After attending my 33rd consecutive Golf Industry Show, it occurred to me that I am now, officially, one of the “old guys.” My hair is greyer and there is less of it. I have a brand-new knee. And I opt to wear soft shoes instead of sleek loafers. Trust me, however, Sans-a-belts are not in my future!

So why, after all these years, do I still attend? More than anything else, it’s to meet new – and see old –friends. And to learn. One thing I learned again this year is that while turf maintenance may be a young person’s occupation, we veterans of the game still have game.

I made it a point to participate in educational seminars, walk the show floor and attend the occasional evening networking function. I even conducted a day-long, for-credit seminar on tournament preparation for superintendents. When it was over, I was tired, but even more excited and enthusiastic.

The newest and greatest advances are cool, but I didn’t get too wrapped up in technology and all the new innovations because none of those things have all the answers. The answers, I learned once again this year, are with people. That’s where you’ll find knowledge, expertise, and, perhaps most importantly, life experience.

Some of the younger superintendents out there may think the older guys are tired, impractical and out of touch. Trust me, we’re not. We veterans of the trenches are more than capable of telling you what you need to know. No matter what the situation, we’ve been there and done that.

Take the seminars and check out the equipment, but don’t neglect the best resource this industry has to offer: Those of us who have already been through “the wars.”

There are many reasons to reach out to your elders. Not just about agronomics, but lessons on every aspect of what we do including life lessons we’ve likely learned the hard way: Everything from dealing with labor issues and climate change to handling members, staff and even family.

It’s Networking 101, but I don’t see enough of it happening. Our industry has dozens and dozens of experts who are more than willing to help by sharing their knowledge and experience. Pick their brains, talk to them.

Here are a few off-course topics perfect for getting some outside consultation or direction:

• Negotiations – on and off the golf course
• Contracts, making sure you have all the bases covered
• Relocation (moving – what to know and what to ask)
• Finances, both personal and private
• Insurance
• New lease agreements for equipment
• Human resources issues, particularly since labor is the No. 1 issue facing our industry
• Budgets: How to cut 15 percent from your budget while still providing a solid product?
• Employment contracts. As a big-time attorney said to me, “they’re only as good as the paper they’re printed on!”
• Staying healthy (skin cancer, stress, survival of the fittest outdoors)
• Family situations
• Financial planning

As I mentioned above, I learned a lot of this the hard way. If I had it to do all over again, I definitely would have become more engaged with those who came before me, approaching people I admired and asking for their help and advice.

For this year, it was people like Jon Jennings (2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills), Dr. Kimberly Erusha (USGA Green Section), Matt Shaffer and Mark Kuhns (former golf course superintendents at Merion Golf Club and Baltusrol Golf Club, respectively), Desert Mountain’s Shawn Emerson, Tommy Witt (past president of the GCSAA), and Bob Farren (Pinehurst Resort) who are happy to connect. The list goes on and on. Ask how they handled a situation, what they’ve done wrong, where they go for answers.

There’s no reason to be intimidated or nervous. We all want to help.

Seek out the really smart people, the researchers who specialize in diseases, insects, weeds. Among my “team” are Dr. Pat Vittum (entomologist), Dr. Fred Yelverton (weed scientist) and Dr. Bruce Clarke (pathology), all leading experts and good people. Go hear them speak then introduce yourself, give them your card, and follow up with email. They are all willing to share their expertise

Not only are we there to help, we seasoned veterans want to help. I gain great personal satisfaction talking to the new, young blood in the business. And I learn a lot, too.

By now you may have heard that I am embarking on yet another chapter in my career. Here’s the scoop …

After nearly a decade of running GCI, I’m handing over the editorial reins to Guy Cipriano. Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past five years, you’ll already know that Guy is a vastly better journalist than me. He has a pile of awards to prove it – including the first-ever Golf Writers Association of America award given to a turf editor. He was also lauded last year by Folio as one of the Top 100 innovators, thinkers and disruptors in all of American publishing.

But more importantly, he’s built terrific relationships with superintendents, architects, builders and suppliers around North America. He’s quite simply the best editor and finest storyteller I’ve worked with in 30 years, and you folks are damned lucky to have him.

Dave Szy, who is the finest salesperson I’ve ever met, is already capably running the business side of our group. Russ Warner – who is a close second to Dave in the Best Sales Pro Ever competition – and young Lucas Coleman continue to give advertisers the kind of fabulous service that has made us quite profitable for (get this) eight straight years. The rest of our fabulous team – notably creative director Jim Blayney, production coordinator Caitlin McCoy and e-mail guru Erik Sales – deserve huge applause for what they do behind the scenes every day.

