Good afternoon everyone and welcome to everybody's least favorite game show, a little something we like to call "WHY AREN'T YOU SLEEPING RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!" I'm your host, Scott Hollister, and this morning I made my way down to the maintenance facility at Southern Hills to see if any of the 100-plus members of the maintenance team during this week's PGA Championship were actually awake.
Frankly, the creators of this show didn't think they'd find anyone to play our game when they got there. After all, the maintenance crew is facing a 4:30 a.m. roll call each morning before hitting the course around 5 a.m. to knock out morning maintenance work on the course. With temperatures pushing the century mark here in Tulsa, it seemed logical that anyone with a good head on their shoulders would have either high-tailed it back to the dorms at Oral Roberts, which are housing the maintenance volunteers this week, or found a cool spot in the maintenance facility to crash during the midday hours.
But as luck would have it, I did find three contestants who passed on getting some shut eye in favor of a few cold drinks and some quality time with the video games in the temporary meeting/dining area on Tuesday morning. So please give them a warm welcome and let's play -- join with me, studio audience -- "WHY AREN'T YOU SLEEPING RIGHT NOW?!?!?!"
Our first contestant is Brent Seyer (far right in photo), a turfgrass student at Purdue University who is serving an internship this summer at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind. As part of the internship program at Victoria National, the club's head superintendent -- seven-year GCSAA member Daniel Meersman -- arranges for each of his four interns to experience tournament prep at one of the year's major events. This week, it's Sayer's turn, and he's working bunkers primarily during the PGA.
So Sayer, tell us, "WHY AREN'T YOU SLEEPING RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!"
"Well, I guess I don't know any better," he laughed. "This is the first time I've volunteered at a major, so I'm just excited and didn't feel like sleeping."
Not bad -- just plead ignorance. I like it. Our next contestant is Mr. Byron Hayes (second from right), who in real life is the assistant superintendent at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa. He landed a volunteer spot on the team here at Southern Hills courtesy of his boss at Saucon Valley, Class A superintendent and 14-year GCSAA member Jim Roney, who has been friends with Southern Hills superintendent Russ Myers, CGCS, for many years.
You're up, Byron. Let us know ... WHY AREN'T YOU SLEEPING RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!
"I'm working cavalry this week, doing a lot of clean up behind other groups, and by the time we got in this morning, I'd missed the bus back to ORU," he says. "Plus, I'm really not that tired. Too early in the week to be too tired."
A missed bus, huh? A pretty good excuse as we move onto our third and final contestant, Mr. Patrick McMichael (hidden in this photo, but far left). Patrick is an Oklahoma State student who is interning at Southern Hills this summer and is a part of the team monitoring the grounds around the clubhouse as well as working with a tree and branch removal crew when necessary. So far, his best duty of the tournament was clearing some branches on the West Nine here at Southern Hills so Davis Love III would have room to park his RV.
Patrick, let us have it -- "WHY AREN'T YOU SLEEPING RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!"
"If I sleep now, I won't be able to sleep at night," he laughed. "I live here in Tulsa, so I get to sleep in my own bed. I'd be up all night if I was sleeping right now, even with a 3:30 wake-up call."
OK, so maybe there is a reason this is everybody's least favorite game show. I don't even know if this was a good idea at this point or not. But I'm going to declare all three of our contestants co-winners, thank them for their time and let them get back to their video games. We have absolutely no lovely parting gifts for them.
Back to you, Vanna.
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