Tiger Sighting

Today started off like a normal day at work. Loaded merchandise onto a trailer at the warehouse, then stocked it inside the satellite tent (Its the merchandise tent next to the 15th hole). It was a little more crowded than usual at the course, so I thought something unusual was going on. Then I found out from one of the interns that Tiger Woods was playing a practice round today. That explains the mass of media people around the course. I guess it was on Sportscenter or something that he was indeed playing at Bethpage today, but I hadn't heard until mid-morning. So on my way back to lunch with a couple other guys, we drove down Round Swamp Rd. from the satellite tent and saw a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road. We looked over and there was Elderick finishing up at the 16th hole. I couldn't believe it. How lucky were we to be driving by at that time. I was even more lucky to have my camera with me. I hardly ever have it. Anyway, we drove down a little more and pulled over to see if we could catch him teeing off on the par 3 17th hole. Soon Tiger was walking over to the teebox and I lept out of the truck with my camera. Surprisingly there were only about 50 people, mostly media, at the fence watching. So I got as close as I could and started snapping pictures. Hank Haney was with him, but Steve Williams wasn't caddying for him today. He hit his shot about 20 feet from the hole on the green. No easy task since the hole is surrounded by bunkers and high fescue grass. But this is Tiger Woods so you couldn't expect anything less. So that was my encounter with Tiger today. Justin Timberlake was also at the course but I never saw him. We think we saw his Audi with a TDI logo on the side, but we could have been wrong. He had three Audi's at the course today for him and his family. So I have a feeling of accomplishment today after seeing Tiger, but the guys and I got a lecture not to do it again for security reasons. So I learned my lesson and here are the pics.

Trip to the Ahead Warehouse by Ferry- New Bedford, MA

Man. The past week has been super busy. Everything is starting to pick up quickly in the merchandise world here at Bethpage. I am now working every day of the week from 7:30 to 6 o'clock, and the days will only get longer until the tournament is over. For the past few days we have been working in the merchandise pavilion helping vendors set up their product all over the tent. I got to work with Ahead, Nike, and Ashworth representatives which was pretty cool. The coolest part was setting up the Nike shirts that Tiger would be wearing the four days of the tournament. I'm sure those will sell pretty quick. Looking at the tent at the end of today, I was amazed at how much merchandise we have finished setting up. It's only been about a week since we started moving product off of the trailers behind the tent, and we are approaching the end. It's not easy to fill up about two football fields worth of stuff in that time. My boss, Mary, said she has never seen the setup process be done so quickly, and she has been working for the USGA for 15 years.

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts to help one of the vendors, Ahead, pack up a truck that was coming to Bethpage. I went up there with two other guys, Nick and Kyle, and we had the pleasure of riding on a ferry from Orient Point, NY to New London, Connecticut. It was pretty cool. The ferry could hold around 80 cars, so it was convenient that we didn't have to bother renting a car later. When we got to Massachusetts after an hour and a half ferry ride and hour car ride, the trip got even better after we saw the house we were staying for the night. We arrived at the Bay Club in Mattapoisett, MA and were greeted by the security guard who took our names and said we were good to go. Driving down the windy road through the golf course, we came to our destination. The company, Ahead, let us stay at their not-too-shabby house that borders one of the holes on the course. We felt pretty spoiled from the get go, not to mention we had gotten paid for the time we were traveling. Easiest money I've ever made. Another bonus that we discovered in the house was a guest book that had the names and comments of people who had stayed at the house. After reading a couple, I looked at one of the names and saw that Retief Goosen had stayed here with his family back in December. I guess I could have expected that since he is sponsored by Ahead and the whole house was covered with pictures of him. I thought it was kinda neat. To end the night, we all went to a little Irish restaurant on the ocean called the Kensale Inn. I ordered a Goo Burger, which consisted of cheese, jalapenos, bacon, and PEANUT BUTTER. I am a risk taker to an extent when it comes to food and I had my doubts about this order. But man was I lucky to find the Goo to be quite delicious. The jalapenos and peanut butter balance each other out nicely. I recommend it to anyone. The next day was the day we actually worked and loaded hundreds of boxes of hats into a UPS trailer. Looking at the pile of boxes when I first entered the warehouse, I thought it would take all day to load. Luckily Ahead had a few helpers of their own to help us inventory and pack the truck to the brim in about 5 hours. We had 3 boxes leftover that couldn't fit into the truck, though we tried the best we could. Another drive and ferry ride ended our day of work. This time we didn't leave the Tahoe and take pictures on the deck of the ferry. We had a nice slumber in the truck while the ferry carried us back to Orient Point. Another highlight of the week was going to an air show at Jones Beach and seeing an F-18 Super Hornet break the sound barrier. I have some videos, but unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to record the sound barrier being broken.

Next week will provide an even more exciting atmosphere at Bethpage as the pre-tournament events begin. Not only does the pre-tournament merchandise sale open to the public on Thursday, the Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge will also take place on Friday. I'll have my eyes peeled to see Michael Jordan, Justin Timberlake, and Ben Roethlisberger. Not gonna get my hopes up though.

