Editor's Note: This exclusive editorial content is made possible through a parternship with the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association. The following dispatch is from Thursday, June 12.
If we dodged a bullet Wednesday, we got nailed between the eyes just now. We were just working out how much time (irrigation) to put on each of the greens based on the moisture readings. It wasn’t going to be a lot, just enough to replenish what we lost today. Then the skies opened up just after 9 p.m. We got just under an inch, 9/10ths, in about 30 or 40 minutes. All you could see was standing water everywhere.
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We were doing our calculations when Chris Hartwiger from the USGA – who has been fantastic all week, I must say – came up and said their weather guy said we were 99.9 percent certain to get heavy rain. It didn’t take long. Chris had his son with him and they hadn’t made it to their car before it hit, and they were running.
You want to try and have the second-round play as close to the first as you can. We will mow and roll greens, but I can tell you we probably won’t be mowing fairways, not unless the USGA delays play and I doubt they will want to do that. There will be too much mess to clean up. We’ll get it taken care of for sure. Manpower won’t be an issue because everyone who would be mowing or watching greens will be busy on the clean up. It will be a nice change for them I guess. There will be some bunker repair for sure.
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I think we’ll be doing a lot of backpack blowing, whipping fairways and so on. I guess we will see for sure when the sun comes up at about 5:15 a.m. – if it’s not too cloudy – but I expect there will be pine straw and sand deposits washed up in a lot of areas. The day before it was the wind that put pine straw and pine cones everywhere. Tonight it was the rain that got us. It was isolated. Alan Owens (assistant superintendent) just called to say there was barely 1/10th in his rain gauge and he only lives two or three miles away.
I had a good discussion with Mike Davis (USGA executive director) and Ben Kimball (U.S. Women’s Open director) at one point during the day. They were coming up No. 18 and I was waiting to talk with them when I heard someone from the crowd call my name. I looked around and it was a really good friend of mine and his son. All I could do was wave back because I really wanted the conversation with Mike and Ben. I guess the players go through that all the time but it was a first for me.
Until the storm just now everything had been fantastic. The golf course was great. It looked like a British Open. I caught a few glimpses on TV when we were back in the break room at the maintenance shop while we were working out the afternoon schedule. It was kind of unreal to feel that excited seeing it on TV when the real thing was back over my shoulder. It made me feel like a kid.
Really, I was having so much fun I felt like a kid most of the day. There was no need to be thinking about taking a nap at any point today. My energy level was amazing. Although I need to get to bed now - woo, it’s 10:30 p.m. - if we’re going to tackle this mess properly in the morning. The real issue will be getting it all coordinated.
Trent Bouts contributed to this article.
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