Part 3: Behind the Scenes Preparing for a Tournament

Part 3: Part 1 and 2 covered preparations for a tournament before we leave the ASGA office. Now we are going to the site to make prepare the course setup and final touches before the first competitor hits his tee shot.

At all of the ASGA Championship each competitor receives a hole location sheet advising him where the hole will be place on a given day. To arrive at the hole location we visit each hole finding, using a little devise called BreakMaster which is a digital green reader that shows the severity of break in degrees therefore we can determine if the break is to sever we will not place a hole at that position. Once we determine the place on the green we then place a very small dot on the green, then measure the distance from either left or right of the green, and from the front or back of the green and using the depth of the green we will give the player the plus or minus from the center of the green. These hole locations are then given to the course superintendent for him to use to place the holes for that days competition.

After we have finished hole locations we set the ASGA trailer as close as possible to the scoreboard, plug into electricity, and we are ready to use the trailer for all of our scoring, posting results on the internet, & emailing results to the media. The ASGA trailer has been such a great new tool and we are very proud to have it.

On the first day of competition we arrive at the course approximatly 2 hours before the first tee time, i.e. first tee time 8:00 a.m. then we arrive at 6:00 a.m., put up our starters tents, tables and chairs and now we are ready to hand that first group of competitors their scorecard, rule and hole location sheet and get the event underway. A lot of work and hours before the first ball is put in the air.

We are not complaning as Jay, Mac and Terri love preparing and taking care of our members and to hopefully run the best event possible for the amateur golfers in the state of Arkansas. Stay turned for part 4 the final of the series. Hit it down the middle.