Michael Lee fell in love with the land -- the plants and the dirt -- long before he fell in love with the game of golf.
It started when Lee was 15, working what he said was "the best job you could imagine," as a member of the maintenance crew at Blackhawk Country Club, a position that included a new Lawn-Boy tractor inscribed with his name.
"It's an emotional attachment as well as a physical attachment to a piece of property," said Lee, a Madison native. "The same thing happens to anyone farming. You really get an attachment to working a piece of ground."
These days, Lee, 39, is responsible for the condition of some of the best pieces of golf property imaginable as the manager of golf course maintenance for the Kohler Company's four courses -- including Whistling Straits in Haven, site of next week's PGA Championship.
Lee knows better than anyone that the true star of this year's final major will not be Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, but the course itself.
"That's really the feature," Lee said. "A lot of good things will come from this championship, but it's really the integrity of the design of the golf course and its teeth -- and how it will produce a real good champion (that is the major story)."
With the course playing such a primary role, Lee's responsibility in getting it ready will be vital.
"Keep in mind, we're an Irish-Scottish links, seaside golf course, so it's not your typical look," Lee said. "What we're focusing on is playability, less on aesthetics."
Lee grew up in Indian Hills, a couple of blocks from Blackhawk, and started working at the golf course shortly after his father died, under renowned superintendent Monroe Miller.
"It's the most important five years I've ever spent on a golf course because it's the formative years," Lee said. "That's where I learned how to work and I fell in love with golf courses."
Miller was impressed almost immediately with Lee's intuition and work ethic.
"At that young age, I sensed he was a turf-grass clairvoyant," Miller said. "He had an instinct. You sort of knew."
Lee is old school in that he grew up intrigued by the biology of making plants grow. Miller, who still works at Blackhawk, said the current crop of superintendents comes mostly from golfers who do not play well enough to be club pros.
"We're raising a crop out here," Miller said. "The crop happens to be grass. (Lee) was very intrigued by all that went into it."
Lee graduated from Madison Memorial High School in 1983, then went through UW's turf program and received his bachelor's degree in '87.
He spent five years as an assistant superintendent at Blue Mound Golf and Country Club in Wauwatosa before he was hired in 1993 to be the superintendent at Blackwolf Run, which Lee prepared for the 1998 U.S. Women's Open.
He has been in his current position since 1999 and has spent more than four years getting Whistling Straits ready for the tournament.
It started with the construction of pathways to handle the massive crowds. In a three-year period, Lee's staff has put more than 4,000 hours into aerating greens, which is the process of taking plugs out and putting sand back in, making the greens firm and hard, but playable.
Lee normally has a crew of 45 employees maintaining the Straits course but will use a force of 150 workers during the tournament. They will put in 1,500 working hours for each day of the tournament, compared to 400 in a normal day.
In addition to coordinating that manpower, the biggest challenge will be in making each of the greens conform to exacting standards.
The PGA wants the greens to roll between 11 and 12 feet on the Stimp meter, a device which measures the speed of a green. Lee's goal is to have no green deviate by more than 3 inches.
"(Crews) won't leave until that green is the exact speed it needs to be," Lee said. "The players absolutely love that type of conditioning. Then the putting strokes are more consistent."
Lee does not expect to be in the spotlight, like his counterpart was at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York. Players blasted the United States Golf Association for almost unplayable conditions, especially dried-out greens that would not hold shots.
"The PGA's focus is much more on fairness, but a very tough test of golf and not getting into some of the things that make players think a golf course is unfair," Lee said.
Whistling Straits is challenging enough that it does not have to be tricked up with impossible pin placements or rock-hard greens.
"There's no trickery out there at all," Lee said. "A green that doesn't hold a shot and a ball that runs on forever, that's trickery. If you've got the moxie to be able to put a ball right where it needs to be, it should hold in there."
Miller, who plans to attend all four days of the tournament, will be wandering through the knee-high fescue and will undoubtedly cast an approving eye at what he expects to be perfect course conditions.
"That course will be everything it needs to be," Miller said. "I'm sure there's going to be a lot of belly-aching, but it will not have to do with the conditions."
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)