In short, GCI is kicking ass and taking names. So why on earth am I leaving?

First, I’m not really leaving. I’m going to continue to write this column until I run out of stuff to say or they pry my cold, dead hands off the keyboard. I’ll also be contributing odds and ends of other stuff and offering lots of sage advice that Guy can happily ignore as he takes the magazine to a whole new level.

Second, what I am doing is practicing what I preach. Allow me to explain.

For years, I’ve given speeches and written articles about how to effectively manage your career. I yapped endlessly about how you should be thoughtful about planning your career and try to find a job that rewards you in the ways that matter most.

But I have to confess that I was a hypocrite. I never practiced what I preached when it came to strategizing my career. Instead, I stumbled along through the ups and downs of life: I was drunk then sober, divorced then remarried, fired from a magazine that I created (sorry Herb Graffis), then miraculously hired to run this one.

Somehow I survived the self-inflicted chaos. Last year, I found that I was in the enviable position of being able to consider the future. So, I sat down and thought carefully about my goals. I talked to my wife and other people I respect. I considered which things I loved to do and which jobs would give me the best chance to do them. And I came to some conclusions.

I knew that I had pretty much done what I could do as publisher of GCI. My goal was to give myself a new challenge without giving up the things I love most: writing, teaching, being out in the market and – mainly – being an advocate for turfheads. I knew I wasn’t that good at sales or managing a bunch of people. What I do best is tell stories. I just needed to find some place that would pay me to do that.

Financially, I wanted to make enough money to buy a little retirement place somewhere warmer than Cleveland. I wanted to stay in the industry, but I knew I wouldn’t last 10 minutes at one of the giant industry manufacturers. I’m a cowboy and cowboys don’t do well in humongous multinational corporations.

Finally, I wanted to work for a company with a great culture that really “gets” superintendents and the green industry. A place that – like GIE Media – feels like family.

I literally wrote all this stuff down on a yellow legal pad. Pages and pages of notes. Dozens of potential companies considered then crossed off. And, finally, at the bottom of the last page, one company name remained:

Harrell’s.

I reached out to my friends there and I was gobsmacked to learn they wanted to bring an ink-stained wretch like me on board to help them tell their story and to help you do your job better.

So, I’m incredibly grateful that I get to have my cake and eat it too. I get a new challenge with an awesome company that is just as passionate about this crazy business as I am. And I get to keep ranting and preaching to y’all in this space every month.

I love it when a plan comes together. Stay tuned for the next chapter … and keep reading GCI.

Spencer Roberts tries to take Sundays off during the growing season. Extraordinary circumstances altered his schedule last summer, creating a series of memorable father-son moments.

With temperatures in Kansas City escalating and rainfall non-existent, Roberts toted his young son, Jack, and live-at-home course dog, Ellie, to The National Golf Club of Kansas City to monitor lake levels.

Three weeks. Four weeks. Five weeks. Roberts stared at the sky and asked: “When are you going to break?”

The club received less than an inch of rain from June 2 until July 18, a numbing six-week stretch plucked in the middle of a humbling year for Kansas City-area superintendents. The lower the lake levels, the tougher the irrigation decisions. Even as he observed the depletion of a once-plentiful resource, Roberts developed an appreciation for the impromptu work Sundays. Jack seemed to be relishing the strolls around the club’s 36 holes. “He enjoys seeing the dog run on the golf course and chase geese,” Roberts says. “He enjoys coming to work with dad.”

For all the angst 2018 provided in a Transition Zone environment such as Kansas City, the year provided the ultimate case study in life management and agronomics for Roberts, the director of golf course maintenance at The National Golf Club of Kansas City, a 36-hole facility in the city’s north suburbs.

Sticking to reliable plans, programs and products despite wicked weather swings, allowed Roberts and his nearly 35-person team to achieve a semblance of balance while offering a growing membership sturdy L93 bentgrass/Poa annua putting surfaces throughout the year. The year, in many ways, separated The National Golf Club of Kansas City from other facilities. The 18-year-old club, which features a pair of high-end private courses, The National and The Deuce at The National Golf Club, established membership and revenue highs in 2018, according to Roberts. The business success coincides with a year that featured the second coldest April on record, followed by the second warmest May on record, followed by extreme drought.

