When a plan comes together...

Posted Jul 09 2009, 11:01 PM by Cathy Erickson
I am one of those people who finds great enjoyment in seeing other people happy.  I don't know, there is just something about being around happiness that makes it worth the effort to pass it on to as many people as I can.  It could be something as simple as letting someone in front of me when there's lots of traffic (and appreciating "the wave"), or making someone laugh at a joke (my current favorite, Two cannibals were eating a clown.  One says to the other, "do you taste something funny?" - I laugh every time!).  Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that I believe it's worth the investment to bring joy to other people. 

One project that I hope is a happy day for lots of people is a golf scramble that I have coordinated for the past 5 years.  My goal for this event is to make sure the players and our local course have a great day.  I also try to contribute some of the funds to our local high school sports teams.  Being a numbers nerd, I try to stretch the budget as far as I can in order to pay back out to the players and to make sure our pro shop will get to redeem lots of gift certificates.  So for the past couple of months I have been slowly getting all of my ducks in a row.  Registering teams, getting gifts and prizes, settng up the hole assignments, getting contest holes in order, rounding up volunteers (who are the BEST!), and most importantly, making sure my team practices a lot so we can win (that never works!)!
 
It's 11pm Minnesota time as I write this, and in exactly 12 hours the shotgun start will begin and 160 golfers will be enjoying a great course, some yummy food, under sunny skies with friends, classmates and family.  I love it when a plan comes together!
 
My next 12 hours are planned down to the minute...in 15 minutes I'm going to bed (I hope!), up at 6am to hot tub for 45minutes (my trip to the chiropractor today ended up making me feel worse, not better...ugh), pick out a golf outfit and hat, and out the door by 7:30am.  I'll need about an hour to get the gift bags together and put in the carts, and then I'll need to sucker someone into going out on the course to put out the contest holes (there are 16 of them!) while I get the registration table set up and signs put up.  Players will start showing up around 9:30am so then it's time to be part greeter part traffic cop.  I'm so grateful that I have fantastic friends who are helping run some of the contest holes and helping to keep people going in the right direction.
 
The course is looking great, and I'm excited that our greens superintendent is actually golfing in the scramble tomorrow - he deserves to have some fun, too.  And this event wouldn't be a success without the hard work of all of the golf staff.  We're just a small town course, but we've got some great people working here!
 
I will try to have my golf stuff ready to go so that once everyone is off to their holes I can meet up with my team (one of the perks of coordinating is that we start right next to the clubhouse!)  Then it's 4-5 hours of fun!!  I look forward to this day every year and I feel lucky that the guys I play with are still willing to let me tag along.  We do have one win under our belt 3 years ago but we haven't quite been able to drop enough putts to win since.  I have a good feeling about this year, though!!
 
One of the biggest factors that is totally out of my control is the weather.  I have been checking weather.com many times a day for the last two weeks, and I'm just thrilled to see that as of tonight the forecast is 79 degrees, sunny, with a southwest wind...I couldn't ask for anything better!  About a week ago I panicked because the forecast said rain, but just a few days later it changed and a little yellow sun has been on Friday for almost 5 days now...YES!
 
Now I'm just hoping my game comes around!  I've been hitting the ball okay, but haven't gotten out on the course for a few days, and with a tight neck and sore arm at the moment, I'm afraid I might not be able to contribute (gotta love the girls tees advantage!).  But it's amazing how the golf course has healing qualities sometimes.  I'm really hoping I will be able to relieve some of this tension by taking in all of the happy people around me.
 
It's hard not to think back to some of the many memories of the past 5 years and I'm smiling now knowing I have another chance to give lots of people a fun day!  I'm looking forward to seeing lots of golf friends and doing my best to make sure they are glad they made the time to come and play some golf.  That makes me happy.
 
It's my favorite golf day of the year tomorrow, so I'd better hit the sack!  I love it when a plan comes together, so I hope I can stick to mine.  I'm looking forward to laughter, cheers, and the sound of fireworks when we make birdies! 
 
I hope everyone has a great golf day like this one each year.
 
PS...the mother daughter duo won the First Flight in the ladies golf tournament we played in on Wednesday!  Yippee!