Attending school as a PGM major (Professional Golf Management) might seem like a walk in the park to people on the outside looking in. We get asked all the time “Wait, you’re a golf major?” “What do you plan on doing with that?” and most common response I’d hear is “You won’t make good money!” People think that will make us change our mind, but in the long run we will be doing what we love and not sitting behind a desk for the rest of our lives.
As a PGM student we are required to have 16 months of Internships before we can become a certified Class “A” Profession. Every summer is filled with 40+ hour weeks, and hopefully a little time for golf. Fellow University of Idaho PGM major and NCCGA Northwest Regional Coordinator Baylor Comstock is currently working as an intern with the PGA Junior Series. Comstock is part of a ten-week Junior Golf Tour that reaches all across the United States and conducts high-profile tournaments for boys and girls twelve to eighteen years of age. His team is made up of five people that are all cross trained to do every part of the job, with the exception of the media guy. This is a “Day in the Life” of his internship as a Tournament Official as part of his PGM major.
5:30- 6:30: Alarm Clock
This is when we wake up and get ready for the day and by 6:30 we are usually arriving at the course.
6:30-4:30: Time to Work
We have arrived at the golf course, tee times start at 7:30am so that gives us an hour to set up the course and gives us enough time to get in front of the field. What that means is we need to set each tee with a tee-square for today’s round, clear the tee boxes of any broken tees, place and stock coolers with water, Gatorade, and ice, clear the fairways of large divots, paint the insides of the cups white, and choose the hole location for the next round. Since this takes quite some time to do, we need to make sure we have a good head start so the lead group never catches us.
After that is finished, the new yardages and hole locations are entered into the scoring platform and printed out for the maintenance staff so they can cut the holes the next morning. During this time, a member of our team, usually me, acts as the starter, who wears a blue blazer, stands inside the roped off, players-only tee boxes, hands out the scorecards, explains the rules addendum, and announces the names of each player before they tee off. When I have announced all of the tee times and everyone is on the course, that is about the time when the lead group is making the turn. At this time I take a picture of each of their scorecards and enter their scores into live scoring.
Once all groups have been entered, that is about the time when the first group is finishing their round. One of our team members scores the group making sure each of the scores are correct and the cards are double signed, and he enters them into scoring. The scorecards are then passed to the person who does the calligraphy on the scoreboard, usually me. Meanwhile, everyone else is roaming the course on a golf car monitoring pace of play and giving rulings when necessary.
4:30 PM - Scoring and Interviews
By now all the groups have completed their round. The scorecards and pairings are all prepared for the next day. Our media guy then does an interview with the leader of each division and prepares the press release to be put on the website.
5:00 PM - End of Day
Now that the first day of the event is over we leave the course to unwind, grab some dinner, and go to bed to get up and do it all over again the next day.
**Adam Englehorn is a PGM major at the University of Idaho, and the NCCGA Director of Campaigns and Media. Reach him on Twitter @NCCGACampaigns.
