Tim Barger is the longest-tenured employee at a facility known for launching the modern tournament golf movement. On a damp, turned delightful morning 44 days before the 2019 PLAYERS Championship, the lore associated with longevity becomes apparent as Barger sits in a utility vehicle parked along the 17th hole and revisits TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course memories.

A Greensboro, N.C., native, the Navy brought Barger to north Florida in the 1970s. He later enrolled at Lake City Community College, a once robust supplier of turfgrass management talent to the booming Florida golf market. Details about the PGA Tour building a tournament-caliber course in a swamp in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach intrigued Barger and a few classmates. The Lake City contingent helped an eclectic team led by Pete Dye, Alice Dye, Dave Postlethwait, Alan MacCurrach Jr. and Vernon Kelly construct a golf course where only PGA Tour visionary Deane Beman and optimistic developers thought one should be built.

The crew averaged 68-hour weeks, working continuously through the spring, summer and fall of 1980. Walking the course shortly after it opened, Barger and a friend spotted the rarest of critters, a Florida panther, darting between the 16th green and the 17th tee. In his 39 years working at TPC Sawgrass, where he parlayed the construction opportunity into a golf course maintenance career, Barger has seen Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Gene Hackman, Larry Bird, Kenny Rogers, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, along with every elite pro golfer of the last 40 years, enjoying the same spot as the panther.

More startling than the celebrities, champions, crafters and critters are the changes within Barger’s own department. When the Stadium Course opened in 1980, the entire TPC Sawgrass crew could “fit around a picnic table,” he says. The Stadium Course has gone from being reviled to rejoiced and another layout, Dye’s Valley, was added seven years later. Barger now has more than 80 co-workers. Director of golf course operations Jeff Plotts and top assistant Lucas Andrews stage pre-tournament motivational staff meetings in a hospitality tent behind the 17th green, one of several massive structures surrounding the photogenic and perplexing hole. Close to 100 agronomy volunteers representing 17 countries converge in north Florida this month to assist one of the most scientific and data-driven operations in turf.

Crew members and PLAYERS Championship volunteers conduct tournament week meetings in a large tent behind a majestic agronomy center built as part of a $50 million renovation completed in 2017. The tent is adjacent to a research nursery akin to something found at a land-grant institution. Everything about TPC Sawgrass has become bigger than Barger, Beman or the sunniest of Florida’s land development optimists imagined.

‘Our Disneyland’

TPC Sawgrass boasts a sizable economy of its own within the $9 billion golf maintenance industry – and it’s positioned for continued growth. The scope and splendor of the operation enthralls anybody interested in high-level agronomy.

“I don’t know what it’s like behind the scenes at Disneyland,” says PGA Tour senior vice president of agronomy Paul Vermeulen, whose department oversees the maintenance of TPC Sawgrass. “I’m sure it’s impressive. We call this our Disneyland just because it’s so impressive and so far-reaching.”

Plotts and his team maintain a pair of golf courses next to the current – and future – PGA Tour headquarters. Beman still lives in the area and frequently plays the Stadium Course. Imagine former Disney CEO Michael Eisner dropping by Disneyland to ride Space Mountain.

The PGA Tour owns and operates TPC Sawgrass, and an 80-year-old who halted a successful playing career in 1974 to become an administrator still motivates, inspires and challenges the agronomy team; Beman’s presence and legacy overshadows all others at TPC Sawgrass.

“Even to this day, when he comes out and plays, his expectation is for it to be higher and bigger,” Plotts says. “Lucas and I are always asking: Is that gold standard? Is that PLAYERS standard? Is that worthy of TPC?”

Something as seemingly repetitious as dispersing seed receives constant scrutiny. Preparing for The PLAYERS Championship’s return to March required overseeding more than 200 Stadium Course acres for the first time since the 2006 PLAYERS Championship. Only three members of the crew had experienced an overseed at TPC Sawgrass. Only a few more had experienced an overseed anywhere.

A veteran of the process from his TPC Scottsdale days, Plotts understood the tactics and patience associated with overseeding. His vision involved being “really good” this cycle, becoming even better next cycle and developing an “exceptional” overseed in three to five years. The defined vision helped train a staff to execute individualized tasks such as pushing a drop spreader over a green to create straight lines without overlap.

