“When he mentioned Augusta National, my jaw
almost hit the ground!” JEFF FOULGER
Jeff standing on the famous Hogan Bridge, stretching across to the par 3 12th Green, down in Amen Corner
welcoming and helpful.
excitement on the phone when the people at Augusta National Human Resources told me that I had been successful. All that was left was for me to obtain a J-1 visa and I was on my way. The whole process probably took me two months from start to finish, but was well worth the effort.
I flew to Ohio to meet up with Mike and his team and very soon learned that the people at OSU were there to help and support me with absolutely anything. When I arrived in Augusta I was, naturally, feeling rather nervous, but someone from Human Resources was waiting for me at the airport and soon calmed my fears. The staff and management were very friendly,
My first day working at Augusta was on October 16th 2006. From outside the gates there really is nothing to see but, once inside, it really is an amazing site. Through my first few weeks the management took a very patient and encouraging approach. I was shown how they like to do things and was involved in all the general maintenance tasks. After a few weeks, I was scheduled to something called ‘Greens Care’. This basically meant caring for allocated greens on a regular basis and setting them up before morning play began. This usually involved mowing the greens the amount of times requested by the Superintendent, raking greenside bunkers and anything else that I had time for, such as pitch mark repairs, dusting ball marks, picking poa annua, picking weeds out of bunkers, checking sand depths and switching or blowing debris away from surrounding areas. I was scheduled to greens 6 and 14. This was my first task of the morning about three days out of seven. Other mornings consisted of pesticide applications or other general course set up procedures, such as mowing tees, moving holes and raking fairway bunkers. After these first tasks were completed I
was then assigned to something Augusta call ‘Hole Care’. Basically, this involved being in charge of the day to day general maintenance of two holes. Obviously, the greens would have been taken care of under the ‘Greens Care’ system, but everything else was my responsibility. I ensured that all mowing was completed; pedestrian rotary, where the big second cut mowers couldn’t get to, and hover mowers for pond and creek banks. Once satisfied that these areas were in an acceptable condition I left to tackle whichever issues I think may benefit the holes. This could consist of many things, but it certainly encourages you to open up your eyes and work on attention to detail. If you can’t find any problems or issues you can be assured that they will be found for you! But it is always nice to stay one step ahead of the game. Hole care was scheduled for the individual at least three days a week. I was scheduled to holes 11 and 12 and I considered this a great honour. I was very proud of my holes and was determined to do a good job.
Hole care was a big benefit to me and I learned a great deal, such as responsibility, scheduling and, when given extra manpower for a certain task, leadership skills. It’s almost like being in charge of your own small golf course.
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