WEEK FOURTEEN
Week fourteen was the last full week of my internship. It is hard to believe that this summer and this experience have come to an end. I have learned so much about golf, how to teach, how to run a business, and marketing strategies to benefit a business. I was able to talk to numerous people this summer that increased my knowledge of marketing and advertising and also encouraged me in my dreams and endeavors. I think this internship and what I learned here will help me in many areas of my job(s) in the future. I strengthened my writing skills, marketing skills, communication skills, and got a little taste of what a "real job" will be like. I am very thankful for this experience and for everyone that helped me to get here and enjoy it.
WEEK THIRTEEN
Week thirteen was another fun, interesting week of my internship. I didn't have any new experiences, but I leaned a lot more about teaching through private lessons and junior clinics. One of my favorite parts of my job this summer has been interacting with the customers that come in daily. Many of the customers come in often, so I have come to know many of them. It is fun to talk to them, listen to their stories, and help them with whatever they need. It will be weird not seeing these people after I've spent the whole summer here building relationships.
WEEK TWELVE
Another week of my internship has come and gone, but not without more lessons being learned! On Monday I got to train a new employee that will be starting at the shop near the end of the summer, when I will return to school. This was an interesting experience for me because I got to be on the other end of my job, being the teacher rather than being the student. Training this gentleman also showed me how much I have learned in the past 3 months about the shop, interacting with customers, and the business side of things. The rest of the week was just like any other week, teaching junior clinics and camps, welcoming customers to the range, placing orders with US Kids Golf and other companies, and minor shop duties. With only two and a half weeks left of my internship, I will be trying to take in and learn as much as I can!
WEEK ELEVEN
Week eleven was a busy one, working six days in a row, with three of those days being at a junior camp that was an hour and a half away from my house. We were in the middle of a torturous heat wave, so keeping the kids focused and hydrated was a challenge! I started the week with two normal days of work, supervising the range, interacting with customers, and teaching the junior clinic on Monday evening. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was the junior camp at Rivercrest Golf Club, which is right outside of Philadelphia. I taught the short game stations, which focused on chipping, pitching, putting, and bunker play. I could see the young golfers making improvements in their games because of the instruction they were receiving, so that was an encouragement to me! Again, I see my confidence in talking to people increasing, which will certainly help me in any job I have in the future.
WEEK TEN
It is hard to believe that week ten is already here and gone! This week's duties consisted of teaching the junior clinic again, creating a webpage to describe and advertise our new location, and of course supervise the range, interact with customers, and maintain the facility. I also had the job of calling the local newspaper sports editor and telling him about our facility and asking him if he would be interested in writing an article about our teaching academy. He said that is something that he would definitely be interested in and he would contact my boss. One area that I definitely see improvement in my skills is talking to people and calling people that I do not know. Earlier in the summer, I would get nervous to make calls like this, but since i make them almost every day, I am getting more confident with it. I am excited to see what other skills will improve in the few weeks I have remaining of my internship.
WEEK NINE
Week nine was a hot one, so one of my main jobs of the week was watering the greens, tees, and other grass areas and trying to keep everything alive! This requires many hours of watering by hand every day. A new experience this week was starting our Junior clinic, which I am in charge of. We had 10 juniors ages 8-12 show up and receive instruction. It was exciting for me to see the children having fun and learning about golf. A Marketing aspect of my job this week was getting to talk to the sales woman from Yellow Pages again. My boss told me to get some numbers for sending out some advertising to local homes so I called the sales woman that had stopped in earlier in the summer. She printed out some advertising proposals for me and it was really interesting because this is an area that I would love to work in as a career. This week was a big learning week, as they all have been!
WEEK EIGHT
Because of a golf tournament I played in and previous commitments, I only worked one day during week eight. However, this one day was a long one and full of duties. I taught two more private lessons and learned a lot about how to teach. We promoted a free kids clinic evening to kick off our summer junior program, starting Monday night July 9th. I wrote a weekly newsletter that went out to all of our students and customers on our mailing list and was also posted on facebook. I also had to water the greens, supervise the range, and help customers.
WEEK SEVEN
Week seven of my internship held some new and fun experiences. On Monday, I got to give my first two private golf lessons. I cannot get paid because of my NCAA scholarship, but the experience is worth so much more to me and could actually lead me to a career. I taught a 17 year old young man and an older woman that I have come to know over the past couple months working here. After the lesson, she kept thanking me and expressing how much she enjoyed having a woman teacher. This made me feel very good because my learning experiences have paid off and are now helping others! The rest of the week's duties included watering greens, supervising the driving range, talking to customers, writing newsletters, and creating signs for upcoming events (shown on left). This job has increased my marketing skills in that my boss gives me tips when I write newsletters and promotions on how to make them more appealing and emphasize which programs we are trying to market the most. I am still loving this internship and looking forward to what the next two months has in store.