“We are getting there through brute force this year and we’re looking forward to bringing some finesse to our execution next year,” Andrews says. “The one thing I did learn about overseed is that it does not allow you to have any weakness in your game. You have to prep it perfectly, then you have to apply it perfectly, then you have to water it in perfectly.”

Overseeding has sparked changes in mowing practices – and more training. To prepare fairways blended with ryegrass and fine fescue for tournament striping, managers started painting directional lines on surfaces in early winter. When Bermudagrass covered fairways, TPC Sawgrass had two feasible mowing options: a one-directional or 50-50 cut. Neither cut requires the same precision as striping. “Now everything we mow has a purpose,” Plotts says.

Equipment everywhere

There’s no shortage of equipment available to mow the Stadium Course and Dye’s Valley turf. Like Barger, equipment manager Mark Sanford has observed the enormous transformation over the last three decades. His TPC Sawgrass tenure started in 1983, and he recalls working long hours to extend the effectiveness of every mower. “I couldn’t talk to the superintendent about getting new equipment unless it was five years old,” he says.

Higher stakes requiring lower cuts resulted in an increase in equipment and support. The 1983 PLAYERS Championship featured a $700,000 purse, with winner Hal Sutton receiving $126,000. The totals for 2019 swelled to $12.5 million and beyond $2 million, respectively.

The tournament staff mowed greens at .125 inches in the 1980s. Greens are now mowed at lower heights for resort play, Sanford says.

Sanford oversees a six-person staff responsible for maintaining more than 500 pieces of riding, walking and handheld equipment. Besides the nearly six-dozen walking greens mowers, TPC Sawgrass also deploys 11 2500E E-Cut triplexes, nine 7500A fairway mowers, five 2653B trim and surrounds mowers, and 52 Gators. The size of the fleet has increased by “six or seven times” since 1983, Sanford says. The new agronomy center tripled the size of shop space, Sanford adds. Once viewed as gluttonous for a 36-hole facility, the building storing Gators and riding mowers is approaching capacity. “When we were building this building, nobody thought we would have enough equipment to put in here,” Plotts says. “This building is huge. It’s silly big. But we are almost at capacity. If we get something new, we will find space for it.”

Equipment deliveries are common. TPC Sawgrass operates on a three-year lease, with John Deere dealer Beard Equipment dispatching a mobile technician multiple times per week to assist Sanford’s team. John Deere innovations are tested at TPC Sawgrass because of the spacious turf plots. The nursery also provides space to study emerging turfgrass varieties, including zoysiagrass at tournament-level green heights. In addition to the two courses, the agronomy team maintains professional and resort practices areas, turf and landscaping surrounding the clubhouse, and a revamped entryway. Hundreds of PGA Tour employees roam the grounds every day.

“I never thought it would evolve into what it is today,” Sanford says. “I remember going to Christmas parties in the clubhouse, and there were 100 of us between the PGA Tour and TPC Network. I used to know just about everyone who worked for the Tour.” The number of managers on the agronomy team, Sanford adds, is comparable to the size of the crew when he arrived in 1983.

‘Divide and conquer’

Putting personnel and equipment in proper places represents a daily conundrum facing Plotts, Andrews, Stadium Course superintendent Kyle Elliott and Dye’s Valley superintendent Shannon Wheeler.

Plotts, a TPC Network veteran who shifted from Scottsdale to Sawgrass in August 2015, nine months before the renovation commenced, acts as the liaison between the agronomy department and PGA Tour players and officials. The position demands melding compassion and compromise with advanced agronomics. Asked how he appeases numerous high-achieving personalities, Plotts says, “You put everything 1A.”

Although he frequently observes activities on the courses, Plotts describes his philosophy as a “divide and conquer” management style. He’s the long-term thinker within a department executing a bevy of daily tasks. Following last fall’s overseed, for example, Plotts shifted his attention to this year’s process, which begins in October. Plotts participates in dozens of formal meetings, but the most productive gatherings are impromptu conversations with his staff.

“We need people to communicate,” he says. “When you get into a formal setting, I have found the younger guys get quiet. They don’t communicate or share ideas. But if you’re in an informal setting, they are really quick with popping out ideas and thoughts. That is invaluable and makes us better.”

