The Annual Golf Tournament

It's August and at my winery that means two things: Harvest preparation and Golf.  

Every year in August the entire company goes golfing.  All the employees are split into teams of 4 and we all play 9 holes at the local golf course in Yountville.  We used a lot of golf carts.

Due to lack of additional golf carts, these guys brought their own.

It's a really great opportunity for the production crew to mingle with the office staff and the marketing and sales folks and guest relations and the maintenance guys and the vineyard workers and the IT guys and the seasonal interns.  People that don't typically interact on a daily basis get to work together on a team to win prizes.

Here I am with the lovely Kelsey having a beer before our 1:30pm tee time.  She works in guest relations and we usually only interact during lunch.

Bets on whether he works in the vineyard or in an office?

I also love how the game brings out the style.  Reggie has style for days.

My intern also has some stylish (if not entirely traditional) golf attire.

After lunch we practice and warm up for the tournament. 

Lunch - check.  Warm up - check.  Beer - ? 

Before we get in our golf carts and compete, we must make sure we have plenty of beer for the ride.

Beer - check.

The beer is because the last time that 97% of us played golf, was at last year's tournament.  We are not a golfing crew, which makes the game much more enjoyable.  And why 9 holes takes us almost 4 hours.

True story, they hired a masseuse to give us a little rub down half way thorough the game.  Being terrible at golf is really tiring.  I could have used her after every shot.

Vineyards and golf courses take up some seriously gorgeous real estate.

The winning team wins gift certificates and the losing team wins golf lessons.  I have won golf lessons before, which I guess worked because I did not win them again this year.  

Soon we will stop going on field trips and playing golf and start making wine again.

-L