Tomorrow, senior Eleni Buss will appear on a golf reality show called Member Skills Challenge (MSC). The show will run tomorrow at 9:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Chicago and can be streamed on Hulu.
Over the summer, Buss was given the opportunity to be a part of MSC.
“My dad sent me an email last year with this unique opportunity,” she said. “This TV program was coming to country clubs in the Chicago land area and they had chosen our country club, The Club at Strawberry Creek, to have this competition show at.”
The show pits four different teams from different country clubs against each other to compete in a series of challenges.
“There was a team of three guys and one girl each, and we went through a series of challenges and each challenge was worth a certain amount of points, and whoever got the most points at the end won,” Buss said.
Buss was able to experience something new and fun being on a reality show.
“It was really neat to be on the set of a TV show,” Buss said with a grin. “It kinda felt like I was living my lifelong dream. It was really cool being set up in an interview chair and being surrounded by the cameras with all these people talking and drones flying around and all these big things.”
With the reality show being about golf, Buss used it to improve her game. She believes it will have a positive impact on the season.
“I think it helped me get really good at my 50-yard shots because in 21 rounds of overtime [on a challenge] I probably was 2 yards over the target each time,” Buss said, “but if it didn’t hit, it didn’t count. But the repetition made me really good at that one.”
Being a college golfer gave Buss an advantage over her competition once she discovered they were high school athletes. “Mentally I think that something like this was a little much for them but I was able to kinda just set that aside and have fun,” said Buss. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience. I didn’t really care if I won or not. It was just really cool to be there.”
The range of skills varied, with some competitor’s experience being simply playing golf for fun. Buss was the only collegiate golfer, yet called the community “fun in an unique experience.”
Buss admitted excitement to see the final product put together and looks forward to the premiere. “It’s going to be cool to see how they portrayed us and everything,” she said. “I think they might make my dad the villain… I think it was just a super fun experience whether they portray us to be super competitive or not great golfers.”
