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Tom Lens started caddying at Exmoor when he was 10 years
old. He caddied at Exmoor through junior
high, through high school, through college.
After he graduated from Stockton College in Kansas City, Missouri with a
degree in education, he taught and coached wrestling for a few years while
working as Caddie Master at Exmoor during the summers off.
In 1996, Tom was invited to be Exmoor’s third Men’s Locker
Room Manager and Ice Tech at the curling house.
Tom says he immediately accepted, “and I’ve never looked back. First was Martin for 50-something years. Then
Nick, and now I’m the third.”
Tom’s team handles the locker room in the summer and the ice
in the winter. Almost every round of
golf at Exmoor goes through the locker room, about 17,000 in all, making summer
a very busy time.
According to Tom, his role as Ice Tech is even more
intense. Every year the process begins
the day after Labor Day. Four days of
power washing. Four days of cooling, Then the arduous 29-day process of
installing ice to championship level, involving numerous “floods” of pure,
ionized water and countless hours measuring, painting the ice, drawing lines,
setting hacks, drilling holes, and sealing it all in under more ice so it stays
perfect through curling season. You’ll
never look at a perfectly prepared curling ice sheet the same way again.
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