Winning the U.S. Open

 Every Wednesday viewers of ESPN’s "SportsCenter" vote for the “most memorable image” of the week in sports. It should be no surprise that this week’s winner was a photo of two crew members in full rain gear standing on an apparently flooded green at Bethpage during the U.S. Open. The photo was taken by Matt Slocum for Associated Press.

GCSAA’s CEO, Mark Woodward, has a unique appreciation for the scene at Bethpage. Not only was Woodward at Bethpage for the Open, but he was also golf operations manager for the city of San Diego last year when the U.S. Open was held at Torrey Pines and fully understands the complexity of hosting the event.

At an all-staff meeting at GCSAA headquarters in Lawrence yesterday, Woodward said that the real winners at the U.S. Open were Craig Currier and the maintenance team at Bethpage, who received more publicity than any golf course management staff in the tournament’s history. Woodward said that the bad weather highlighted the importance of the superintendent’s role, and he also praised the generosity and hard work of the many volunteers from neighboring golf courses who came to assist at Bethpage even though their own facilities were experiencing identical conditions. In a GCSAA press release sent out last Tuesday, Woodward said, “To accomplish what the golf course management team did under Craig is amazing and inspirational. They are a credit to the profession, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, and the game.”

Despite having an incredibly rough week that required nearly superhuman effort by the entire golf course management team, Currier’s response to conditions at the Open was, “I want another one.” Spoken like a true superintendent.

Comments

[Gulf Guy]

When people watch the game of golf, superstars like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are always the center of attention, but the hard work of the golf course management team usually goes unnoticed. Even at our local course the duties of maintaining a golf course is rarely notice by the golfers who play everyday. I commend every golf course management worker for doing their job so that viewers along with players can enjoy the game of golf.