Jul 31, 2008

Charity Golf Tournament


For the past 8 years or so, I’ve been the “official” photographer of the annual golf tournament that raises money for the local catholic school system. No, I’m not an alumni catholic schoolgirl. My boss is an alumni and since I’m a photographer, I participate via association. This one day event usually brings in $20,000+. Mostly the golfers consist of alumni from the schools, some of them have been golfing in this tournament for 21 years!

It’s sort of a “men’s club” kind of tournament as the only females on the course are me and a couple of country club women. I was told many years ago that women are allowed to play, but they’re not encouraged to. *hmpf*

With that said, it’s usually a fun day. I get a golf cart that I can zip around the course on photographing the sponsor signs and the four-somes. The morning started off just peachy… I jump off the cart, slip on the wet grass (pretty wet at 7am!), and promptly fall on my butt. I look around quick to see if anyone saw me, LOL. Of course, there were two guys on a golf cart coming toward me so I’m sure they saw. I felt something twinge in my knee, but I’m hoping it’s nothing. Shortly after that, I’m photographing another sponsor sign and... the sprinkler system pops on! Ack! I wondered why the leaves of the trees were dripping when it hadn’t rained! Luckily, my cart was parked far enough away that it didn’t get wet. I didn’t either thanks to my lightning speed (LOL) actions to get out of the way. The rest of the morning session went pretty good... and fast.

The afternoon session was wrought with its own “excitement”. As I was on my way to the lab to pick up my CF card, I heard on the radio: Beeeeep, Beeeeeep, Beeeepppp... “We interrupt this program…” (OK, they didn’t say that last part, but it sounded good!) The national weather service had spotted a storm headed our way and had a watch until 1:15pm. The storm was capable of producing 60mph winds. The golfers were set to tee off at the same time. It was 85F and sunny out! By the time I got to the country club, the skies were clouding up and during dark. It didn’t take long and the winds picked up and things were being blown everywhere. The caddies were rushing to set golf clubs against the building and tables were being dismantled. Imagine 100+ men congregated at the 19th hole while the storm subsided! It was soooo hot in there and NOISY! Tee off was postponed for about an hour. Again, I zipped around the course photographing the afternoon four-somes. I witnessed one large tree down, and lots of branches all over the course. I also witnessed three men relieving themselves against the nearest tree... must’ve been the free-flowing beer! I had one very appreciative older “gentlemen” thank me for taking his photo with the other guys who volunteered to run the brat stand. I thought “Awww... Ain’t that sweet?” Another older guy (most of the men who golf this tournament are “older”), told me how charming I was... LOL, hardly anyone uses that term these days. I’ve never thought of myself as charming, but hey... if he wants to think that, I’ll let him!

For the past 2 years, this group had decided they don’t want the “traditional” golf poses. So each year, they’ve come up with their own creative posing. I just make sure their faces show. Last year, they laid on their stomachs with their hands propping their heads up, LOL.

2 comments:

Petra said...

Sounds like a very interesting day!

Nancy M said...

Sounds like some of the goof balls at my course! And the peeing, well that's real common.... several women on my golf league also *do* it. I wouldn't be caught dead......