Keeping the greens, well, green represented a major triumph. The triumph becomes more meaningful when combined with human factors such as limiting the toll unforgiving conditions exert on the people in a turf manager’s life. In addition to Jack, Roberts’ family includes his wife, Courtney, and six-year-old daughter, Emma.

Maintaining normalcy away from the course during a year such as 2018 requires consistency at work. The National and The Deuce operate from a central maintenance facility, but each course possesses a distinct crew led by a pair of determined and talented assistant superintendents: Cesar Villanueva and Graham Edelman at The National and TJ Ridge and Andy Scott at The Deuce. Almost every conversation about a leader experiencing quality time away from a stressed landscape involves the backing of an empowered staff.

“You find time away by putting really good people around you,” Roberts says. “I have four great assistants who are great leaders of their teams. Having great people around me means that I was able to step away and be with the family during that time. Those four individuals made it easier for me during one of the toughest summers I have ever experienced to get away.”

As the weather deteriorated, Roberts never deviated from personnel decisions he made before the season. Every employee, including the four assistants, received scheduled time off.

“We stuck to that even though we had a lot going on to make sure they stayed fresh,” Roberts says. “I knew that it was going to be a year to make tough decisions, with our irrigation lake being low. I wanted to keep all of our guys fresh and make sure they could step away and stay positive. It’s not always easy. We didn’t want to bring any more stresses upon ourselves. We knew we were all stressed out. We didn’t want to bring any more stresses to the guys.”

Roberts displayed similar consistency and trust with The National’s agronomic programs. Stints at a trio of highly regarded private clubs, Shadow Glen Golf Club in Olathe, Kan., Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb., and Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., introduced Roberts to the abiotic and biotic stresses eclectic weather places on championship-caliber greens. By the time Roberts arrived at The National in late 2015, he understood how to handle those stresses.

Plant health represents the pillar of The National’s agronomics. Every tactical decision revolves around keeping turf robust and making sure seasonal plans are established well before wild weather swings materialize. Roberts is flexible enough to make tweaks – The National mowed and rolled greens less in 2018 – but most of his confidence, even during a trying season, stems from positive signs plants showed entering the previous winter. “One thing that stuck out to me hanging out with Spencer – and he used this phrase with me quite a bit last year – he felt like 2018 was the year of overall plant health,” says Wes Kleffner, a Bayer area sales manager who works closely with Kansas City-area superintendents.

The spray program Roberts uses to handle Transition Zone stresses on greens includes a rotation of Bayer Stressgard products. Weekly applications begin in early May and extend into the September. Tartan, Interface, Chipco Signature and Mirage are among the staples of The National’s program. The National’s turf team treats 7 acres of greens between the two courses, with disease concerns ranging from Pythium to snow mold.

“It’s about having a strong preventative program and knowing we are ahead of issues,” Roberts says. “The Stressgard products, I believe, give us the ability to continue to create high-level golf conditions throughout the season.”

“By incorporating Stressgard products in a rotation, you have immediate color improvement on the outside,” Zhang adds. “Also, within the plant, you’re seeing the chlorophyll content being protected by Stressgard.”

When chlorophyll loss is reduced, the plant is able to better maintain photosynthesis and its production of carbohydrates. And that, in turn, helps maintain key physiological functions and allows plants to better withstand stresses, like temperature extremes.

Introduced in the late 1990s, the Stressgard family has expanded to include Tartan, Interface, Fiata, Mirage, Signature XTRA and Exteris Stressgard. Stressgard is a formulation paired with a variety of fungicides that offers protection against abiotic stresses such as high temperatures, low temperatures, aggressive mowing, golfer and cart wear, excessive sunlight, and reduced sunlight, Zhang says.

The National experienced many of the above stresses during 2018. Most of those stresses, though, remained hidden to members and guests who played more than a combined 35,000 rounds on the courses.

“We never saw large amounts of turf stress on the greens,” Roberts says. “We were very proactive, understanding we did not have a spring and then we went onto a lot of heat stress. Knowing we had a strong plant protectant program, we looked at the controllables. We raised the mowing height, we changed the frequency of mowing. If we had to skip a day of mowing and roll a day, or decrease how much we rolled and mowed, we did that. It was important to communicate to the memberships the conditions on the golf course and why we were backing off and what we were experiencing so they understood what was going on. They were all very supportive.”

Late in the season, Kleffner toured the course with Roberts. He left The National impressed with the turf quality and satisfied with the results he helped Roberts and his team achieve, despite enormous challenges.

