How Jim Free Gives Back To Dick’s Sporting Goods Open Volunteers

It's Dick's Sporting Goods Open week. The PGA's Champions Players will be battling it out at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott.

Some of the biggest names to ever play on the PGA Tour will be right here in our backyard. Hundreds of people spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on En-Joie for this week's tournament. I spent the weekend getting my house ready for the week as well.

Chris and I bought our house 18 years ago. One of the reasons we bought that house was it's close proximity to En-Joie. We both volunteered at the then B.C. Open and we thought it would be awesome to have a house within walking distance of the course. We thought we could have our friends that also volunteer at the event park there and we could have a cookout each night after play was done. And we've been doing that ever since.

All day Saturday I was power washing my house, the back deck, and the patio. Yesterday I mowed the grass, did the edging, weed-whacked, used the blower to do the driveway and the sidewalks, and then started lining the backyard for the cars. There are 15 spots total in our backyard. And usually on the night of the concert, we have even more back there.

Some people in my neighborhood charge people to park, we do not. These are the people that volunteer with us or coworkers who are going to check out the Open.

The next two days will be getting the food and drink, and cleaning the inside of the house before we start our volunteer shifts on Wednesday.