The hardest working man in Australia, our National Operations Manager Paul Jamison, deserved a nice relaxing family overseas holiday. And what is more relaxing than going to work at the US Open for 4 days at the Los Angles Country Club. This is his story from 4 brilliant days at the US Open...
MY TIME AT THE US OPEN
Los Angeles Country Club 2023
The hardest working man in Australia, our National Operations Manager Paul Jamison, deserved a nice relaxing family overseas holiday. And what is more relaxing than going to work at the US Open for 4 days at the Los Angles Country Club. This is his story from 4 brilliant days at the US Open...
Back in 2010, I was lucky enough to attend the US Open at Pebble Beach as a guest of Callaway South Pacific. Whilst out on the course, I stumbled upon an old friend marshalling on a tee box. I quizzed him on how he came to be there, and he simply said he’d applied to the USGA to be a volunteer, and there he was! At the time, I thought that would be a cool thing to do and parked it in the back of my mind.
In need of a family holiday after COVID, and with the US Open being played in Los Angeles, I thought about my 2010 experience and started a Google search. I quickly found the volunteer page on the US Open website and applied online, not expecting any success. Within a few days, my application was successful. I did need to pay US $300 for the uniform as part of the process, but when I collected this in LA, I found out it equated to around US $600 in value. So, a good deal!
The information provided to me before my first shift was first class, so I was well informed before arriving. I was allocated to the merchandising tent for the four days of the tournament. Other volunteers had been there since the previous Saturday, including course marshals, scoring walkers, hospitality, entry staff, etc. I was pretty comfortable in merchandising. The LA Country Club is quite hilly and the weather warm, so working outdoors could have been strenuous.
On Thursday & Friday, I was allocated to the check out – 2 people per station (45 stations); one working the EPOS, the other folding and bagging. It was good fun meeting different people spending incredible amounts of money. On Saturday, I was allocated to the bag check; where patrons could leave their purchases and return for later collection. Sunday, I was on the main door greeting patrons between 4 pm - 8 pm.
Of course, my volunteer package included full access to the course for the whole week – so, anytime I wasn’t rostered on (only 4 hours per day), I could watch as much golf as I wanted. LACC isn’t an easy course to watch golf. It has a few far-reaching holes that you can’t get to. The positive, though, was there weren’t many spectators compared to any other golf tournament I’ve attended in Australia or the US. You could easily get a chair in a grandstand or up close alongside the ropes.
Would I do it again? Yes. Maybe Pebble Beach in 2027. If you are a golf fan, this is an awesome way to see one of the grand slam events. Check out the USGA website for information.