WEEK SIX
Another week of my internship has come and gone, and many lessons have been learned. On Monday we got a large shipment in of U.S. Kids Golf merchandise and apparel. This was an interesting experience because I had to log all of the products into our inventory book, write down product numbers, price the items, and make sure that the inventory count matched everything I wrote down. After we had everything on paper, we then had to set up the shop in a way that customers would see both the new U.S. Kids Golf merchandise as well as the Mizuno merchandise that we already had on display. This tied into my marketing skills because I had to think of where we could place the clubs, bags, hats, etc. so that customers would see them right when they walked in and be interested to try them out or buy something. We ended up blending both the U.S. Kids Golf merchandise and Mizuno in a spot that customers visit often. This was cool for me because it made me think about consumer behavior, something that is very important in my marketing major. Other than that, this week was pretty simple. My tasks included watering the flowers and greens, welcoming customers, showing them the facility, taking messages, booking lessons, giving out brochures of our upcoming events, and so much more. I am really enjoying this experience and learning so much about interacting with customers and the game of golf!
WEEK FIVE
As the weeks continue, I keep learning more and make fewer mistakes! This week was a lot of supervising the driving range and maintaining the facility by doing things like picking things up, watering greens and grass tees, talking to customers, showing them around, and selling schools and clinics. I did more marketing this week by designing flyers for kids birthday parties, contacting local high school athletic directors to offer special practice prices for their golf teams, and designing and setting up signs for promoting upcoming events in June. This week made me realize that golf is the game of a lifetime, more than any other sport or game. At the range, we have people come in of all ages. I met an 18 month old little girl whose parents were trying to get her to know the game. I also meet many other folks, up to ages 80 and 85, who are just trying to get out and get some fresh air and see what skills are still there. This was encouraging because it shows me that even know my competition career will be over after my senior year of college, I will be able to continue to play the game I love for a very long time.
WEEK FOUR
This week was another big learning week of my internship. On Wednesday I got to design a 3 page newsletter and put in pictures and lots of information. Unfortunately, I forgot to save it and all the information was lost. I had to re-type it and design it all over again. This was a big learning experience for me and it taught me to be a lot more careful when I invest so much time into something, such as the newsletter. In addition to writing the newsletter, I got to observe more lessons with women, juniors, and beginner players. This has become so interesting to me to learn more about the golf swing, mechanics, and cause and effect of actions in the swing. I believe that these lessons that I am learning will not only help me to become a better teacher, but also help me to improve my own golf game.
WEEK THREE
This week was a short week for me because I went out of town for the holiday, only working 20 hours. This week I observed more lessons and got to help a little bit. As a marketing major, something that happened to me this week that was interesting was getting to talk to a saleswoman from the yellow pages. She came to talk to my boss but since he wasn't there, she shared her material with me. She was trying to get our business to rent a spot in the phone book and also try to sell us a spot in a coupon book that is going to be delivered to 10,000 local homes this summer. This was interesting for me because I got to see what our advertisement would look like in the phone book and online. She discussed pricing with me and gave me some material. The rest of my work week was the same as past weeks: just overlooking the range, taking care of the facility, and selling the clinics and schools to customers.
WEEK TWO
The second week of work was less busy and less crazy! It rained a lot during the week so business was slow and I didn't work as much. I worked almost 30 hours this week, but compared to 40 hours last week it didn't feel as bad. This week I participated in teaching a ladies clinic. I was in charge of the putting station, so I taught the ladies putting drills and the basics to a good putting stroke. I also shadowed my boss while he was teaching private lessons, in which I learned a lot. This week I also got to do more marketing, writing more newsletters and write ups for Facebook. I also get to sell the clinics, lessons, and schools to customers on a daily basis when they come to the driving range. I am able to give them our brochure, explain the different aspects of the business, show them around the facility, and answer any questions they have. This experience has reassured me of how much I like talking with people, making them feel comfortable, and has also improved my confidence.
WEEK ONE
I have come to the end of my first week of working at my summer internship. In 8 days, I worked almost 40 hours, so it was a busy week! Since it was the first week of my internship, I learned a lot about the facility, shop procedures, and how to teach lessons. I observed two 2-hour lessons, which increased my knowledge of teaching and how to approach beginner golfers who have never played before and know basically nothing about the game. In the past couple months, the owner and my supervisor, Bob Kramer, bought the driving range and transformed it from a dump to a beautiful facility and a teaching academy. He added a putting green, chipping green, indoor teaching facility, and grass tees. He also renovated the inside of the shop building, pictured here, and is now selling clubs, snacks, drinks, and golf accessories to customers. Since the range is so different from what it was previously, I was sent to talk to local businesses to make their employees aware that we are open for the season and to offer them a lunch time discount if they want to come hit range balls and have lunch at our facility. This was exciting for me because it was the first time I got to put my Marketing major and skills to work! Another job I had this week was to create write-ups for the Facebook page, the monthly newsletter, and a door-to-door flyer we are going to put out to create more business. This was another Marketing job that I thought was cool and was very interesting to me. I also got to interact with customers often, welcome them to the facility, show them the changes that have been made since last summer, and give them free balls when they are almost out. This was fun for me because I love talking to people and making them feel welcome. Building relationships, giving out a few balls, and creating conversation can only help the business and bring in new and repeat customers. I am very excited for what is to come this summer and I think this is going to be a huge step in the right direction in a career that would be a dream come true for me.