Plotts speaks with Andrews more than anybody else on the team. They occupy adjacent offices inside an administrative area featuring computers, copiers, scanners, Stadium Course canvases, motivational boards (the phrase “No whining” hangs above Plotts’ door), dry erase calendars with detailed plans and Wall Street-like conference room. Andrews, an Englishman who interned at TPC Sawgrass as University of Guelph student, joined the full-time staff in 2010, advancing from an assistant-in-training to assistant director of golf course operations in less than a decade.

Andrews, Plotts says, must be focused on the “now,” which means knowing every yard of the Stadium Course. Andrews sometimes parks his cart near a restroom behind the 16th tee and walks the final three holes. The walks allow him to seek input from employees while scouting for ways to enhance the closing stretch.

“Our habitat is out on the golf course,” Andrews says. “The staff’s creative juices are flowing out there. They are seeing things. They are adapting as they go through the morning and the rest of their day. If you can catch them in that moment when their creative juices are flowing, that’s when you get best input.”

Elliott and Wheeler, Plotts says, are responsible for leading “day-to-day” efforts on both courses. Elliott, who previously worked at TPC Boston, finds himself mesmerized by the resources available at TPC Sawgrass, especially the size on the crew. “The amount of stuff we can get done in a day or two here is insane,” he says.

While the management team has stabilized in the last few years, status doesn’t shield TPC Sawgrass from the hiring and retention challenges within the golf industry. And because the property features nuances as such as severe mounding and bulkheads, the training investment is huge. “There are not a lot of things here where you can just send somebody out and they can do it,” Elliott says. “That’s difficult as a manager. It requires a lot of management and guidance.”

The scrutiny brings pressure and opportunity. Wheeler, a veteran of the South Florida private club scene who became the Dye’s Valley superintendent last year, stares at the logo when comparing working at TPC Sawgrass to other facilities.

“It’s the flagship of the Tour,” he says. “Anywhere you look, whether it’s merchandising or advertising, you’re front and center. You’re part of something bigger. But it’s still a golf course. If you can compartmentalize, you realize you’re trying to accomplish the same thing as everybody else. It’s just a different scope.”

So, the TPC Sawgrass team pushes forward, awaiting the next audacious move of bosses preparing to relocate into the PGA Tour’s new “global” headquarters. Whatever executives and players decide, it will be backed by significant agronomic brainpower and horsepower. Innovation associated with the PGA Tour’s growth, though, will never supplant memories created through decades of working atop a north Florida swamp.

“I would like to know how many people have come through here,” Barger says. “I should have counted that and how many greens I have mowed since I have been here. Those are the two numbers I would like to know. It’s been fun. There have been a lot of characters come through here.”

At the risk of making Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast superintendents cringe in fear, we will recall the chaos caused by the late-arriving spring last year with the aim of helping to prevent the chaos if it happens in 2019.

“One of the biggest issues we saw was uneven growth of the turf caused by the cold weather late into spring and the delayed warm-up,” USGA Green Section director of education Adam Moeller says. “This uneven growth on greens resulted in bumpy conditions in many cases.” Complicating matters, Moeller adds, was a wet summer followed the cold spring, affecting turf on courses that didn’t aerate in the spring.

“The cold spring led some superintendents to not aerate as usual or go to a smaller tine size so that the turf wouldn’t take as long to recover,” Moeller says. “As the year turned out, it would have been better if folks that didn’t aerate had pulled the trigger to some degree in the spring, at least with smaller tines. Without aeration, rooting was shallow and superintendents missed an opportunity to improve the soil oxygen diffusion rates within the upper rootzone profile. This ultimately left putting green turf roots more vulnerable to the stress from the persistently wet and hot conditions later in summer. But supers had decisions to make and they could not have known what the summer would bring.”

Ah, if we only had a crystal ball.

Dr. Cale Bigelow of Purdue University reports the Lower Midwest had one of the coldest Aprils and warmest Mays on record, which led to slow grass green-up and a “disadvantaged” cool-season turf compared to those “pesky warm-season summer annuals.” This produced much more pressure from all summer annuals.

“As far as insects, we had lots of activity, but ‘normal’ damage, likely due to the abundant moisture,” Bigelow says. “Disease in mid-to-late summer, particularly dollar spot was very problematic for many, as were other diseases associated with very wet soil conditions.” Probably the most concerning issue from 2018, he adds, was widespread damage associated with what one of his mentors, Dr. Peter Dernoeden, referred to as “Hot-Wet-Stinky Soils.” Says Bigelow, “Scald and wet-wilt, were very big issues, especially where soil drainage was lacking and/or a heavy thatch/organic layer was present.”

