A Day in the Life of Golf
By Taylor Hatheway
Since most people don’t know what a golf tournament is like, I thought it would be interesting to take you along with me for a two-day golf tournament on March 1st and 2nd in Granbury, Texas.
Thursday February 28, 2019:
When I woke up to my alarm, I rolled out of bed, threw some clothes into a duffel bag, hoping that I was packing everything I needed, and loaded my bag into my car.
After making it to the golf locker room and putting all of my bags in the van, me and the other girls going to the tournament spent ten minutes convincing our coach to take us by Chick-fil-a before heading to Texas. Finally, she relented.
We pulled up to Chick-fil-a, hopped out of the van, and headed inside to order. After all eight of us placed our orders, we moved to the side to wait to get our food. Everyone got their food pretty quickly, except for me. I stood in Chick-fil-a for almost twenty minutes before I finally got my food. But, while we were waiting on my food, we were messing around with the hats Chick-fil-a gives out with cow ears on them and we made sure to take extras to put all over the van we were riding in.
After loading up on chicken minis and hash browns, Coach Vicki Hughes pulls the van onto the highway and the five-hour journey to Granbury, Texas begins. Most people would think that with that much time spent sitting in a car, it would be a great time to get some schoolwork done. I also thought that until I promptly fell asleep for the first two hours of the ride and didn’t get any work done. After I woke up, I continued to put off my homework by watching a movie on my phone and talking to the other people in the van. Would I come to regret my decision? Definitely, but that was a problem for future Taylor to worry about.
After a quick stop at In-N-Out to get burgers for lunch, we drove to the golf course we would be playing for the next two days, Harbor Lakes Golf Club, we got into golf carts so that we could drive around the course and get a feel for what it was like. At first glance, I could tell that the course was going to be a challenging one to play because it required you to place your shots really well or risk going into one of the multiple bunkers or bodies of water around the course.
After driving the course, eating a quick dinner at Palio’s Pizza Cafe, we quickly made our way back to the hotel and went to our rooms, anxious to get to sleep so we could get plenty of rest before an early start the next day. I laid out my uniform for the next day, along with everything I would need to make sure I took with me, like jackets, hand warmers, and golf balls, before heading to bed.
Friday March 1, 2019:
The day began early, at 5:45 a.m., when it was still dark outside. I made sure to layer up because the temperature was in the lower thirties. After eating breakfast, we packed up all of our stuff into the van and left the hotel.
After riding in the van for a few minutes, arriving at the golf course, and unloading all of our bags and carts, we headed to the driving range to get warmed. I quickly discovered that I had too many jackets on to swing the club properly so I would be playing the round while being a little chilly.
This tournament had a shotgun start, meaning that everyone started playing at the same time but started on a different hole. For example, on day one I started on the eighth hole but on day two I started on the fifteenth hole. This is a way of getting everyone finished around the same time instead of waiting several hours for all of the scores to come in.
We were going to be playing with Coppell, Lovejoy, and Martin, all Texas high schools that I had never heard of before. I was going to be teeing off of hole #8 and the tournament would be starting at 8 a.m. I got to the hole, met the girls I was playing with, and we almost immediately teed off.
The girls I was playing with weren’t the most talkative bunch so the hours seemed to drag on because I was just walking in silence for most of the round. Not the most fun.
While we were playing with girls from other schools, all of our scores were independent from the other schools and only affected our team total score. We mainly played with girls from other school to keep them accountable with their score and make sure they don’t cheat.The team total score only includes the top four scores out of the team, dropping the lowest one.
After the round, we quickly checked our scores to make sure we had written them down correctly before heading inside the clubhouse. There I met up with the rest of the girls on my team where Ella Wilson, 11, said that she had thought she was going to shoot a really good score until she came in, added up her score, and found out that she hadn’t.
The scores for the first day were quickly totaled and Jenks Girls Golf was sitting in third place. Not too shabby for our first tournament, having never played the course before, and being in Texas. We quickly left the course after this, anxious to get back to the hotel and take a nap. We ate dinner after a quick nap and headed back to the hotel quickly.
Once again, we all went to bed early because we would need to be up at 5:45 to get an early start. I laid out all my clothes for the next day with extra jackets because it was supposed to be chilly (and it was).
Saturday March 2, 2019:
After literally rolling out of bed and getting dressed, I dragged myself and all my ish downstairs. I was just ready to get to the course and start playing. I hugged my parents and told them what hole I was starting on so they could meet me there before heading out to the van.
We managed to get a spot on the range early this time and quickly hit before it was time to head to our starting holes. I was starting on hole 15 today, which was a short par 3. When I got to the hole, I found out that I was once again playing with a girl from Coppell but I was also playing with a girl from Granbury and from Mansfield.
This group was filled with some very talkative girls so conversation was flowing throughout the entire six hour round almost. We talked about everything from our plans for college to why we started playing golf and the round went by pretty quickly.
After I finished my round and checked my scores with the girls I played with, I quickly ran inside to find my coach and turn in my scorecard. I was anxious to see if we had moved up to second, or even first place. However, when all the scores were totaled, we were still in third place. While it wasn’t quite what we wanted, it was still pretty good for our first tournament of the season, having never played the course before, and being in a whole different state.
When it was time for the awards to be given out, the head of the tournament, a coach from Granbury, called out our school name but pronounced it as “Jaynks” instead of Jenks. We went up to collect our award, a large glass cup, and our medals. After taking pictures with our hardware and loading up our clubs, we started heading home.
I decided to ride back my home with my parents instead of in the school van so that I could get some rest. I slept for the entire five hour drive home and then immediately fell into bed where I passed out until morning.