I spent Friday morning shadowing Southern Hills superintendent Russ Myers, CGCS and his maintenance team as they prepared for the second round of the 2007 PGA Championship. Here is what I saw:
3:45 a.m. -- My alarm clock goes off. I immediately decide this was a bad idea.
4:05 a.m. -- I leave the Marriott Southern Hills for the maintenance facility. Myers has set me up with a parking pass for the maintenance facility and, shockingly, traffic is rather light at this time of night/morning. Less than 10 minutes later, I arrive.
4:34 a.m. -- Myers enters the meeting/dining area in the maintenance facility to begin the pre-round meeting. Unlike the afternoon sessions, when Myers had generally worked the room a bit before beginning the meeting, he goes straight to the microphone, turns off the big screen TV that had been showing ESPN News, and gets after it.
He tells the team he is happy where they're at entering round two. They'll single cut greens and then wait for a Stimpmeter reading. If they're happy with the target speed, which ranges between 12 and 12.8, they'll bring in rollers and then syringe them to finish them off. If they're not where they need to be, crews will give them another cut, followed by another Stimpmeter reading.
Myers then turns his attention to the bunkers. Because this is a family blog, I won't repeat verbatim what he said. But to recap: Myers had several productive, professional conversations with PGA rules officials about the bunkers. He encouraged his bunker teams to do an extra vigilant job this morning so there would be no need for future meetings with those rules officials. He then asked a Spanish-speaking member of his full-time crew to translate that message to the other Spanish-speaking members of his crew. Knowing there wasn't a direct translation for some of the phrases Myers used to get his point across, the translator stares blankly at Myers for a few seconds, a look which draws a huge laugh from the rest of the team and finally wakes up the room.
After another word of caution to his greens mowers about potential scalping on the most severe slopes on greens, Myers sends the team on its way. "Let's get after it," he says.
4:58 a.m. -- Myers rolls his cart to a stop behind the 18th green. CBS had installed a set of powerful flood lights for several nighttime beauty shots they'll use during this weekend's broadcasts. He convinced them to leave them throughout the week, so he flips them on to provide a little extra light to crews attacking work on Nos. 1, 9 and 18.
5:01 a.m. -- Even with the extra light from the floodlights and the headlights on the mowers, crews are struggling to pick out the center line of the fairway on No. 18 to begin mowing. Myers studies the scene from the front 
of 18 green, then proceeds to walk halfway down the hole in an attempt to find the line. When he gets back, he takes matters into his own hands, hops onto a Jacobsen Greens King IV, and mows the first line himself.
5:15 a.m. -- Myers' radio provides his first greens speed report -- the 13th hole is rolling 12.7 after the first cut. He makes the call very quickly. "That's right where we want it. No second cut. Just roll it and syringe it."
5:17 a.m. -- Other greens speeds begin to roll in. Myers says the A1/A4 bentgrass greens generally pick up an additional four inches of speed with each cut, so he carefully weighs the decision on whether to double cut the greens depending on the location of the green, how quickly it firms up throughout the day, etc. When a speed of 12.3 is reported after the first cut on No. 10, for example, he asks where the hole location is for the day. Told its middle left, he instructs them to cut it again.
5:29 a.m. -- Myers gets his first report from the third green, a spot he's been curious about all morning. PGA officials have selected a back left hole location that could be problematic as the day goes on because of the sloping on that area of the green. After stopping by his office to grab a few golf balls, Myers returns to the green, marks the proposed hole location with one of his radios, and sends a few putts toward the target. From the back right of the green, the putt is dangerously slick. He putts a few more times, wanders the green while pondering his decision, then instructs the crews to roll the green and syringe it. He'll return to the green several other times throughout the morning to confirm his decision. "We'll have to watch it," he decides.
5:52 a.m. -- Myers returns to the green at No. 18, his new obsession now that his concerns about No. 3 have been temporarily satisfied. The first cut of that green is now complete, and crews are on hand to Stimp the putting surface. "11.6," Myers predicts out loud after rolling a few balls up the slope from the bottom of the green. The first reading comes in at 11.10. "No way," he jokes. "Measure it again." They do, and the reading remains constant. "Mow it again," he instructs the crew.
6:09 a.m. -- After another trip to the third green to double check the speeds, he returns to 18. Studying the grass up close, he notices that some of the cuts aren't as clean as he would like, the grass sporting small spurs. He radios his technicians to check closely the greens mowers used on 18 to make sure they both get a clean bill of health.
Myers admits his real concern on 18 isn't today, with a relatively safe back right hole location. It's tomorrow he's worried about, when the green will feature a front left location, just over a gaping bunker. He knows that speeds that will be appropriate for today's hole location will not work on Saturday. "If we push it too far today, then we could be in some trouble tomorrow," Myers admits.
6:27 a.m. -- Simultaneously, Myers gets calls on both his maintenance radio and the radio he uses to communicate with PGA officials. I can't understand a word either person is saying, but Myers conducts two conversations at once with little problem. "You have to fake it a little sometimes," he laughs.
6:35 a.m. -- More putts on No. 3. "It's perfect," Myers says. "I hope Kerry keeps it there." He does.
I'll continue with part 2 of the running diary later this afternoon.
