Brian Halligan: Clubbing... Country Clubbing

This past week I started my job at the Glens Falls Country Club. I really don't know anything aboot the game of golf (yes, I just said aboot). And I certainly don't know any thing aboot how to maintain a golf course so every day is full for learning experiences.

I picked a good year to join the maintenance department at GFCC. According to the older, more experienced members of the group, this is the worst shape they've ever seen the course in. Due to all the ice this winter there are sticks and limbs down every where and of the 22 greens, 11 of them are more than 50% dead grass. Most of the work thus far has been raking up leaves and dead grass around the course. Raking is fun and all but doing it for 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week gets real boring. BUT WAIT! There's More! Once you rake the whole course, you have to go back over and do it again to get all the leaves that were blown onto the course after you raked it! But I'm not complaining. Working at GFCC is a lot of fun. The people I work with come from all walks of life and have very different backgrounds. There are enough stories and life lessons being told to write a book. And after all the clean-up work I was taught how to mow greens. Despite what everybody says, it's not much different than mowing lawns. Just a different kind of mower.

A view of the club house and pond from the 18th hole

Just finished mowing hole number 6

But I can't forget aboot training. I've been doing a little bit of training this spring. Mostly bike rides. It feels good to get back out on the bike after a long winter. On the other hand, the first real run of the year felt like I got shot in both legs. I went for little runs this winter but my legs were so sore after my first hour long run. When I got out of bed the next morning I thought I was going to have to call into work sick because I couldn't even stand. But thanks to "The Stick" I was able to massage the pain down to a tolerable level.