U.S. Open local qualifying

Qualifying for the U.S. Open: That’s a longshot.

Prepping premier grounds for a U.S. Open local qualifier at Andalusia Country Club in La Quinta, California: That’s a lock.

Among five Open local qualifying sites across SoCal’s Coachella Valley — a/k/a Palm Springs — region, the big and bold Rees Jones-designed grounds at Andalusia present what is arguably the toughest area gateway to final qualifying. For veteran superintendent Kevin Wallace, readying Andalusia for the big day — May 6 — satisfied his crew’s competitive juices.

“We try to be as dialed-in as possible,” Wallace says, “and, setting up for a competitive event like this, it gives a little shot in the veins.”

Prep begins with paperwork, as Wallace communicates with the USGA, which works the event in concert with the Southern California Golf Association.

Along with a detailed pre-event checklist — pro shop set-up, scoring tables and tents on Nos. 1 and 10 for a two-tee start — course specs are a key part of the advance work.

“They send us out a preliminary sheet with their parameters and what they’re looking for in terms of green speeds and those kinds of things,” Wallace says. “And they also come out and look at the course, just looking for ground-under-repair and anything like that. They also handle the pins. But unless they see something that’s way out of the ordinary, they pretty much let us do our thing.”

Prepping proper big-day green speeds — especially amid the desert’s shoulder season — proves premier onus. While the club generally runs fast (around 11 on the Stimpmeter), the qualifier saw an uptick for its 84 entrants.

“By May, we’re already in the transition season and trying to convert back to Bermuda, so it makes it a little different animal on the greens, because the growth is much more on the Bermuda-side of things,” Wallace says. “So we might have to start double-cutting. Right now (in-season), we’ll roll them around four times a week. For the qualifying, just to make sure we’re close to 12, we’ll roll whatever is needed. I’ll start monitoring those speeds every single day for at least 10 days out. And we’ll also closely monitor water and try to dry-down as much as possible.”

Across the grounds’ 180 acres of turf, 40-plus acres of landscape and nearly 40 acres of lakes — “They don’t build ’em like this anymore,” Wallace smiles — less-oft equals more come qualifier time.

The USGA and the SCGA “don’t want a lot of extra things out there, so we make sure to take out ropes and stakes and some signage and just let ’em have at it,” Wallace says. “They don’t quite tip it all the way out to our 7,500-plus yards, but they will still play at over 7,300. Course rating is 75.4 and they’ll play at 74.9. And the rough, it’s not U.S. Open rough, and they’re not looking for full-on U.S. Open conditions, so we’ll probably be at an inch. But, since the tournament is on a Tuesday, we’ll probably hold off that Monday, which will give it five days from the previous cut. I mean, if we let it get to 2 inches? Oh, my gosh.”

Come the qualifier scores, Wallace has seen no shortage of trunk-slammers, and … maybe a few players not quite the caliber of the event’s 0.4-handicap requirement.

“I don’t wanna name names,” he says with a smile, “but I’ve seen plenty of guys, head pros, come out for the qualifier and weren’t even sniffing it. Weren’t even close.”

Part of the fun for Wallace and his team isn’t merely prepping the grounds and watching the sticks but also trying out the test themselves.

“This crew takes a lot of pride in what we do, and they’re fully aware of the qualifier,” Wallace says. “And this event is really neat, as we’ll have a lot of people who don’t normally play here. It’s a showcase for us. And the other really cool thing is that not only do our guys want to show that we’ve got a great golf course, but they also want to play, so the day after, many of our guys will play in the Ironman, and see how they fare in the qualifier setup, same tees and pins.”