Here is the second part of our GCM Web exclusive feature, highlighting the work by Redstone GC superintendent Randy Samoff and his maintenance team to prepare their course for the PGA Tour's Shell Houston Open and to give golfers a little taste of what they'll see one week later at the Masters. You can read part one here:
The first thing Roger Goettsch did as he began to explore the idea of tweaking set-up at Redstone to mimic Augusta's conditions was pick up the phone and call Augusta National’s superintendent, Brad Owen, to explain the idea and ask if he could visit with him at his famed course.
The pair spent two days together, and Goettsch picked up plenty of ideas for “Augusta National West,” better known as Redstone.
“He understood we weren’t trying to steal their ideas. Our mission is different,” Goettsch explains.
The 2007 Shell Houston Open was the first tournament where limited Augusta National conditions were tried, and positive responses from players like Phil Mickelson, Stuart Appleby and others convinced local tournament organizers they were on the right path.
When PGA Tour officials saw the conditions in 2007 and 2008, they were favorably impressed as well.
“What the superintendent and the staff here at Redstone have done is really remarkable,” says Mark Russell, the PGA Tour’s vice president for rules. “When you see how they have set up the conditions and you see the positive response from the players, it’s really impressive.”
Russell suggests that organizers of other tournaments held before a major championship or other important tournament could attempt to duplicate the Redstone superintendent’s model at their own venues.
“If you see what the superintendent and his team has done here, why not?” he asks.
Mickelson was favorably impressed enough to record a video from the Houston Open, praising the setup and urging more people, players and fans to attend.
The result was perhaps the most star-studded field for 2009 in the 50-plus year history of the Houston Open, with six of the world’s top 10 players attending.
“In 2008 we saw more of the players embrace it and we knew more and more people liked it,” Samoff says. “It didn’t sound nearly as hard as it did when we first started.”
Daily mentality
To make the course transition successful, Samoff and his team have worked to make the Augusta-like transition a year-round project, not just a one-week occurrence for the Houston Open.
“It is a daily mentality,” adds Goettsch, who left Redstone after the 2007 Houston Open. “That’s one of the things I picked up from being at Augusta National. They live and die with that tournament; it’s not a one-week thing.”
The chipping areas and reduced rough stay in place year-round, with only the green speeds slowed to achieve a proper pace of play among the amateurs who play the course the other 51 weeks of the year.
“We have been closing the course about nine days before the tournament begins to finish the final preparations for the tournament and to speed the greens up with constant mowing,” Samoff says. “Otherwise, the course is the same all year around. It can’t be just a one-week deal.”
Samoff continues to study the Augusta National course conditions and meet with Owen to discuss their common setups.
“Randy has really stepped up and done an outstanding job since taking over the job,” Goettsch says of his former assistant. “He’s made the whole thing possible.”
This year is Samoff’s 10th as a superintendent in the often hot and humid southeast Texas area. He spent his first four years at The Woodlands Resort outside of Houston, a former Houston Open site, before moving to Redstone six years ago when an adjacent members-only course opened.
Thanks to forward thinking, the Redstone grounds crew knows that anything is possible.
“It does make you feel really good what we’ve been able to accomplish here,” Samoff says. “We like to think that a good week here means a good week there. It’s one event, but a special one for them and for us.”
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