Pictured from left: Tony Gustafson, Jonathan Graham, Alex Stuedemann and Bruce Phillipson of TPC Deere Run, and Australian superintendent Shaun Cross of Byron Bay Golf Club.
One-hundred-and-twelve industry professionals playing in the Monday John Deere Golf Pro-Am, the first on-course event of John Deere Classic week, had reached the final third of leisure rounds when they heard one of golf’s worst sounds: a loud, obnoxious weather horn.
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Carts scurried and the post-round dinner inside a skybox started earlier than expected. The setting offered a view of the TPC Deere Run’s 18th green, which is flanked by a pond on the left and a back-right bunker where Jordan Spieth holed a memorable shot on July 13, 2013 en route to his first PGA Tour win. Considering the significance of that bunker to Spieth’s career, superintendent Alex Stuedemann’s crew might eventually have a plaque to maintain.
Major champions and plaques, though, meant little as the skies darkened. Curious out-of-town superintendents stopped eating and started watching. A wicked Midwest storm was testing every part of TPC Deere Run, a gently rolling 365-acre property along the Rock River in Silvis, Ill. A pair of California superintendents saw more rain in an hour than they might see the entire summer.
The calmest person on the grounds provided a succinct message to his crew. “When the rains came, we looked at our staff and said, ‘See you. Head home. Enjoy your evening with your family,’” Stuedemann says.
A total of 3.1 inches of rain pelted the course in a seven-hour period. The cleanup, which consisted of furious work on the course’s 78 bunkers, started when Stuedemann arrived at 2:15 a.m. Assistants Tony Gustafson and Jonathan Graham arrived an hour later. The entire crew reported at 4:30 a.m., and pros started practice rounds at 7 a.m. “We like to stay ahead of schedule, so we have a plan based on course conditions,” Stuedemann says. “(Gustafson) and (Graham) were literally here counting chairs and carts.”
Stuedemann’s team consists of 25 employees and 20 tournament volunteers supplement the crew during John Deere Classic week. A Quad-Cities landscape contractor also assisted on storm cleanup. But lessons can be gleaned from what the crew accomplished. For starters, proper advance work make bleak situations tolerable.
Collective decisions on desired course conditions were made six weeks before the tournament. Knowing the looming possibility of a major storm, Stuedemann altered the Monday mowing schedule, moving evening tasks such as mowing tees, fairways and approaches to the morning. “We saw on Sunday that the forecast for Monday wasn’t going to be good,” Stuedemann says. “Well, we skimmed a little on some labor and stole some guys from other jobs and mowed out the golf course in the morning.”
Varied Midwest summer weather – rain one day, 90-degree heat the next anybody? – places a planner like Stuedemann in a fortuitous spot. By the time they reach tournament week, the crew has encountered some zany shifts. Stuedemann uses poor weather days in May and June as trials for the John Deere Classic.
“It’s about having a long-term plan, but being reactive to current events,” he says. “We know that we want to mow certain surfaces in the morning and certain surfaces in the afternoon, but we also know that weather has a big impact on that. In those situations, we pick and choose our priorities and realign. Without that plan, you don’t have the priorities. It can be the John Deere Classic, it could be the member-guest, it could be a high school golf tournament. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a plan.”
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Six inches of rain challenged the crew in June, and a drainage pipe in a low-lying watershed by the 15th tee needed excavated and rebuilt. The Monday rain event represented the first major test for the rebuilt pipe, which rests in a high-traffic area during John Deere Classic week. Identifying the pipe as a potential problem before the tournament further illustrates how Stuedemann and his team are always thinking about what might happen next. The area drained perfectly following the Monday storm.
Stuedemann, Gustafson and Graham sat in the Midwest-themed TPC Deere Run agronomy shop, which team members refer to as the “Grunt Dome,” and reflected on the bunker-recovery work and rebuilt pipe following their Tuesday morning shift. Brief reflections are their forte.
“We’re already preparing for the next shift and building a game plan of what we want to do, our strategy, what we are going to mow tonight, what we are going to do quality-wise with the bunkers to get them into true tournament shape,” Gustafson says. “It never really stops. We are used to it. We have done a few of these.”
Guy Cipriano is GCI’s assistant editor.
