“Sometimes, she makes me feel like I have a higher purpose than just growing grass."
/Lisa Mickey profiles golf course superintendent's best friends who perform a variety of tasks, from geese management to public relations work in the case of TPC Sawgrass's Bailey to Fieldstone Golf Club's Pink, supervised by Damon Di Giorgio.
But Pinki is ready to work when she and Di Giorgio arrive at the course each day about 6 a.m. She runs as many as three miles beside her owner’s cart.
Pinki runs after flocks of geese but carefully avoids the water. She also chases deer and foxes.
Once, while Pinki was chasing deer, Di Giorgio was called to solve a problem and forgot about his dog. He received a call that Pinki was on the eighth hole, so he drove his cart to find her.
“When I got there, there were four men taking turns holding her while they putted out,” he said. “She’s a real icebreaker when it comes to member relations.”
Pinki also visits people in hospice care and patients with Alzheimer’s disease in hospitals in Wilmington, Del.
“Sometimes, she makes me feel like I have a higher purpose than just growing grass,” Di Giorgio said.
