Superintendents Blend Science with Art

Superintendents Blend Science With “Art” for Outstanding Playing Fields

By Pete Kowalski

The scope of the job of any golf course superintendent is enormous. The hard-working scientists who occupy these positions are almost always on the job and much of their work is done without anyone watching. 

They strike a balance between applying science and using their “local knowledge” to produce the best possible playing conditions given the vagaries of weather and location. 

The more than 2,000 entrants in the slate of 24 Pennsylvania Golf Association championships are some of the most discerning of the superintendent’s clientele. The good news is that the job is in good hands. 

“The superintendents and their teams are the most vital piece of our competitions,” said Association Executive Director Jason Barkley. “Their skills, planning and preparation of the courses are the first building block for a successful championship. We salute them for their great work. We could not do it without them.” 

All of the superintendents and their crews at Pennsylvania Golf Association championship sites can share the multitude of details that must be managed when a course hosts a competition, each within the framework of their own unique course environment. 

Here’s a small sampler of the thoughts and planning of this talented group of professionals. 

The 23rd R. Jay Sigel Match Play will be played July 6-8 at The Country Club of Scranton in Clark Summit, which hosted the competition previously in 2017.

 Superintendent Aaron Giordano, who began his tenure in 2018, is juggling the Sigel preparations around a bustling club schedule that usually begins in May. The Old Course, designed by Walter Travis and opened in 1927, will be used for Sigel. The club also includes a New Nine designed by Dr. Michael Hurdzan in 1988.

“We really don’t start growing grass consistently until June, especially on the greens,” said Giordano. He emphasizes that the 100-year-old poa/bent greens are not evened out for speed and condition until “everything emerges from dormancy” in the Poconos. 

“I’m all for the golfer when it comes to providing as many opportunities as possible to enjoy the course but, we also need adequate time from a conditioning and presentation standpoint,” he said. 

The club competition calendar is compacted because of the shorter season and most of the special events are three days as opposed to the two days at clubs further south in the Commonwealth and beyond. 

“We are packed,” Giordano said. “We have a husband-wife event right before the Sigel. Producing championship conditions must be extremely calculated. We don’t have the luxury of having a tournament and then having weeks to recover surfaces that were pushed too far.” 

Giordano emphasized that the sloping “peculiar” greens at CC of Scranton are the best defense to scoring, particularly given the match-play format of the Sigel. He added that one event before the Sigel is the member-member, which accentuates the greens. 

“We give the members a really challenging test of golf,” Giordano. “We push it and have some fun. They enjoy the turmoil.”

 Giordano, an Air Force veteran, also plans for Mother Nature, saying: “It’s impossible to forecast recovery times. There are not too many buttons we have to press coming up to tournaments if Mother Nature is somewhat cooperative.” 

The day-to-day conditions at CC of Scranton are already demanding but he and his staff strive, with what he calls “property awareness,” for a fair test. 

“I never want the golf course to appear to play easy but if it’s a fair test of golf and it was really hard, good,” he said.

Michael McCormick is the superintendent of record for the 113th Amateur at Oakmont C.C. on July 27-29. The club has hosted the Pennsylvania Amateur 13 previous times between its first in 1912 to its most recent in 2014. 

“Our goal, no different than any other day, is when those players come out to play in it, we want it to be the best conditioned golf course they’ve ever set foot on,” said McCormick, who began his duties at Oakmont in 2010, working seven years before leaving for six years before returning three years ago.

Famous for its fast-as-ice greens, Oakmont’s daily course set-up is evergreen. 

“We try to present the golf course in championship form every single day of the golf season for the Oakmont membership and their guests,” McCormick said. “What you see from a fine turf playing surface on the greens, fairways and tees whether it’s a Monday at Oakmont, the U.S. Open or the Pennsylvania Amateur, those really don’t change.”

 On the heels of last year’s U.S. Open, which featured 5-1/2 inch rough, McCormick will have discussions with the Association about rough heights that top the usual 2-1/4 inches that are presented on a daily basis. 

