Golf


When a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity presented itself to James Gotts, the greenkeeper at the RJ National, Ransomes Jacobsen’s three-hole golf course at their European headquarters in Ipswich, he jumped at the chance


Bay Hill Invitational


Diary of a volunteer


J


ames Gotts is the greenkeeper at the RJ National, Ransomes Jacobsen's three-hole golf course at their European headquarters in Ipswich. Following a chance conversation


between one of his colleagues and Mike O’Keeffe of Ohio State University at the Golf Industry Show in San Diego, James was presented with an opportunity to join the greenkeeping team for Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Invitational in Florida. This is a diary of his visit.


Day 1 - Saturday 12th March 2016


On Saturday, I travelled across the pond to America. I had been excited about the trip


30 I PC JUNE/JULY 2016


for weeks and I could not wait to get involved and meet the rest of the guys at Bay Hill.


I arrived at Orlando International airport


around 5.30pm where I was greeted by Andrew Cowie, one of the Ohio State interns and Sara Swyear from Bay Hill, who had kindly offered to pick me up and take me to Andrew’s apartment for the duration of my stay. On the way to the apartment, we stopped at a local restaurant where I met more of the Ohio State interns. Along with Andrew, the rest of the interns


were Dylan McWilliams, Christian Wilson and Simon Winzar, who gave me a warm welcome and immediately made me feel


part of the team. It was great to meet them outside of a work environment and it was a good ice-breaker, which turned into a memorable first night in Florida.


Day 2 - Sunday 13th March


With just four days to go until the start of the tournament, it was important to get up to speed and find out what jobs I would be required to complete over the tournament period. I was called into a meeting with Chris Flynn, the Director of Grounds at Bay Hill Club and Lodge and received a warm welcome from all of the guys who work for him. Jobs were assigned to us and I was


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