Bethpage Pictures

Here are some pictures I took on my first day at Bethpage. The tent shown in one of the pictures is one of the hospitality tents and is one quarter of the size of the merchandise tent. The other pictures are of the clubhouse, corporate tents, and the 1st tee and the 18th green on the Black course. More pics to come.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. After moving from the Homewood "Sweets" to Dewey (Dungeon) Hall, the other interns and I have had to make do without internet for a couple of weeks. Not a bad thing really, but I do like to keep up with news, sports, and of course updating this blog. For those of you who may have felt lost without reading my literary masterpiece, fear no more for your wait is over. It might be tough for me to recall everything I have done since my last post, but I will do my best to retrieve those moments of the internship and whatever else I have been doing in my spare time.

To start off I'll tell you about my current residence, Dewey Hall dormitory on Farmingdale State University campus. I came in with low expectations and unfortunately Dewey Hall met those expectations perfectly. It's not encouraging when the residence hall director tells you that you will be living in a dorm that is set to be torn down in the near future. I'd say let the dorm stand for a few more months and it might fall down on its own. That would save the university a good deal of money on demolition plus make for a cool story in the Farmingdale newspaper. Honestly it is not that bad living/surviving here, considering its free and it gives me a place to sleep at night. Most of the students have moved out this past week, so our hallway is not as loud and I can get more rest at night without feeling the bass of my neighbors stereo shake my walls all night. Community showers were an amenity I never had while living in Reese Hall my freshman year in college, so it has been fun walking down my coed dorm hallway in the mornings with nothing but a towel and washcloth to escort me. Not to mention the showers that were designed for someone with a size 10 waist.

As far as work is concerned, I have been doing various jobs each day at the golf course. We now have about 20 interns working, so Mike and Mary, my bosses, have been dividing responsibilities among us so that all of us experience a different type of job each day. The main jobs include working in the warehouse, running errands, working in the merchandise pavilion, and working in the merchandise office. The warehouse is probably my least favorite place to work, mainly because all of the dust and stuff I breathe in there messes up my sinuses. The warehouse is a great place to meet representatives from different companies that are vendors for our merchandise though, so I have been able to talk with them a little bit and at least make contacts in case I would like to apply for a job or something with them in the future. So far I have met people from Cutter and Buck, Adidas, Bobby Jones, EP Sport, and Peter Millar. I will have a chance at the Open to meet some others as well.

The merchandise pavilion has come a long way since I last blogged about it. I got to work in there the other day and saw most of the fixtures that have been set up to display the merchandise. I had the pleasure of cleaning all of these fixtures, which were pretty dusty from being in a warehouse since Torrey Pines. I have enormous respect for the guys who set up everything in the tent. There is so much stuff that has to be set in the tent and it all has to go in a certain place. The guy in charge of the tent is Mr. Nichols and he is a diehard South Carolina fan and has many relatives who have played on the football team, so he gave me a piece of his mind about Lane Kiffin and all of his shenanigans and bragged about how bad Tennessee will be this season.

Outside of work we have found a few things to do for fun. We have been to good restaurants and had sushi, Mexican, German, Australian, and English food. Once in a while we go to White Castle and get some burgers and fries for a quick, cheap meal. We have been bowling a few times at Farmingdale Lanes and Dave & Buster's, which is like a sports oriented Chuckie Cheese. There is a double-decker driving range that is open until 10 pm that we occasionally go to after work to keep our swings in check. I did have the shanks, but I was able to cure them yesterday at Skydrive. I've gone to a couple of movies, Wolverine and Angels & Demons. Not too crazy about Wolverine since I never really got into X-Men, but I enjoyed Angels & Demons though it was not nearly as good as the book. We have also been to NYC a couple of nights just to hang out and walk around. There is a cool place called McSorely's that we have visited twice now. It's one of the oldest Irish Bar/Restaurants in the city. I got to see a pair of Houdini's handcuffs and other random historical pieces that make it unique. Other than these places we have just hung out at the dorms and watched tv and movies. I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks, because that's when we actually do more work that holds more responsiblity and pertains to the Open. Not just warehouse stuff and cleaning. Tomorrow is our last day at the warehouse thank goodness. My sinuses can't take it anymore.

Played the Blue Course at Bethpage

Shot 90. Not my greatest round. Walked 18 holes in 90 degree heat for almost 6 hours. It was miserable, but I like the course alot. All of the courses were packed today and it produced a tournament-like feel. I was really nervous teeing off on the first tee because there was a good crowd of people watching while they waited for their tee time. Luckily I didn't top it or hit a major slice or hook off the tee. I hit a pretty solid drive about 270 or so that barely ended up in the left cut of rough. I was so relieved that I made it off the tee box and didn't make a fool out of myself from the get go. I played with the two other interns and another guy named Mel, who was an older man that avoided his daughter's bridal shower today by playing a round of golf. He was a nice New Yorker to play with, but he was about to kill the group ahead of us because they were the slowest human beings on earth, not to mention they were horrible golfers. Kyle and Rebecca (the other interns) were pretty solid golfers, so I was the scrub of the bunch, but it was still fun. Rebecca used to play golf at LSU, so she dominated both Kyle and me. Overall today was nice day for golf. I wish I could have done a little better, but whatever. I'll take playing a round at Bethpage any day. I need to practice alot more before we play the Black course in a few weeks. I would love to do better than 90, but I have a feeling it could be much worse.