“The people we deal with make such huge sacrifices throughout the growing season,” Kleffner says. “It’s a huge dedication to spend time away from their family and away from doing so many other things. They are just trying to get through the year. If there’s anything I can do to help these guys just sleep a little bit better at night, I’m all for it. Being in this industry, we have all been there at some point. You feel for everybody. You just want to do whatever you can do to help them get through it.”

Seeing his plan work – and seeing his family more often – revitalized Roberts. Jack turned three in January and more visits to the course to watch Ellie chase geese are likely in 2019. There’s also optimism the lakes will appear refreshing rather than exhausting.

“There are averages for a reason, but we have to be ready for whatever comes our way,” Roberts says. “It comes down to planning and making sure we have plans in place and we’re ready to communicate whatever weather we experience in 2019.”

A January day in the desert begins with layers. A golf shirt. A pullover. A jacket. Some workers wear a long-sleeve layer beneath their golf shirt.

Layers are not what you envision in Scottsdale, Ariz. You sweat when somebody mentions Scottsdale. You wipe your brow and take a swig of water. You try to empathize; you truly can’t unless you have pulled an aerifier, hauled sand, sharpened reels or pruned a Mesquite tree in a desert, in July.

You also expect to be surrounded by thousands of boisterous fans when arriving at TPC Scottsdale. Television conditions us to the rowdiness. TPC Scottsdale hosts the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Yes, that tournament.

There’s no rowdiness at 5:20 a.m. on a mid-January day. Employees, wearing layers, walk into an orderly golf course maintenance facility to begin an 11-hour workday. For a place that will host more than 700,000 fans in three weeks, solitude permeates throughout a two-course property divided by a busy suburban street and bordered by one of the West’s most important waterways.

A morning meeting begins at 5:30 a.m. A manager from North Carolina, followed by a manager from Illinois, followed by an intern from Australia address a crew preparing to shiver. A translator flips their words, even the funny ones uttered by the young Australian, from English to Spanish.

Jim Day is happy to see people. The 28-year TPC Scottsdale veteran arrives two hours before co-workers – either closing or coyote time depending on perspective – to begin loading green and yellow mowers onto trailers behind green and yellow utility vehicles.

Every morning second matters. Hundreds of customers are playing golf and the first competition round of the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open begins in exactly three weeks. TPC Scottsdale operates at a furious pace. The layers are numerous.

Early morning on the Stadium Course

Let’s begin in darkness on the 5th fairway of the Stadium Course. Joaquin Valenzuela Gamez is inspecting an irrigation head. Tools of the irrigation trade, hoses, flags and shovels, fill the back of his Gator, the lone vehicle on the fairway. Gamez wears gloves and a TPC Scottsdale jacket above a pullover as he meticulously slices the overseeded blend of ryegrass and fine fescue surrounding the head.

The Stadium Course’s irrigation system includes more than 2,500 irrigation heads. Neither darkness nor 45-degree weather deters Gamez in his quest to ensure each one works properly. “I love what I do here,” he says. “I hope I’m here longer.”

Gamez arrived at TPC Scottsdale before the Stadium Course’s 16th hole became the hippest spot in golf and before anybody imagined something like #greenestshow would attract attention on newfangled wireless devices. Gamez emigrated to the United States from the western Mexican state Sinaloa in the mid-1980s. One of his first jobs here stunk. “I worked in a horse ranch,” he says. “I didn’t like the smell of it.”

His mornings went from pungent to pleasant when he joined legendary agronomist Cal Roth’s TPC Scottsdale crew on Aug. 16, 1990. A golf course, even in the middle of a desert summer, smells better than a horse ranch.

Gamez’s title is irrigation technician. But he’s willing to perform any job to satisfy golfers. Gamez relishes encounters with customers. “I hear good comments every single day,” he says. “They will come straight to me and say, ‘You guys do an awesome job on the golf course. I like what you guys do.’ I tell them, ‘Thank you for the good comments. I hope you enjoy your time here and come back.’”

Bill Brown has one job on this morning. The task is performed sitting and it doesn’t produce many direct interactions with golfers. He loves it anyway.

Brown is mowing rough alongside the eighth hole as the sun lifts. Nearly every time Brown punches in, he mows rough. Consider it magical monotony.

A Michigan native who worked for General Electric in Indiana, Brown moved to Scottsdale in the mid-1970s. “I feel I’m a damn near native,” he says. Compared to those around him, Brown qualifies as an Arizonian. Scottsdale had less than 80,000 residents when Brown escaped the Midwest. The city’s population will surpass 250,000 this year. On 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open Saturday, 216,818 spectators trampled on the rough Brown maintains.