“It’s part art and it’s part science and at Oakmont the art comes into it a little more,” McCormick said about the 123-year-old course with native soils and push up greens that have never been completely rebuilt. “Every green is within a different environment, and each green is treated differently.” 

He added that “hand watering a putting green is more art than science.” 

The July time frame for the Amateur also presents some seasonal precautions. 

“We might have to play defense for turf health in the dog days of the summer,” he said. 

McCormick and his peers in the industry rely on data from a wide variety of measuring and testing. 

“We try to never just shoot from the hip,” he said. “Everything we do is based off science.” 

McCormick is fortunate to have a large staff of 45 during the golf season, which extends from May through September and of that number 25-35 already have degrees in turf management or are working on them. Fifteen interns complete the group. 

He is proud of “seeing guys, young professionals come into our program, learn, develop, and move onto their own success. Nothing is more exciting.” 

McCormick cited the shift in how members view greens speeds at Oakmont, which now reach 15 on the Stimpmeter.

 “To be Oakmont you have to constantly be pushing the envelope and evolving when it comes to golf course maintenance,” he said. “Oakmont takes a lot of pride in our USGA events, but we also take a lot of pride in these events too.”

For the 110th Open at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier on August 10-12, superintendent Brett Bentley faces a planning pattern similar to his previously quoted peers. 

“It’s an enhancement for a tournament with great players,” Bentley said of LVGC’s preparation for its third Pennsylvania Open, which it previously hosted in 1967 and 1988. “We just raise the bar a little bit. We have high standards every day at Laurel Valley for our members and guests. We try to enhance it for tournament play.”

 Bentley stressed water management for a tournament in August when hot weather and afternoon boomers are in the equation.

“We’ll just detail things out,” he said. “August is a tough time to grow grass in Western Pennsylvania. We just want to make sure we are on our ‘A’ game and prepared and hopefully the weather cooperates.” 

He too relies on data for prep specifics but also mixes in his eight years at Laurel Valley for institutional knowledge.

 “It’s a balancing act,” Bentley said. You have to use data and feel to make good decisions.”

 The Pennsylvania Golf Association’s biggest championship usually draws a field studded with very-skilled players who will see driveable par-4s and green speeds of from 13-13.5 on the Dick Wilson 1959 design that has hosted the 1965 PGA, the 1975 Ryder Cup, the 1989 U.S. Senior Open, and the 2005 Senior PGA. 

“Once they walk off the course, I’d like them to say it was a tournament golf course that was firm fast but fair and it challenged everyone equally,” Bentley said. 

Here’s the list of the superintendents at the sites of Pennsylvania Golf Association championship courses:

George Dressler Memorial/Scott Gingrich/Outdoor C.C.

Senior Open/Ken Flisek/Club at Nevillewood

Four-Ball (men and women/Troy Pelesky/Moselem Springs G.C.

Boys’ Junior and Team/Matt Malick/Hershey C.C.

Girls’ Junior and Team/Dan Ebersole/Lebanon C.C.

Jay Sigel Match Play/Aaron Giordano/C.C. of Scranton

Parent-Child and Father-Son/Matt Bohinc/Westmoreland C.C.

Women’s Amateur, Mid-Amateur, Senior and Super Senior/Matthew Rogers/Gulph Mills G.C.

Amateur/Michael McCormick/Oakmont C.C.

Senior Amateur/Justin Miller/Berkshire C.C.

Open/Brett Bentley/Laurel Valley G.C.

Senior Four-Ball (men and women/Tyler Butts/Toftrees G.C.

Art Wall Jr. Memorial/Tim Wilk/Scotch Valley C.C.

Middle Amateur/Alan Fitzgerald/LedgeRock G.C.

Senior Amateur Match Play (men and women/Corey Barnes/Chambersburg, C.C.

Be sure to relay your compliments for a job well-done.

###

Pete Kowalski worked more than two decades as a department director in communications at the USGA and confides that his friendships in the game are more numerous that his greens-in-regulation.