A late warm-up can negatively affect both cool- and warm-season turfgrasses, says John Daniels, a USGA Green Section Central Region agronomist. A late warm-up will delay recovery from winter injury and is particularly a cause for concern for cool-season turf in the event it is followed by rapid increase in temperature.

Managing turf and personal stress

The University of Tennessee’s Dr. Brandon Horvath offers multiple steps to avoiding the difficulties of 2018.

“Having a stress management plan can go a long way, meaning that one should seriously think about how we water; usually too much,” he says. Using a moisture meter, he adds, can help superintendents maintain moisture in greens at an optimum amount about halfway between wilt point and field capacity. “Doing this will help reduce the need to constantly hand water, and improve conditions daily, while reducing stress from overwatering,” he says.

Anther key part of stress management should be a mowing height and rolling plan that uses the current conditions to alter how turf is managed to reduce stress. Horvath somewhat jokingly adds, “Remember the line from the movie `Spy Game,’ where Robert Redford says, ‘When did Noah build the Ark, Gladys? BEFORE the flood.’ Having a plan in place before the stress hits will help you when it does hit.”

“Fungicides don’t solve all the problems,” Horvath adds. “Remember the cultural practices from my first tip will help you manage stresses better than what is in a jug. Fungicides should only be used when indicated by the presence of disease, and/or weather conditions that will result in disease (thus, a preventative approach).”

Horvath also advises superintendents to invest in weather management technology. “It isn’t enough to know what is happening in your zip code. Most of the weather offerings from the various websites and companies out there offer zip code-based weather info. You need location-based data to really be confident in your observation of weather. Seek recommendations from your local National Weather Service meteorologists, or check out some upstart companies, like Mesur.io. Monitoring the weather at your location is critical to managing stressful environments.”

Furthermore, Horvath emphasizes the importance of drainage, adding “anywhere that doesn’t drain like it should just means that area will be a stress spot later.”

Traffic management represents another way to avoid turfgrass stress and damage resulting from less than favorable spring conditions. “Think about the entry and exit points on each hole and green complex, then plan how you’re going to move players around and spread out the traffic to help reduce the impact of stress by foot traffic,” Horvath says.

Hole location management is also a consideration. “Many courses allow the set-up person to place holes wherever or use a 3 to 9 zone management style. There are many technologies out there to manage hole locations and move holes around to spread foot traffic out. Check out StrackaLine or EZ Locator. Both of these companies will help you manage hole locations.”

Finally, properly manage and monitor your team when weather turns tricky. “Take care of yourself and your crew,” Horvath says. “This year has been a breakout year of removing the stigma of taking care of oneself in a stressful industry. I’d echo those comments by saying when stressful conditions hit, it is tremendously important to make sure you plan time for both you and your crew to de-stress and have fun even in the heat of the battle. It is easy to suggest that this is time wasted, but I would argue that under very stressful conditions, this small amount of time away helps to freshen your perspective and improve your well-being.”

Not business as normal

The University of Missouri’s Dr. Lee Miller reports Pythium root rot as the No. 1 biotic disease diagnosed on greens in his region. What to do if this occurs? “Watered in preventative fungicide applications are the obvious, but limiting soil moisture to what the plant is using is another key aspect of management. Stagnant, unused water in the soil column is a precursor for many problems. The use of TDR technology has made the art of dancing the line between too much water and not enough a bit more of a science for many superintendents, but it is only one tool in the bag.”

Miller recommends sampling soil often with the “trusty” ½-inch soil corer to determine where water goes on a green, and, “every once in a while,” lean on it to view the whole column down to the pea gravel layer. “Take a hard look at greens drainage on historically poor performing greens very early in the spring,” Miller says. “Run water, or go out during a downpour, and make sure water is exiting out of the soil column correctly through the pipes.”

The best way to remove water out of the soil column is “through the plant,” he adds. Consider fan use a bit earlier than just when temperatures soar, but also when high humidity keeps water on the surface. A drier, cooler canopy will result in open stomates that move water, and an overall healthier plant system from leaf to root tip. “Last but not least, regular venting throughout the season will help dry out some of the profile, and facilitate air exchange for root growth,” Miller says.

