I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work as a locker room attendant at the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath earlier this month.

It was an incredible experience to get to be based with the players in their clubhouse throughout a big competition.

I got to witness the highs and the lows of golf by seeing them coming back off the course after their rounds, but the best thing was to see the players away from the cameras, coaches, and their families. To see them relax in the locker rooms without being disturbed, to mess around with fellow players and to see how to prep for an event was amazing.

As a spectator, you don’t get to see the ‘behind the scenes’ of players putting their head covers on their hands and pretending to be a boxer or to see them belting out a song after they’ve been to the gym but I got to witness the more casual side of things in my role.

Day One

Saturday 5 August was our first day onsite. We arrived in the morning to pick up our uniforms, meet the rest of the team, and have a look at the clubhouse.

Upon arrival, we were shown the clubhouse which was still a construction site at this point and with less than 24 hours before the players would start to arrive. It looked like it was not going to be ready in time!

We spent our time this day sorting out the lockers ready for the players. Since these were the same lockers that were used at the Men’s Open at Royal Liverpool there were still some documents from that event in the lockers!

Day Two

Sunday 6 August

This was our first official day as locker room attendants. I arrived late afternoon to find the construction workers had worked until 4 am to get the clubhouse ready for the players to start arriving. The difference between yesterday and today was astounding.

By the time I started my shift some of the players had started arriving onsite and were using the practice facilities or playing a few holes on the course.

My first task of the day was to locate a delivery for one of the players. The delivery was transported from one side of the course to the clubhouse where I was tasked with hand delivering the player their new putter. This player turned out to be 2021 Women’s Open Champion, Anna Nordqvist.

The rest of the day was spent showing players to their lockers, distributing items from their sponsors (shoes, gloves, and golf balls), keeping the food and drink in the locker room fridges stocked up and answering any questions the players had.

Day Three

Monday 7 August

On Monday we had a large influx of players arriving who had already qualified for the Open. We spent the day again showing the players to their lockers, helping them with any locker issues, and general questions.

By the end of today, we had around 120 of the 144 players on site ready for the competition to start, but we were still waiting on the final few to qualify at a local course.

The more players that arrived the more the atmosphere built ahead of the rest of the week. Being in the locker room I got to see the different emotions of the players arriving, some were relaxed as they had expected to be there, some were excited to have qualified, and others were just grateful to be there!

Practise rounds had begun today and due to the bad weather, some players were asking us to clean their golf shoes ready for the next day.

We had some personalised gifts arrive for each of the players on this day and we were tasked with distributing them to each player.

Day Four

Tuesday 8 August

The late qualifiers all began to arrive today, bar a couple of people. It was so much fun to watch the excitement of the late qualifiers arriving to find their gifts, their personalised lockers, and the general excitement of having made it through to the Open.

We had a mother of one of the players come in and take a picture of her daughter’s personalised locker which was so sweet to see as they were both elated to be here.

We also had the final few gifts arrive today so we distributed them to the remaining players.

Wednesday 9 August – Downs At Dusk

Wednesday was the only day I didn’t work at the Open as I was back at Goodwood for the Members Event, Downs At Dusk.

Day Five

Thursday 10 August

Today was the first day of the competition, the spectators had arrived and there was a different atmosphere around the clubhouse.

The players were more focused and spent a lot of time out of the locker room practising on the putting green and driving ranges ahead of their tee times.

By this point in the week, we had built friendships with some of the players whom we had spent almost every day for the past 5/6 days seeing them. Some players were naturally more friendly, but a lot of them were just focused on the competition ahead.

Day Six

Friday 11 August

Today was the final chance for the players to make it through to the weekend. Since I was on an afternoon shift, I saw a lot of the players coming off the course with different emotions. We saw people that were happy they had made it through, it was so nice to have witnessed these moments of excitement. But we also saw the players who didn’t make the cut, the ones who would come into the locker room in tears, pack up their lockers and leave the event.

It was very sad to see the players that were upset about not making it through the cut, especially the ones that had been so friendly throughout the week. However, one thing that did come out of this day was the players who hadn’t made the cut putting together a box of items to donate to golf development.

Over the coming days, this box would triple in size with around 15 pairs of shoes, 15 dozen boxes of golf balls, a golf bag and a club all being left to donate. I learnt from one of the players that this donation box is a common thing at the ladies’ events which was such an amazing idea and great to see the players adding to it.

Day Seven

Saturday 12 August

After the cut the day before we had gone down from about 144 players to around 70 players so the locker room was a lot quieter.

We got to have a wander around the event today, go watch some golf and have a look around the festival village area. I managed to get a picture with the trophy which was on display for the spectators to see.

By the end of the day, there was a real buzz in the air ahead of an English player currently sitting near the top of the leaderboard.

Day Eight

Sunday 13 August

Today was the final day that I would be onsite. The week had flown by and it was very sad to come in to the clubhouse for the last time.

I arrived early today so I could watch some of the players tee off. I sat in the grandstand at the 1^st and watched Jenny Shin and Olivia Cowan tee off and then A Lim Kim and Stephanie Meadow tee off.

The excitement had built as we had an English player looking likely to do well today. After a few hours back in the locker room I was lucky enough to go and watch Charley Hull and Lilia Vu tee off the 1^st.

Of course, this was the biggest game of the day so there was lots of support following this group around the course as well as some police officers walking with the players.

It was great to see such a good amount of support for the ladies over the event.

Time seemed to fly on the last day and suddenly we were watching them play the 18^th hole on the TV in the locker room. Lilia Vu was pretty much guaranteed to win as she had quite a lead over Charley.

Now that the competition was over it was time to start breaking down the locker room. We had to empty out all the lockers of the players that had gone already and anything that was left was put into the donations box.

By the time that Lilia Vu came back into the locker room we had emptied all lockers except hers and before she left, we managed to get a picture with her and say “well done”.

Overall, the experience was amazing and I look forward to working at a high-profile golf event, such as the AIG Women’s Open again in the future. I have taken a lot of knowledge away from the Open which I hopefully will be able to use in my role here at Goodwood.