Being an employee on a golf course when you’ve never played a hole is kind of an ironic situation. Customers look aghast when you say you’ve never played a hole in your life, and other people always ask if you play since you’re working on a GOLF course, after all.

I came to The Oaks Course from Tennessee for a summer job, my first job ever, and only intended to get the job experience before moving on to my next big milestone, college. Twice, my uncle practically had to drag me up to the driving range for lessons on holding the club and the fundamentals of the swing.

Being a former tennis player, holding a golf club and taking a swing feels like trying to write with your non-dominant hand. In spite of this unfamiliarity, I was able to make contact with the ball more often and was able to hit it farther each time I practiced.

My improvement was hindered only by my self-consciousness about being one of few inexperienced golfers on the driving range and the all too frequent "hole-in-golf-club" syndrome I suffer from. If you’ve ever played tennis/badminton/racquet ball before, you know what I’m talking about.

Now that I have less than a week left, I’ve begun to realize that giving golf a chance might not be such a bad idea. This past Monday, our resident PGA Professional, Lisa Vaught, took me out to the driving range to analyze my swing and give me some much needed pointers.

Within minutes I was swinging better, and consequently hitting better. It feels great to hear the smack of the club making contact with the ball and looking up to watch the tiny neon yellow dot fly out onto the vibrantly green driving range.

Hopefully, I’ll keep improving with more practice and will play a hole or two before I depart the course on Tuesday.

To all you inexperienced golfers out there, don’t let fear or intimidation keep you from learning the game like it did me! As we said in our last column, "Golf is easy on the joints while still keeping the body in shape, and is a sport that can be played by anyone who can hold a golf club, no matter if your age is single, double, or triple digits." It is a sport you can play for a lifetime.

Overall, working at The Oaks Course has been a great experience. As the administrative assistant and marketing intern for the course, I’ve learned a lot about marketing strategies, using social networking for marketing purposes, and thinking in creative ways to give our marketing some extra oomph. This job has allowed me to utilize the writing skills I have acquired throughout my education, interact with contacts, co-workers, and customers, and learn a little about playing golf, as I spoke of earlier. If you are a high school student interested in getting good job experience before you go to college, I highly encourage you to visit The Oaks Course website at www.golfoaks.com and fill out a job application.