Don’t be rigid with the fertilization schedule. Instead, fertilize as dictated by temperature. The temptation is to “juice” bentgrass putting greens a little in a late warm-up, but heavy nitrogen applications may turn into a stressor for compromised roots that can’t sustain higher foliar growth. “Slide into a spoonfeeding regime quickly if temperatures rise rapidly,” Miller says. “Additionally, if nitrogen was applied earlier when temperatures were cooler, don’t forget it, since it may release quickly in high temperatures.”

Visually monitoring and promoting turf density is an important aspect of management. This could include adjusting mowing heights – “mow as high as practically possible,” Bigelow says – and judicious use of nitrogen fertilizer as appropriate. Also, be mindful of mechanical damage that could reduce overall vigor and handicap turf entering stressful weather.

Moeller advises collecting clippings from at least one green (a consistent performer), measure and monitor growth. Compare clipping yields with recent cultural practices like nitrogen and PGR apps to understand their impact on turf growth. Also, don’t try to outcompete cool weather with fertilizer applications because it will likely result in a significant growth flush once the turf finally begins to grow more evenly with warmer temperatures. Not only could this likely result in a flush of growth, which negatively impacts playing conditions, it will consume valuable energy reserves the turf needs to survive during summer.

“Probably the worst thing one can do if there is a late warm-up is for turf managers to go about their business like normal,” Daniels says. Turf managers need to avoid focusing on the events on the calendar and instead concentrate on the condition of the turf. “Rushing to complete a particular maintenance practice by a specific date or trying hit a certain green speed right out of the gate can result in damage that last well into summer,” he adds. “Instead, let the condition of the turf dictate the agronomic program.”

Unlike a popular movie, let’s hope there is no sequel to “The Miseries of 2018.” But if the worst-case scenario returns, there are steps to ensure turfgrass comes through in much better shape.

The annual playing of the RBC Heritage nears, and the build-out at Harbour Town Golf Links is long underway.

Strongmen with pitch forks carefully route the course texture with fresh pine straw, jump-suited forecaddies don spotless whites and nearly-finished grandstands frame what’s soon to come.

Above it all, the famed lighthouse on Harbour Town’s home hole keeps watch

And for the mid-handicap amateur playing the renowned Pete Dye design (with Jack Nicklaus consult) from the forward tees, it almost feels like PGA Tour tournament conditions.

And that’s exactly the intention.

Fronted by Harbour Town, which annually charts among the nation’s top resort courses, the trio of tracks at The Sea Pines Resort on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island don’t aim for fame simply when television comes to town.

Rather, a complete Davis Love III rework of Sea Pines’ Atlantic Dunes in 2017 (formerly the Ocean Course), Dye’s redo of Heron Point a decade before that, and a total Harbour Town restoration in 2014 sees the resort raising expectations higher than ever.

From the top down, that’s how they roll.

“If for a minute I get complacent and don’t think this one day for a guest is a visit to a Bucket List course – shame on me,” says John Farrell, director of golf at Harbour Town Golf Links. “But that can’t just be on me; I need to make sure that our entire team – our caddie master, bartenders, driving range attendants, everybody – we all need to understand that a guest has fresh film in the camera, and it’s not unusual that somebody has saved money all year to come have a week the way we live every day. We can never lose sight of that. We can’t afford a bad day. We have to be on our game.”

For Farrell – who oversees all three of The Sea Pines’ courses – being on his game means ensuring quality control from the links to the loo.

“The worst thing I can do is sit at my desk all day,” he says. “And when I have to use the men’s room, I never use the same one twice. Sounds crazy, right? But you inspect what you expect.”

Running a luminary locale extends expectations to all facets of the operation. Yet the on-course scorecard is no doubt atop the anticipations for most guests.

“There is a lot of pressure to provide excellent course conditions for our daily fee guests, as well as the PGA Tour players. But most of that pressure we put on ourselves,” says Jonathan Wright, golf course superintendent /agronomist for Harbour Town Golf Links. “We are very passionate and committed to doing things smarter and getting better every year. Pete Dye built a masterpiece in Harbour Town Golf Links, and it is an honor to be here; I feel like we owe it to him, the layout, the PGA Tour and the ownership to provide the conditions that this golf course deserves.”

Wright’s boss agrees.

