The Champions Tour returns to Sunriver (Ore.) Resort, where GCSAA Certified Golf Course Superintendent Jim Ramey has prepared the Crosswater Club for the tour's fourth of five majors, the JELD-WEN Tradition, Aug. 19-22.
Facing some turf loss after a week of temperatures 25 degrees below zero in December, Ramey met those challenges and has the Crosswater Club in excellent condition.
"The course is in great shape," said Ramey, a 27-year member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). "We had a severe winter and lost some of the Poa annua on a few greens, so we've been growing them in all spring while using nine temporary greens. Everything is looking pretty good and the greens are tournament ready."
Ramey, the director of golf course maintenance at Sunriver Resort, oversees the resort's Crosswater, Meadows, Woodlands and Caldera Links courses. He has been at Sunriver for 16 years and has hosted the last three JELD-WEN Traditions, the 2007 and 2001 PGA Professional National Championships, 2006 NCAA Men's NCAA D-I Championship, and the 2000 NCAA Women's NCAA D-I Championship at the Crosswater Club.
"Jim and his staff might have the best presentation yet of the JELD-WEN Tradition," said PGA Tour Competitions Agronomist Harry Schuemann, CGCS Retired. "They had a really tough winter there and Jim and his staff took it in stride. I am impressed because at such a high elevation they have a short season and there is a high demand from the membership there, but Jim and his staff have done an outstanding job."
Ramey has a bachelor's degree in economics from California State University Los Angeles and is one of only 1,700 active superintendents to earn the professional designation GCSAA Certified Golf Course Superintendent. He has the bentgrass/Poa annua greens rolling 12 feet on the Stimpmeter and the Kentucky bluegrass/perennial ryegrass rough 3 1/2 inches high. Ramey performs water testing every spring and fall to ensure that golf course management practices have no negative impact on wetlands, rivers or the water table and he has the Crosswater Club certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program.
Crosswater Golf Club sits in a scenic, environmentally sensitive river meadow with abundant wildlife. The Little Deschutes River runs through the golf course and the Big Deschutes River borders the west side. The meadow was an old homestead. The old homestead cemetery was preserved and sits on the west side of the eleventh hole. The golf course provides habitat for numerous wildlife throughout the property, as well as scenic views of Mount Bachelor, Broken Top and The Three Sisters. The river and wetlands impact play on all but two holes. The golf course sits at an elevation of 4,183 feet and is covered in snow from December through March.