bounced off the roof of trailer. The ball landed on the wrong side of the trailer, so she had to try to hit it over coming back and managed to hit the roof again on the return shot. Someone joked, "Does she get a bonus for hitting it twice?"

On Saturday, I worked at the 9th hole and the volunteers seemed a bit more disorganized, so I spent most of the time manning the scoring table in the trailer. Jennifer Rosales' caddy gave me one of J-Ro's golf balls and it was marked with two colorful flowers. I also got a golf ball that Michelle Ellis left behind. I did get to watch about 8 groups including Annika Sorenstam come through at the halfway points in their rounds. I also noticed that Catriona Matthew (of Scotland) had www.visitscotland.com on her bag.

All in all, I enjoyed working in the scoring trailer and would do it again in a heartbeat.