“None of this would be possible is we didn’t have a superintendent that didn’t believe these same things,” Farrell adds. “We believe mediocrity is epidemic – we don’t want mediocrity. Would you ever refer somebody to a place where you had an average time? Our super knows that when a golfer steps to that first tee, they’re doing so with a certain expectation.”

Said expectations aren’t presented without combat from the grounds’ geographic setting.

“Because we are located on an island, we do face many unique agronomic challenges. Number one being the weather,” Wright explains. “We’ve had two major tropical storms (Hermine and Irma) and one major hurricane (Matthew) visit us (in recent years), and lost close to 500 trees and counting, not to mention that one-third of the golf course was affected by the salt water tidal surge.”

Whatever one’s opinion on climate change, the wet stuff hasn’t simply confronted Sea Pines in pure liquid form.

“In 2018, we experienced the first ice and snow storm that Hilton Head Island has seen in 30 years; and we had a hail storm that brought us ping pong ball-size hail,” Wright adds. “We’re in constant battle with the elements, whether it be salt in our water, wind, humidity, shade patterns, insects, frost, rain etc. So, we’re always paying close attention to weather patterns and continuously taking soil and water samples for enhanced and timely applications to the turf.”

And akin to many in the industry, manning a top-level destination doesn’t make a property immune from staffing challenges.

“Another one of the major issues that we face being on an island is finding qualified equipment operators and technicians,” Wright says. “Unfortunately, this is not solely an island problem. Employment issues have become the most important concern for agronomy and golf course maintenance – period. We’re very fortunate to have an extremely talented, established team, as well as a wonderful relationship with Ohio State’s intern and training program that will hopefully yield qualified individuals to help keep our profession afloat, worldwide.”

A Consistent Condition

Sporting the smallest greens on the PGA Tour schedule (from a square-footage measurement vantage), the Harbour Town experience – like its sister courses – was enhanced with its own rework.

“We were very protective of the original design, and all the shot values were completely maintained,” Farrell says of Harbour Town’s complete restoration in 2014. “And that was at the insistence of the PGA Tour players and our ownership. So, that restoration was completely from an agronomic standpoint, wall-to-wall, with each inch of grass replaced along with new irrigation, new cart paths, everything. And that was done to provide tournament-type conditions on a year-round basis.”

In a bombers’ world, Harbour Town’s design is a throwback to days of shot-shaping, wedge demands and putting prowess.

“The Tour players have something of a love affair with this course, because of its uniqueness,” Farrell adds. “We’re kind of a Wrigley Field, a Fenway – we’re a small ballpark. So, it’s more cerebral, and 18 times you better think out there where you’re going to leave the ball.”

On a yearly basis, about half of the courses played across the PGA Tour schedule are facilities which are open for public or resort play. But while several Tour/public/resort crossover tracks “trick-up” conditions between what amateurs play 50 weeks a year and what the world’s best play across four days – Harbour Town doesn’t deviate all that much in course conditions across the calendar.

“We’re trying to give people tournament-type conditions,” Farrell says. “Green speeds will generally run about 10.5 on the Stimpmeter; good pace, and if you get them too fast it can negatively impact an experience. That, and you lose certain hole locations. Come the Heritage, depending on weather, we’ll be faster, but the difference between course set-up isn’t too different from what players see daily and how we set up for the PGA Tour players.”

Wright says, “The only noticeable difference is the length of the course and hole locations. We utilize all tournament hole locations during daily resort play, but the most difficult pin placements are condensed into those four days of the Heritage.”

The resulting thread is that daily duffers are essentially taking on the same layout and demands which has seen an average winner’s score of just about 11-under par across 50 years of play on the shot-makers’ course.

“We try and maintain the same, excellent conditions for both our daily fee guests and PGA Tour players,” Wright adds. “The only differences in conditions for the two entities would be in heights of cut and levels of firmness in the surfaces. For the Tour players, we play the greens a touch firmer and all of our closely mown areas are maintained a little tighter. Although, after the Heritage, we do maintain those same conditions for about a month to give our daily fee players the ultimate PGA Tour experience.”

Speaking from his own vast experience (Farrell has been with Sea Pines since 1989), the director saw how thicker rough during the RBC can actually help the PGA Tour pros.

“It’s counterintuitive,” Farrell says. “The year that our 72-hole record was set (Brain Gay’s 20-under in 2009), the rough was really, really high because of rain. Interestingly, the deep rough kept the ball more centered and prevented balls from rolling off canopies under trees. And that allowed better angles to holes.”

