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Charlie Hanger is the digital content manager for The Bridge Golf Foundation and The Bridge Golf Learning Center. He recently fielded some questions from Executive Director and Co-Founder Farrell Evans.

FE: We worked together at the Sports Illustrated Golf Group, where you were the editor of Golf.com for more than six years. How does that experience influence your work here at the Foundation and Learning Center as the digital content manager?

CH: When I was at Golf.com, I managed all aspects of what we did there, from editing stories and updating the site to social media, monitoring traffic, and making sure we were fulfilling requirements for ad deals. Golf.com covered all aspects of the game, from Tour news to instruction, equipment, and courses.

That was certainly good training for this job. I spend a ton of time on social media, write blog posts about what our guys are up, take photos, assign and edit posts from other staffers, edit and produce our monthly newsletter, promote Learning Center programs, maintain the website, and more. It’s a multi-faceted job.

In the end, though, I see my main job here as telling our story across many digital platforms: what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.

FE: What was a typical day like as the Golf.com editor during a major championship?

CH: Working as an editor in sports journalism is not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. At Golf.com, and before that at The New York Times, I worked a lot of crazy hours when big events were going on. This usually involved long stretches in front of the computer and lots of take-out food.

In a way, major golf tournaments can be the toughest events to cover. If you’re working on a baseball or football game, most of the work happens when the game is over. At a golf tournament, especially on Thursdays and Fridays, people want to know what’s happening all day, from the first shot to the last, so you’re busy dawn to dusk.

My typical day depended on the event, and where I was. My first few years on the job, I went to most of the majors and worked from the press center. Eventually I realized that I was more efficient working from our office in New York. I would get in early in the morning, and for the British sometimes in the middle of the night, and work until late at night. While play was happening, my focus was on live updates to the site and social media. When play was over, my focus was on having all the content in place — stories, photos, videos, etc. — and then planning the next day’s coverage.

One good story about late hours. My first Masters, in 2007, I was the last one to leave the press center. When I got to the exit, it was locked, and all the guards had gone home. I ended up having to walk down Magnolia Lane and climb the fence. Surely I’m the only person who ever scaled the gate to get out of Augusta National.

FE: What are your earliest memories of golf growing up In Kansas City, Missouri?

CH: My parents both played, and I grew up across the street from the 18th fairway at Blue Hills Country Club, where we belonged, so my summer days pretty much revolved around that place. I started in the junior golf program when I was 6, and really got into it when I was about 8. So many memories. Where to start?

I remember getting my first set of clubs. It was a Wilson junior set, with the classic white-and-red bag with the black logo on the side. I think it came with a 5, 7, 9, wedge, driver and 3-wood. I had the visor, the knee-high socks — I was looking good out there.

One special thing about playing at that course was that Kansas City native Tom Watson hosted an annual charity event there to benefit Children’s Mercy Hospital. This was in the 80s, and he would get three other pros to join him every year. All the big names came through — Nicklaus, Trevino, Strange, Norman, Palmer, Chi-Chi. The youngest junior golfers were on the trash pick-up crew, and you gradually moved on to more responsible jobs. I was the standard-bearer a few years, carrying the placard with their scores, and I couldn’t wait for my turn to caddie.

The four juniors who scored lowest in an annual 18-hole tournament got to carry the pros’ bags. I choked every year but one, when I came in fourth and caddied for Watson. The other guys that year were Nicklaus, Trevino and Curtis Strange. Carrying those tour bags as a skinny teenager in the KC summer heat was no small task!

My clearest memory of that day was being nervous about yardages and all the things a real caddie is supposed to know. It was an exhibition, obviously, but I wanted to do well. On the par-5 first hole, Watson had a third-shot approach into the green, and he stuck it a few feet from the hole after I gave him the distance. He looked at me and said, “Nice yardage.” That’s still one of my top-five golf moments.

FE: You worked on a course maintenance crew during the summers when you were in college. What was your main job and were you good at it?

CH: We did a little bit of everything. It was a pretty swell club, Hallbrook in Leawood, Kansas, and it got lots of loving attention. My first couple summers, every day started with two crews going out to hand-rake every one of the approximately one million bunkers on the course. We started at 6am, six days a week.

After I’d been there for a while, I graduated to mowing greens in the morning. That was the toughest job because the course had huge, undulating greens, and it was really hard to keep your lines straight. I got to be pretty good at it by the end of my time there, but I was never one of the best.

Another unique job at this course was to “flymo bunker faces.” The course had huge bunkers with steep, zoysia-grass faces — some were 15 feet deep. The only way to mow them was with a Flymo, basically a hovering string-trimmer-mower contraption. We’d stand at the top of the bunker faces, lower them down and swing them around, using ropes for the really big ones. There was a real art to it, and eventually I was pretty expert at that.

I also got to drive the big mower rigs and even a front-loading John Deere tractor every once in awhile. It was a great experience for me, as a country club brat, to see how much work goes into maintaining a course.

It was also interesting to see all the science that went into the course. The guys in charge had turfgrass management degrees from Michigan State and Kansas State. Carl Spackler they were not.

FE: For over a year now you’ve been documenting the experiences of our young men in the program. What have you learned about working around these teenage boys that’s helped your perspective on raising your own two sons?

CH: My oldest son is 10, and my youngest will be 8 in June, so being around teenagers feels a little like a glimpse into the future. I’ve also been inspired by the hands-on learning and STEM focus of the program. My boys and I are always trying to figure out how things work, and I find myself pointing to all the science and engineering jobs that are behind many of the things we experience every day — video games, sports broadcasts, etc. That’s no small change for an English and journalism major like me.

FE: What’s your dream foursome, and on what course?

CH: I have to get a little mystical on this one, and it would be a threesome. My dad, who died at 87 in 2009, and my dad’s dad, who died in his 40s almost 30 years before I was born. My dad got into the game by caddying for his father, a decorated World War I vet who liked to gamble on the course and used to embarrass my dad because he was the only guy who still wore plus-fours.

In the real world, my dream foursome would involve three close friends at the crack of dawn somewhere in Scotland. Playing with some famous pro would just make me feel bad about my game!

FE: What happens first: Notre Dame, your alma mater, winning a football national championship, or Tiger Woods claiming his 80th PGA Tour win?

CH: Is there a third choice? Both are highly unlikely, but I guess I’d have to say a national championship for the Irish. If the Royals can win the World Series, anything’s possible, and I think Tiger’s body is just too worn out for him to compete on Tour anymore.