Brown worked for a parks and recreation department and multiple golf courses before joining the TPC Scottsdale crew in 2011. At 82, he’s the oldest member of the 53-worker unit. He doesn’t sound like somebody bracing to stop operating machines such as the John Deere 9009A TerrainCut he’s operating on this January morning. “I’m not very good at doing nothing,” he says. “I like this. I enjoy the outdoors. The people I work with – and the people I work for – are wonderful.”

Director of golf course maintenance operations Blake Meentemeyer stops to chat with Brown and inspect what might be the deepest frost pocket on the course. “You can see the stripes,” Meentemeyer says. “Bill is always thinking ahead and he’s always thinking about where he needs to go, thinking about frost and when we are going to spray. He’s got a tough job jumping around all the time.”

Cold. Darkness. Heat. Tournament preparation. Overseeding. It doesn’t matter to Brown. Few people his age keep this pace. Heck, few people of any age can handle the hustle associated with TPC Scottsdale.

“I feel like I’m in a hurry and in motion all the damn time,” Brown says. “I don’t know why. This time of year we are working long hours. I will wake up early in the morning and say, ‘Wow.’ I’ll get up and have a couple of cups of coffee and read the paper. I don’t get up, dress and leave. I get up at 3:30 and sometimes 2:30.”

Has today’s paper arrived by the time Brown leaves the house? “I read yesterday’s,” he quips.

By the time Ali Guessous reaches the 16th green, Scottsdale residents have received today’s paper and the sun partially hovers above the McDowell Mountains. Guessous, an intern from Morocco, where golf is in the developmental phases, mows diagonal passes. He pauses every few minutes to shift turning boards, absorbing a scene unlike any other in golf. Bleachers, seats, floors, tables, awnings, steel and cellphone towers surround Guessous. He’s mowing a 5,897-square foot green on an enclosed hole accommodating 20,000 fans. “You just don’t mess up here,” he says. “You can’t do that.”

Valentin Giles understands the pressure of the 16th hole. A 30-year TPC Scottsdale employee, Giles is mowing the 72-inch cut of intermediate rough on this morning, reaching the 18th hole 35 minutes before a 9 a.m. shotgun start.

He worked his first PGA Tour event here in 1990, raking bunkers during a tournament that ended with Tommy Armour III outdistancing Jim Thorpe (the golfer), Billy Ray Brown and Fred Couples to earn $162,000. Estimated weekly attendance was 362,000. When Gary Woodland toppled Chez Reavie in a playoff last year, he received $1,206,000 and 719,719 fans entered the grounds.

Giles performed course presentation duties during the 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open. When he walked through the 16th tunnel on Saturday, a capacity crowd hollered as he cut the cup and set the pin. “It makes me crazy,” Giles says. “It makes me nervous. I walk from the tee to the green with a flag, and as soon as I show up at the tee, everybody is already there.”

Quite a journey for somebody who grew up between Acapulco and Mexico City and harvested crops in Idaho fields before arriving in Arizona. Asked how the tournament has grown, Giles points to a three-story structure to the right of the 18th fairway. “It’s getting bigger and bigger,” he says. “That tent was one story last year.”

Late morning and early afternoon on the Champions Course

The 16th and 17th holes, along with the 18th tee, run adjacent to North Hayden Road, which separates the Stadium and Champions courses. Advancements across the street startle Giles more than anything on the Stadium Course.

The Arizona Canal borders the south parts of the Champions Course; apartments surround the north holes; Highway 101 looms to the east. Giles worked 16 years on the Champions Course before shifting to the Stadium Course. “When I started, this street wasn’t here,” Giles says. “There were no houses around the course, Highway 101 wasn’t there. Everything was desert.”

Giles represents a rare TPC Scottsdale constant. Development alters the desert landscape. Supervisors, especially at the assistant superintendent level, zip through Scottsdale like jackrabbits in the Sonoran Desert. The bosses work a few tournaments, learn the nuances of warm- and cool-season turf, and hone water management skills before landing their next industry position.

The courses combine to support more than 90,000 annual rounds. They close in July, a punishing, exhausting month because every surface is aerified multiple times. The courses close again in early fall for overseeding, a labor-intensive practice performed annually to ensure winter vitality.

Hard work doesn’t fluster Velazquez. A father of two, Velazquez holds two fulltime jobs, also working indoor maintenance at a nearby Marriott. His Marriott shift begins less than two hours after he leaves TPC Scottsdale. Velazquez has worked both jobs for the past decade. “Maybe I’m still young,” he jokes.