With daily green speeds and rough heights nearly the same as what Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, Graeme McDowell and other past RBC champs encounter one week a year, the only true Harbour Town difference for the amateur doesn’t come in the form of altered course conditions inside the ropes.

The main distinction?

“The amateur doesn’t have 30,000 people starting at you and a live television audience,” smiles Farrell.

Huddled on the shores of Lake Superior off U.S. Highway 61 in Northern Minnesota, the city of Silver Bay (pop. 1,769) sits closer to the Canadian Border (96 miles) than it does the state’s capital city of Saint Paul (204 miles).

Reference to “ranges” across the provincial surrounds are more apt to be of the “iron” than “driving” variety, as the region has long been one of the nation’s largest producers of iron ore.

Prone to harsh winds along Minnesota’s North Shore and known for winter temps which regularly dip well into the negatives, Silver Bay either stands near the beginning or the end of the line of the historic highway, depending on one’s purview.

Between the coarse wintertime conditions, short summers and blue-collar ethic, the region isn’t a place for the timid, the weak, the apathetic. It’s a place for the strong, the driven, the hearty.

It’s a place for a woman. It’s a place for Norma O’Leary.

The general manager and superintendent at 9-hole Silver Bay Golf Course, O’Leary’s grounds, like the curator herself, are smaller in scope but mighty in stature.

Farm Girl

Born in Chaska, Minn., a half-hour drive southwest of the Twin Cities, O’Leary is a self-proclaimed “farm girl.”

By age 13, she started working at Dahlgreen Golf Course, located five miles west of Hazeltine National, where she’d tee-it-up readily in her high school years. Prior to playing the famed Ryder Cup and major championship venue, O’Leary’s golf beginnings were far more humble.

“One day when I was walking home from work at the course, I found the head of a 5 iron in a ditch,” she says. “My dad welded it to a solid steel rod, and then attached a rubber hose from the milker that we used for cows, and that was the grip. That was my first golf club, and I have no idea how I could hit it, but I could hit it.”

While not averse to the tenets of hard work, O’Leary found greater reward in tending to cups before cream.

“I loved every time I got called to work because it got me out of milking cows,” O’Leary says. “They’d have me changing cups, raking bunkers and basic things. Changing cups was a challenge for me because I had to stand with both feet on top of the shell of the cup-cutter, and twist my whole body. But I managed.”

O’Leary has always managed.

Listed (generously) at 5-foot-2, she’d go on to play college golf at the University of Minnesota, where she’d initially study accounting before graduating with a self-created major in business & horticulture.

“Halfway through college, I just knew there was no way I could sit in a building doing accounting all day long,” O’Leary says. “I don’t know how I got through college; when the sun came out, I had such a hard time sitting through class.”

As her college years neared an end, O’Leary took notice of being in a gender minority.

“I loved working on the golf courses, but there were no women in the field,” she says, “so I didn’t think the opportunity was going to be there for me.”

O’Leary made her own opportunities.

In the late 1980s, she took a job maintaining a course in Grand Marias, Minn. (40 miles from Canada), where she led the transformation of par-31, 9-hole course into a par-36 play. “Just clearing the woods and lengthening some holes,” she humbly recalls.

Married in 1988, her husband’s job as a Minnesota State Trooper would find the couple transferred “south” to Silver Bay, where opportunity called for O’Leary as well. “That work in Grand Marais went well enough, I guess, that I got a phone call offering me the superintendent’s job at Silver Bay Golf Course,” she says.

Taking charge of the 9-hole course as both general manager and superintendent, O’Leary instantly applied her farm girl work ethic across the grounds’ 3,200 playable yards.

“All I had for irrigation, there was an old galvanized pipe that ran up each fairway to each green with old quick couplers; one by each green,” O’Leary recalls of her Silver Bay beginnings. “There were portable sprinklers to water every tee and green.”

Over the course of the next three years, working with 13 volunteer members, she’d bring the irrigation to par.

“All the electric heads and wiring for fairways the first year, then did the heads and wiring for greens and tees the next year,” O’Leary says. “The third year, did the pump station and tied-in all the irrigation controllers.”

Typically-armed with a paid, seasonal skeleton staff of one full-time employee and one part-timer, O’Leary has been lauded for her communal approach to running the course, a philosophy which has found Silver Bay thrive with volunteer man and woman power.

