Driving onto the serene grounds of Medinah Country Club, you would never guess that this property was host to the international spectacle of major championship golf one year ago. But, Medinah’s history of hosting big time golf is no secret—from Gene Sarazen’s 1937 Chicago Open victory to Tiger Woods’ 2006 PGA Championship, the members of Medinah have encouraged and supported competitive golf at its highest levels.
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The most recent example of Medinah’s commitment involved some serious reworking of the grounds in preparation for the 2006 PGA Championship—restoration that wasn’t complete until May 2007. As international golf championships like the PGA grow, the preparations involved become greater and more focused. This was certainly true of the 2006 PGA, where organizational office trailers moved in two full years prior to the competition.
“The PGA does an outstanding job of preparation and they know exactly what they want,” says Tom Lively, the grounds manager at Medinah.
They have to. With more than 50 corporate sponsorship tents, numerous vendors, television crews, crane-mounted cameras, players and more than 200,000 guests, the event demands attention before, during and after the tournament. These demands extend beyond just preparation for the course the professionals will play—the surrounding area gets as much or more logistical consideration.
Of the three golf courses on the 600-plus-acre property, No. 3 rightly receives most of the recognition. To prepare it for the 2006 event, Lively and the grounds crew of Medinah cleared over an acre of trees to accommodate vendors, fans and players.
There was also, of course, the celebrated redesign by famed golf course architect Rees Jones in 2002—rebunkering the course, altering bunker location and design as well as building seven new greens, notably moving the 17th closer to the water. This work was done to hearken back to the intent of original designer, Tom Bendelow, and get back to what Jones referred to as “the Sacred Ground of Golf.” Though course three’s preparation was key to the success of the championship, Medinah’s other two courses received almost as much attention, though not in the fashion one might expect.
Course One received the brunt of this harsh attention. To allow easy access to the grounds during the championship, the Medinah member’s PGA committee graciously allowed holes 11-14 of Course One to bear a heavy load: hole 11 was host to the media center, hole 12 the bus depot, hole 13 became a parkway drive and hole 14 the vendor compound. Though Lively knew it was coming and was prepared for it, watching the paving over of the fairways was difficult. It had to have been hard to witness, but it was also an opportunity—anytime a course can get new sod, Lively said, it’s an improvement.
The members' decision to pave the back nine of Course One permitted patrons closer access to the event. During the 1999 PGA Championship, the closest parking was at nearby Lake Park High School, leading to a one mile walk to Medinah’s grounds. For the 2006 event, the members realized a number of things: with the popularity of Tiger Woods and the game itself, there would be more guests than in 1999; also, due to timing, faculty and students would need access to the parking lot at Lake Park; finally, it created quite a sense of arrival.
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Upon arriving at Medinah, Tournament Director Michael Belot noted, “[guests] will be able to see the 18th green and the Medinah clubhouse - that just doesn't happen at a major championship.” The hard decision was to literally turn the lush fairways and greens of Course One’s back nine into drives and parking lots.
If you had the opportunity, you know how convenient it was to attend the 2006 PGA. From remote suburban locations, guests were driven to Medinah in luxury motor coaches and delivered to the historic grounds—steps away from the PGA main tent and the iconic clubhouse—a far cry from the mile-plus walk in 1999. To facilitate this, beginning in June, drives and walkways were created where none had been. Numerous wooden panels were installed to create pedestrian walks leading to the grounds and surrounding the gates and main pavilion. Gravel and asphalt were laid on fairways creating temporary roads and driveways to permit entry and exit of up to 38 buses at one time.
The event, by all accounts went smoothly. But, after Tiger Woods sank his last putt, the corporate sponsors packed up, the television crews and cameras went to the next tour stop—what happened? How did Medinah recover? “The PGA doesn’t just pull up and leave,” Lively said. They assisted with much of the tear down. Nevertheless, Lively states “It was a source of pride that almost all the work was done with just our staff.”
The work began with tearing up all the asphalt and tons of gravel that had been laid just months before. More than 15 inches of rain from late September to October didn’t help matters. There was also irrigation to be put back—irrigation routes had to be redirected to accommodate the water needs of the many involved during the tournament. More than 350,000 square feet of sod had to be laid - that’s about 8 acres. The clean-up was immense. The course had to be put back together after engineering roads, parking and walkways for over 200,000 people—all of which were provided by the members of Medinah for the convenience of patrons.
Course One is set to re-open in May of 2007 - only 9 months after the 2006 PGA Championship. In the meantime, Tom Lively has been on the phone with the grounds manager at Southern Hills, the host for the 2007 PGA Championship, sharing what he learned and what worked for him. Similarly, he spoke with the grounds manager at Oakland Hills the year prior to Medinah’s PGA and garnered what information he could. “Superintendents” Lively said, “like to share.” After all, he’ll need all the preparation, experience and information he can get. Medinah will do it all again in 2012 when they host the Ryder Cup.