Confucius is credited with the old adage “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Reid Woods may not be able to make that principle work through his whole life, but the Heritage senior has accomplished it during high school days and now has taken the first step to extend that attitude throughout his college career.
In front of family and friends Thursday evening in the Heritage gym, the Mountaineer golfer signed a National Letter of Intent to continue splitting time in the classroom and on the links when he arrives at Maryville College next fall. Woods has combined the sport with work as well as studies the past two years by holding employment at Lambert Acres Golf Club, which is also the home course for Heritage.
Unlike many golfers who start young and play year-round, Woods played minimally until he took a part-time job at Lambert Acres two years ago.
“That’s where I spend most of my time now,” Woods told The Daily Times. “It’s a great place to work, because I get to play free golf and get free range balls. I work three days a week and after that I’m free to practice, play and do whatever I need to do to improve. It’s definitely helped my career.”
Woods said he enjoys every aspect of the work, from helping out the grounds crew to public relations dealing with members and other players.
“To me, it doesn’t really feel like work,” Woods said. “It feels like just going and hanging out at the golf course. The biggest part of the job is just talking to people, trying to make a lot of people happy. You might have 200 people playing on one day, so you have to organize things in a certain way and do things right to try to satisfy all your customers.”
The son of Robert and Trudy Woods didn’t really consider continuing his golfing into college until the extra time at Lambert Acres helped him improve his overall game.
Woods said he felt very comfortable selecting Maryville College due to its proximity to both his home and his job, and the chance to continue competitive golf while receiving a top-level education.
Woods’ words when discussing a future major would warm the hearts of those who value the Maryville College emphasis on a broad liberal arts education.
“There’s a lot of stuff to choose from and I don’t want to say one thing and then exclude others,” Woods said. “I’d rather have an open mind about it and consider all my options.”
The well-spoken 18-year old listed three possible fields of study, all of which will continue to entail making customers happy.
“Probably, it’ll be business, education or accounting,” Woods said.
A highlight of his golf career at Heritage was winning the 2019 Blount County Match Play Tournament as a junior, when the annual event was held at Lambert Acres.
Woods consistently finished around par for the Mountaineers this past fall, with his highlight being a one-under-par round on his home course.
Heritage coach Scott Williams feels that the best golf for Woods is definitely in the future.
“(Woods) has really improved all three years of school,” Williams said. “He had a stroke average of 38 over nine holes this year, and he’s progressively gotten better each year. He hasn’t played a lot of summer golf, so I think the more he plays in college, the better he’s going to get.”