Her embrace of community, coupled with a proactive approach to maintenance, impressed Silver Bay-native Mark Michalski, himself a seasonal course staffer. Now the head superintendent at the TPC Twin Cities, Michalski is preparing to unveil a revamped golf course for the debut of the PGA Tour’s 3M Open in July.

Michalski has known O’Leary most of his life, first playing city-owned Silver Bay as a kid before working full-time summers for her from the time he could drive through his sophomore year of college.

“I can remember the first time mowing greens, I scalped pretty far out into the approach and I thought I’d be in serious trouble with her, but she just told me, ‘Hey, it happens. Just don’t do it again,’” Michalski recalls with a chuckle. “I learned so much from her, and a lot of what I do now as a superintendent came from her. She doesn’t have a very large budget up there, but she produces pretty phenomenal conditions every year; and a lot of that is because how faithful she is to the cultural practices.”

Referencing the ingenuity O’Leary brings to her work, Michalski harkens back to a memory of half the Silver Bay course losing irrigation after spring flooding partially knocked out a maintenance bridge.

“I was watering greens with a sprayer; just running water out of a tank,” remembers Michalski. “Norma found the main line to the city and we ran a piece of pipe, spanned it underneath another bridge, and then tied it into a piece of irrigation on the golf course.”

Despite working today on a far bigger stage and prepping to host the world’s best players, lessons learned from O’Leary continue to shape Michalski.

“She’s not afraid to try new things,” Michalski says, “and that’s something she always told my younger brother and I. Every day we’d go to work for her, she’d have our list of things to do, and she’d always say, ‘This is how I think you should do it, but if you guys come up with a better way, as long as you run it past me, then let’s do it your way.’”

From budget management to turf care, the TPC Twin Cities superintendent credits O’Leary for instilling in him a set of fundamentals which he uses daily.

“Now, at a facility hosting a PGA Tour event, I’m doing the same things she does at a 9-hole golf course in Northern Minnesota,” Michalski says. “It doesn’t matter where you work. The right way to take care of the grass is the right way to take care of the grass.”

All in a Winter’s Day

Well-reputed as a fine competitive player across the Northern Minnesota golf scene, O’Leary has seen her sporting spirit find further purchase in another setting: curling.

Introduced to the sport by her husband, Mike O’Leary (who earned a bronze at the world championships in 1966), Norma has filled her mantle with off-course achievements.

A five-time competitor at the U.S. National Championships, she’s twice appeared at the U.S. Olympic Team Trails (finishing sixth in both 2005 and 2009). At the U.S. Senior National Championships, she and her team boated four consecutive titles (2013-16), and the World Senior Championships saw her take home bronze medals in both 2014 and 2015. O'Leary added to her haul by capturing another U.S. Senior National title this winter. She will be traveling to Norway in April for the 2019 World Senior Championships. 

From turf to rink, O’Leary finds the games akin.

“There are a tremendous amount of curlers who are also golfers,” she says. “In golf, you always leave that shot or two on the course which makes you want to come back and do it again – curling does that exact same thing.”

O’Leary’s manicuring nature has also her seen he spend a few seasons as one-time ice maker at the Two Harbors Curling Club.

“It can be the same feeling,” she says of maintaining golf grounds and curling rinks. “On the golf course, you’re trying to get the greens to roll faster for some players and then they become too fast for other golfers. Curling is the same: the ice is too fast, too slow, it curls too much or not enough.”

Perfect ice on the rink: Crucial. Ice on her golf course … not so much.

“Snow mold really isn’t my greatest challenge. Really, it’s the ice, and that’s been the case over the past decade,” O’Leary says of the winter months. “Rain in December and January now has kind of become the norm. I’ve tried all sorts of different things, and my colleagues are on the fence on how to best handle this.”

Continually combating the rain has helped O’Leary get off the fence.

“One year, I put down my snow mold protection and then got 4 inches of rain a few days later, which I wasn’t comfortable with,” she continues. “I had just enough product left to spray three stripes up the center of each green.

Making the most of the tools at her disposal, the girl from the north country sees course care, much like golf itself, as a results-based game. Come spring, it was night and day where I was able to get that second application down; the edges that didn’t get the second application were, like, 90 percent snow mold damage and where I went up the center was clean as a whistle.”

Judd Spicer is a Palm Desert, Calif.-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.