Susan Knowles climbs out of bed each morning of Greater Hickory Classic week eager to get down to the driving range at Rock Barn Golf and Spa to see familiar faces and old friends.

The Conover resident has been volunteering there since the tournament started in 2003 and has gotten to know many of the players and caddies well.

“It’s like a family reunion,” she said. “You just don’t have the potato salad and cherry cobbler.”

When she saw golf pro R.W. Eaks, she said, “There’s our champion,” and later went up to him and gave him a big hug.  Minutes later, she was laughing with Jim Colbert’s caddie, Bruce Severson, about how he got his nickname, “Cut ‘Em Loose.”

Knowles said she first got involved because she wanted to give something back to the community. And the GHC is one that hits close to home, literally, since she lives in the Rock Barn development.

She was asked if she’d be in charge of the driving range, She jumped at the opportunity.

“I like being where you get up close and get to know the golfers on a more personal level,” Knowles said.

Six years later, she’s still at the same post, overseeing the driving range with Sandy Harden of Claremont.  They start setting up the driving range beginning at 7 a.m. The volunteers also drive the cart that picks up all the golf balls from the range, wash the grass off them and short them into colored bags based on the different golf ball brands, Callaway and Titleist.

She even got her husband, Rick, to help out even though he’s not a volunteer. Knowles said he’ll get up before her and take the golf balls out to the driving range.

Knowles said she has to keep the golf balls at her home at night because they are worth so much.  A set of 12 Titleist ProV1x golf balls costs about $50.

Even though her role is overseeing the driving range and the 25-30 volunteers assigned to the post, some days her job title stretches to deal with a variety of situations.

She said one year, a golfer had so much pain in his shoulder that she had to call Catawba Valley Medical Center to send a nurse to the golf course to inject him with a shot of coritzone.  Knowles said only then was he able to finish the round.  Another time, she had to arrange for a dentist to see a player about an abscessed tooth that was distracting him from his game.

“I’ve learned to expect the unexpected,” she said. “You never know when it’s going to rain or when someone is going to need something medical.”

Knowles also helps arrange housing for the caddies, who travel from all over the world with their respective golf pro. Many of the caddies have become good friends and room together at hotels to minimize the costs.

“It’s like a band of brothers,” she said of the caddies.

Some years, she and her husband have hosted a caddie in their home, including Mark Huber, who caddied for Doug Tewell.

Meanwhile, Knowles has also become good friends with Joe Ozaki’s caddie, a Japanese woman named Mickey.  She said after the two first met, she gave Mickey some American products, like Bath and Body Works lotions. The next year, Mickey brought her gifts from Japan and Knowles gave her some North Carolina pottery.  The two even started e-mailing as Mickey’s English improves.

“There are so many aspects I love,” she said. “I love it when I come in the morning and there is a fog over the ground and no one is out here. It’s peaceful.”

She said one of her favorite memories is when it was pouring down rain and most of the golfers had left.  Knowles said she was helping pack up everything on the driving range when out wandered Gary Player, ready to practice.

“I said to him, ‘Why are you out here in the rain? Everyone else has gone home.’ And he said, ‘Well, you can always get better.”

When she’s not at the course, Knowles works at CVMC in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit as a registered nurse.  She manages to squeeze both volunteering and work into the same day, even though the GHC tournament can keep her busy until 6 or 7 p.m.

“It’s being organized before and after,” she said.

Unlike others who try many different types of volunteer positions, Knowles said she’s happy at the driving range.

She said it’s the family atmosphere that keeps her coming back.