The September issue is out the door (whew!) and life is a little back to normal. Time to feed the blog again. (Got to make the donuts.)
While I was at the PGA Championship, I spent one morning shadowing South Course superintendent Ben McCargill. As you might guess, the media bus was not yet running at 4:15 a.m., so I took a cab ride to Oakland Hills. What follows is a minute-by-minute -- with some of my own commentary added in -- of what took place that morning.
3:45 a.m. -- Wake up call. Not knowing where the hell I am -- seriously, I've lived in six hotels and on one yacht in the past seven weeks -- I stumble around the room trying to figure out what is going on. With the time difference, it's 2:45 a.m. my time, so, to put it lightly, I'm disoriented.
4:15 a.m. -- Thankfully, my cab driver, Len, is waiting for me. It's a 25-minute ride to the course during the day. At this hour, we get there in about 12 minutes. Len doesn't want to hear me complain about the Chiefs -- according to him, the Lions haven't won a playoff game since 1960-something. But hey, they had Barry Sanders. That's almost a fair trade-off.
4:30 a.m. -- I arrive at the course. The first security guard lets me walk away unscathed. The second security guard swoops in with all sorts of questions -- why would a media guy be here at this hour? And why was I walking toward the No. 1 tee and not toward the media center? And what is this Golf Course Management magazine, anyway, did I just make that up? It doesn't take too long to put this guy at ease and he let's me on my way.
As an aside, I'd like to say that I liked the security guards at Oakland Hills. Why? Because they were all giants. I think if you're a security guard, you should look the part -- look tough, and please, outweigh me by at least 20 pounds. How can anyone take a 150-pound senior citizen seriously as a security guard? That person needs to put away the badge and go greet people at Wal-Mart. Detroit did not have this problem. All these dudes looked like they were just in-between covert tours in Iraq. And you know what that comes with? No attitude. These guys don't have to fake an attitude to show toughness. You simply mind your stuff around them, because they could probably snap you in half.
4:33 a.m. -- I take a photo of the Rolex clock to prove to you that I'm actually here at this unholy hour.
4:40 a.m. -- I arrive at the maintenance facility and enjoy a blueberry muffin and mixed fruit. I don't drink coffee, but for once, I wish I did. There's a packed house here. Everyone is ready to get out there.
4:50 a.m. -- McCargill gives out the assignments.
5 a.m. -- I'm in Ben's golf car now, and we're ready to get out there on the course. Ben is surprisingly chipper. He slept on an air mattress in his office last night, but didn't get much sleep because it was so cool in the maintenance facility.
5:05 a.m. -- The blower crew is short one blower, and not happy about it. They're stalled out at the maintenance facility. Apparently, one of the "CSU's" took a blower they shouldn't have. Ben radios them to hand it over. I learn that the CSU's aren't Colorado State Rams, but instead "Course Set-Up" crew members.
5:20 a.m. -- Ben shows me where the bunkers were moved to on a hole to adjust to the longer players of today. The last renovation before the most recent one was in 1952 for the '51 U.S. Open. All bunkers are now in the 250- to 320-yard range.
5:30 a.m. -- Was that a flash of lightning?
5:32 a.m. -- Yup. Lightning.
5:35 a.m. -- Ben says the best thing about having this event is getting to see so many old friends and having such a large crew at his whim. "A lot of these guys used to work here. You see them once a year at the (GIS), but it's cool to just be able to work with them for a week." Ben says the crew -- including 40 volunteers for a total of 100 people -- enables the course to "accomplish any task."
5:45 a.m. -- I attempt to take some cool night-time mower photos on No. 7, but my camera flash is fighting with me. Or, perhaps I just don't know what I'm doing.
5:55 a.m. -- Ben wants to know if the port-o-john trucks are being monitored closely, because he sees some ruts he doesn't like. North Course super Ron Bentley assures Ben that the port-o-john guys know their... stuff, and are being extra careful.
6:02 a.m. -- Someone reports over the radio that there's a track team, or something -- a group of shirtless men, at least -- jogging up No. 16 fairway. Ben shakes his head in disbelief.
6: 18 a.m. -- I attempt to take more cool photos. Not of shirtless men. I promise.
6:22 a.m. -- Steve Cook tells me and Ben that we were just missed by a light shower. He says there's one more "itty-bitty" bullet that they'll have to hope misses them this afternoon as well.
6:24 a.m. -- The greens mower crew is nervous about a ridge on the No. 14 green. Apparently the crew used an electric greens roller the day before, and it was about 150 pounds heavier than their normal roller. So now they have a ridge.
6:25 a.m. -- They decide to "tamp down" the ridge to avoid any possible scalping. But that means a member of the crew needs to take this "tamp" and slam it into the green repeatedly on this line. If he's off-center even a little bit, he's going to gouge the green. To say the least, the crew member is a little nervous about slamming the tamp into the ground on an oh-so-precious green on the week of a major. But he manages to tamp along the line perfectly. It was like standing over a clutch putt, but instead of a putter, he has a tamp. Sadly, he did not do a Paddy Harrington-like fist-pump after his final tamp. I would have.
6:27 a.m. -- Ugh! Light sprinkles.
6:30 a.m. -- The first golfer -- Sergio Garcia -- tees off. The crew was hoping to make it without golfers until 7 a.m., but there's no rules on tee times during the practice rounds, so they just have to deal with it.
6:32 a.m. -- It rains on Sergio's parade for the first time on Tuesday. It's gone from a sprinkle to a shower.
6:33 a.m. -- Ben asks a member of the bunker crew, "Did you remember to bring your rain gear?" He responds, "I brought my faith, Benny!"
6:42 a.m. -- Ben needs to go to the pump station to monitor some flow. I've never 
monitored flow, so I can't really explain outside of that. But, apparently, he monitors the flow well. Nothing blows up, at least.
6:44 a.m. -- The rain has tapered off.
6:48 a.m. -- There's more golfers on the course now. It's looking like No. 2 might not get mowed. The crew calls in and asks if this is acceptable. Cook is OK with it as long as McCargill is OK with it. "There's not been much clippings, and they're getting mowed twice-a-day anyway," he says. The mowers head in.
6:55 a.m. -- A crew member/Virginia Tech alum spots my "KU Orange Bowl" hat and gives me a hard time about it.
6:58 a.m. -- Another light shower.
7:05 a.m. -- Things are winding down. I learn that Ben, like me, started off his career as an intern before being hired full-time. Ben was offered the job of second assistant on his last week as an intern. "You know how it is," he says of succeeding as an intern, "You shut your mouth and open your ears." He didn't accept the job right away -- he had to discuss it with his girlfriend first. Six years ago she moved to Detroit with him and now the two are married.
7:10 a.m. -- We head toward the maintenance facility but stop on No. 2 to watch some golfers go by. We watch Colin Montgomerie take a few whacks. Some of the crew join us. Everyone is shocked how far the players are hitting their drives, and how close they are for their second shots.
7:25 a.m. -- I bid the crew farewell and head to the media center to post some stories on the blog. The media center? Still mostly empty.
9:30 a.m. -- I catch the media center bus to head back to the hotel for a quick nap before spending the rest of the afternoon out here. The bus driver lets off a load of reporters, and I'm the lone reporter getting on the bus. "Calling it an early day, aren't you?" the bus driver asks.
10 a.m. -- Nap time.
Thanks for the great early morning grounds blog.
Posted by: Steve H | August 19, 2008 at 10:48 AM