With temperatures approaching 60 degrees and golfers roaming all 18 fairways on both courses, Velazquez scurries between assignments on the Champions Course. Senior assistant Heath Booker stops to chat with him in the parking lot. Later in his inspection of the course, Booker describes what Velazquez means to the crew. “I have worked three jobs at one time, but that’s only 15 to 20 hours at each job,” Booker says. “For him to do 80 hours every week for 10 years … that’s pretty amazing.”

Booker, a NC State graduate, is second on the agronomic hierarchy. He moved from North Carolina to Arizona in 2015. He says the people and pace separate TPC Scottsdale from his past stops. The crew includes seven employees with tenures of 28 years or longer, a remarkable feat considering the unforgiving climate, abundance of job opportunities in Scottsdale and grueling pace accompanying an elite daily-fee facility.

“People say they work at a golf course and it’s 365 days,” Booker says. “This property is 365 days a year. It never slows down. You can talk about how busy it is, but until you experience it, I don’t think you can grasp how busy it is.”

Julio Riojas relishes the people and pace. An assistant superintendent on the Champions Course, Riojas first visited Arizona while playing college baseball at William Penn University. He became enthralled by the desert landscape. He also became enthralled by golf course maintenance, earning a turfgrass management degree from University of California Riverside. He worked at TPC Deere Run, in his hometown of East Moline, Ill., before becoming an assistant at TPC Scottsdale.

Standing along the Arizona Canal above the fifth hole on the Champions Course, a par four with a split fairway curling around a desert wash area, Riojas describes recent aesthetic and agronomic enhancements. Riojas lives in the apartments on the other side of the course. He moved to Arizona because of TPC Scottsdale and has stayed five years.

Like every young manager with a turf degree, Riojas harbors grand aspirations. People determine a manager’s success, making his future as bright as the midday desert sun.

Irrigation technician Joaquin Valenzuela Gamez.

“Some of them sacrifice almost their lives and time with family and doing things they like to do to put in the hours that are required just to get this place the way it is,” he says. “This is what they enjoy doing. We have guys that have been here for more than 30 years. Things are always changing, but I give them credit to be able to adapt the way that they have.”

Riojas has adjusted to the people and the scenery. He’s still adjusting to the weather. It’s 2 p.m., the temperature approaches 65 and he’s still wearing three layers.

Inside the shop and one final ride

Fewer layers are required inside the equipment management center. Randy Waymire wears a jacket anyway. Waymire leads a four-person team responsible for maintaining more than 200 pieces of equipment. Their indoor and outdoor workspaces brim with activity.

Everything about the maintenance facility is systematic. Inventories and parts are digitized. Each Gator has its own numbered parking space. Riding mowers are parked beneath a covered structure. Walking mowers are parked in straight lines beneath signs. When operators return from assignments, mowers are pointed toward the shop, a sign they must be checked by the equipment staff. Mowers are inspected following every use.

TPC Scottsdale’s leased John Deere equipment is in well-trained hands. Waymire spent 15 years with Stotz Equipment, Jim Day is approaching his three-decade anniversary at TPC Scottsdale, and Miguel Jimenez Hernandez and Luis Munoz are former equipment operators now working inside the shop. “There’s a lot of pride that comes with working for this property,” Waymire says. “There are unspoken benefits that you don’t see. The people here are our best benefit.”

Dialogue between operators and technicians stretches into the late afternoon. Unless you arrived at 5 a.m., you wouldn’t know the people working inside the shop are nine hours into an 11-hour day. The energy level remains high.

Assistant superintendent Bryan Pierce begins his final inspection of the Stadium Course at 3 p.m., passing dozens of golfers whose tee times started after the shotgun event. The mower stripes on greens overseeded with Poa trivialis, velvet bentgrass and ryegrass resemble images from geometry textbooks. On a dark, cold morning, workers beginning another long day achieved something that can only be observed a few hours later.

“Looking at past notes, we’re ahead of the game,” Pierce says. “Yes, it’s maddening. You want it to be perfect all the time.”

That’s why Booker hangs over a fairway bunker edge, pulling weeds from white sand when Pierce strolls past the third hole. That’s why when Pierce enters the 16th hole, interns Nikolas McGuiness and Jacobo Cortines, who hail from Australia and Spain, respectively, are spraying a preventative fungicide on the tees and approach. McGuiness is wearing a stocking hat and jacket; Cortines is hatless and in a golf shirt.

It’s all maddening. It’s all adding a day’s layer to a deep, desert golf story.