My First Week on Long Island

This week went as good as any first week at a new job could go. Nothing too exciting happened, but I did get to learn my way around the Farmingdale/Bethpage area and got to meet some of the USGA staff. For the first week, me and the other merchandise interns (Kyle and Rebecca) got to do alot of cleanup type of work in the offices and learned the basics to get the internship started, such as arranging furniture in the merchandise office, hanging up bulletin boards, vacuuming and cleaning, running different computer programs, and learning how to answer the phones. We also go to travel to the off-site warehouse in downtown Farmingdale where all of the merchandise will be delivered before the Open. Honestly the warehouse is kinda creepy and not my favorite place to be, for it reminds me of some kind of building one of the Saw movies would be set in. The first day in the warehouse we got to build some dollys, which turned out to be more difficult then expected, and moved some wooden palettes around so that we could easily organize any shipments we receive by SKU's (I did learn something in my Marketing classes). UPS is the Open's shipping partner this year and we were able to meet Matt, the UPS delivery man in charge of all of our shipments. We got a taste of what the delivery and inventory process would be like in the warehouse when he delivered some packages on Tuesday. There weren't a whole lot of packages relative to what we will receive in the future, but it was still a pretty tough job considering there are only three interns right now. On Wednesday and Thursday the other interns and I were told we would have to take shifts in the warehouse throughout the day, so that someone from the USGA staff could be present while some security men set up a security system in the warehouse. So every two hours or so the interns would take turns holding down the fort to see if anything suspicious goes on. Not really sure what we were looking for, but we got to catch up on reading or sleeping. Yesterday I got to put labels on envelopes all day that would be sent out to all of the 1,200 merchandise volunteers for the Open. We had to fill every envelope with random stuff like vouchers, maps of the course, a pin, and other information about the tournament. The labeling and stuffing process took all day and we only got through the letter J, so we will have fun continuing this daunting task next week. To end my last workday of my first week on the job I took a camera out to the soon to be merchandise tent and took pictures of the construction. The tent is massive and will take a few more weeks to be finished. It will be the largest tent at the Open and will eventually be my home away from home as the Open approaches. So overall it was a nice first week in Farmingdale. Today I drove around Massappequa (sp?) and found this famous hamburger stand called All-American Burger that is supposed to be pretty good. I've heard that Alec Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld are frequent customers, so it must be worthwhile. Really cheap also. I didn't get the chance to try it because it was cash only and I was paperless. But I found a Five Guys down the road in Amittyville and got my 3,000 calories for the day there. I wanted to find the Amittyville Horror house, but had no idea where to go, so I'll save that trip for another day. Tomorrow I'll have my first golf outing on the Blue course at Bethpage. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure it will kick my butt. I'll take my camera and takes some pictures, but i'm not promising they will load on this site because of the weak internet. I'll let you know how bad I play.

WARNING:

Today was the day I got to move into my new home for the next couple of weeks before we move into the dorms at Farmingdale State College. Right now two other interns and I are living luxuriously at the Homewood Suites in Bethpage, NY. We are near the golf course and will begin work tomorrow morning on the site of the US Open. I was very excited about working at Bethpage, but after today I am pumped even more then before because I actually got to see the course up close today. My parents and I walked around the clubhouse and near the courses of Bethpage to get a feel for where I'll be this summer. The courses looked amazing, though most of the courses already have hospitality and merchandise tents being set up on them for the Open. That didn't stop groups from playing the courses, though the tee boxes were moved to the fairways on some holes. We got to see a couple of groups finish up their rounds on the 18th hole of the Black course, so it was neat to see how the course played. I'll try to post some pictures of what I saw. I also got to see the first hole of the Black course and the WARNING sign that tries to scare amateur golfers away. I can't wait to test my skills on the Black course a couple of days after the Open. My goal is to break 90 from the professional tees, but that might be wishful thinking. One of the workers in the Pro Shop told us he didn't think anyone would finish under par during the Open, so it's going to be pretty tough. Tonight I got to meet my boss for the summer, Mary, and two other USGA staff members, Nikki and Nick. They were very welcoming and treated us to dinner at Houlihan's. We got to ask them about the internship and learn about the types of jobs we would be doing this week. This week we will be mostly moving stuff around and organizing the offices that are on site. But I can't wait to begin and I will be sure to keep everyone updated on what I am doing.

USGA Internship 2009 - Welcome

February 25, 2009

In April I will be moving to Farmingdale, NY on Long Island to begin my merchandising internship with the USGA. I will be working at the 2009 US Open golf tournament, which is being held June 15-21 at Bethpage State Park's Black Course. Only two months away until I begin this once in a lifetime experience. I will be sure to keep you updated as often as I can on the status of my internship and will post as many pictures as I can. I am still unsure about all of the details of the three month internship, but will learn more as time progresses. I'm just looking forward to this experience of working at a major golf event and hopefully this can be a doorway to greater opportunities in the future.