The parched Shinnecock Hills Golf Club was not a pretty sight Sunday for someone who has seen the place for as long as he can remember.
Joe Smith, a golf course superintendent on Long Island who worked for his brother and his father on the Shinnecock greens staff since he was old enough to work, watched the final round of the U.S. Open and said, "I think they lost control of the golf course."
Smith is the brother of the late Peter Smith, who was superintendent at Shinnecock for the previous two Opens in 1986 and 1995, and the son of the later Elmer Smith, who preceded Peter in the job. The fact that Peter was let go in 1999 and replaced by Mark Michaud of Pebble Beach remains a source of deep irritation in Smith's family and among his fellow members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation.
They all know from experience that it is the United States Golf Association, not the superintendent, that makes decisions about how a course is mowed and watered during an Open. But Joe Smith simply believes it somehow could have been different.
"I know it sounds like sour grapes," he said. "But with my brother and my father, it wasn't just working the course, it was the connection they had with it, it was the feeling.
"I'd like to go back there in a while and see the course," Smith said. "I know there was at least one fairway that is dead. They're not going to get that back until October."
But that is not his concern. Smith is happy to be working in the family business. For the past 10 years, he has been superintendent at Heartland Golf Park in Edgewood, a par-3 course with holes that replicate famous short holes at other courses.
"You know what they say, if you find a job you like, you never really go to work a day in your life," Smith said, adding that he likes the look of his course. "It has that Smith touch."
Source: Newsday