Posted on 09/17/2008 9:15:38 PM PDT by mdittmar
Led by longtime course superintendent Mark Wilson, the grounds crew at Valhalla Golf Club worked around the clock Sunday and Monday to make sure the wind-ravaged course was in pristine condition for the 37th Ryder Cup, which begins Friday. "We can't say we were lucky, because there was a lot to deal with, but we were fortunate in the sense that we could react to it," Wilson said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A full moon and a restless golf course superintendent made it possible for practice rounds for the 37th Ryder Cup to commence on schedule Tuesday morning at Valhalla Golf Club.
The remnants of Hurricane Ike raked Valhalla with straight winds of up to 75 mph Sunday afternoon, leaving it strewn with branches and debris, pummeling hospitality tents and other temporary structures, and knocking over a television tower onto the 12th green. All in all, however, the damage was minimal and manageable.
"It really could have been a lot worse," said Mark Wilson, who has been the course superintendent at Valhalla for 20 years and who has seen worse, having had to contend with the flooding of Floyd's Fork onto portions of the course during a rain-soaked 2004 Senior PGA Championship.
"We can't say we were lucky, because there was a lot to deal with, but we were fortunate in the sense that we could react to it," Wilson added. "We actually had a pretty good day of getting things done. There was no rain, no flooding, so we could address the problems right away."
Wilson was out on the course before "right away." Unable to fall back asleep after awaking at 2 a.m. EDT Monday, Wilson, whose house still was without power as of Monday night (among more than 200,000 Louisville-area residents and businesses encountering prolonged power outages), decided to get to work at the course at 3:30. A staff of 35 hired assistants and 75 volunteers, including club employees from the kitchen and pro shop, dug in under a full moon to the task of pick up sticks and other debris throughout the course. Wilson also called in crews from four tree cutting services and two landscape companies.
Six trees were lost, including one near the fairway at the par-4 15th that was considered a key sightline off the tee. About two dozen more required trimming of numerous limbs that were damaged but had not yet fallen.
The most destruction was done to the 12th green when a TV tower toppled onto it, gouging out sections of the front and back right portions. Fortunately, Wilson said, the areas that had to be filled and sodded were not in cupping areas to be used during the three-day competition that begins Friday.
"We have recovered just fine. We had our A-Team in place," tournament director Tara Guenthner told reporters on Monday.
Interestingly, because Hurricane Ike blew through without any accompanying rain, the course itself was close to tournament-like conditions on Tuesday. "You get 75 mph winds and no rain and you will have a firm golf course," Wilson said with a chuckle.
It was so firm, in fact, that Wilson intended to water the tees and greens a bit more than he might have been inclined to today and Wednesday. The course wasn't watered much at all last week, he said. Wilson also sent mowers out to top off the dense mix of bermudagrass and Kentucky bluegrass rough and the areas around the greens at 3½ inches, more for aesthetics than playability -- to further clean up the course, basically.
"It was a reactionary cutting, to clean things up," Wilson said. "Nothing cleans it up better than a cut."
The upshot of that extra maintenance is that the periphery won't be as penal come Friday. The fairways on the Jack Nicklaus-designed layout, which weighs in at par 71 and 7,496 yards, have been given a wide berth starting at 300 yards to allow the longer hitters to take a rip from the tee.
"I think you have a course that set up for scoring," said assistant captain Ray Floyd. "It came through (the storm) quite well, I think, and with the wide fairways and such, you can have a mentality that's different from medal play. You can go out and try to make some birdies, and I think we'll see that."
Wilson agrees, and he is both happy and relieved, especially after the course was closed for nine days prior to Labor Day to get it in the kind of tip-top shape that the U.S. and European teams expect.
"With the weather forecast (mostly sunny and warm), I think the course is going to be in great shape when the matches start," he said. "It's going to be pretty firm and fast, and I think the players are going to like it."
Hope he has power where he is staying. There are still about 150,000 without power. We never lost power where we are, but have been feeding friends all week. Traffic is terrible because of the outages. There were supposed to be national guardsmen directing traffic but I have yet to see one. One was seen at a small intersection but there was none at the intersection where a six lane crossed a four lane. It is where the hospitals and medical centers are, and it was a mess.
Yep,A-TEAM,the grounds crew,the people that do the hard work that makes a golf course look nice.
I love it when a plan comes together.
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