Fridayshots_001
Crew members catch a little golf action on the TV in the basement of the maintenance facility, serving as a dining area this week.
Crew members catch a little golf action on the TV in the basement of the maintenance facility, serving as a dining area this week.
An assignment board in the shop at Baltusrol, detailing mowing heights for the week.
Simms' custom-designed logo on the front of this cart was crafted by Mark Kuhns' daughter, Kristen.
Simms' vehicle has almost anything an equipment manager could want or need while in the field -- a portable generaton, an air compressor, full tool box, a vice, a jack, a winch, welding materials and a telescoping set of lights.
Need to weld something on a piece of equipment miles from the shop? That's no problem on Simm's vehicle.
Need to pull a wayward golf cart out of a pond. Simms' dream machine has a winch to do just that.
Still more detail of some of the options available to Simms on this utility vehicle.
When ready, equipment is parked in spots designating the hole that equipment will be used on.
These are the wooden planks that are being used to relieve traffic pressure on the collars from greensmowers.
A superintendent's tools of the trade, along the back wall of the equipment building.
What would a major sporting event be without a blimp? Here's the Met Life blimp as it hovers over Baltusrol on Friday.
The trucks from Tree-Tech were in the maintenance area a full three hours before actually getting access to the injured tree.
Upper Course superintendent Doston Kish (left) and Lower Course assistant superintendent Jason Grode go over assignments for Friday afternoon.
Further proof that the greens at Baltusrol are not being rolled -- that section of the assignment board has remained blank all week.
Prior to the start of Friday afternoon's meeteing, Tiger Woods' quest to make the cut at the PGA Championship drew plenty of attention.
Lower Course superintendent Scott Bosetti addresses the maintenance crew before Friday afternoon's work began. That's Kish in the foreground.
Bosetti speaks with Mike, a 14-year veteran of the Baltusrol maintenance staff who was recently injured in a car accident. His appearance at the maintenance facility was a lift to many weary crew members.
The maintenance crew rolls out of the facility Friday to begin their afternoon chores.
Here's what's left of a small fire that Bosetti and yours truly came upon in a wooded area off the second hole.
"Ahh, the good old days," Bosetti said after spending a low-stress few minutes watering tees.
Bosetti and a member of the maintenance staff work on ball marks on the second green.
Crew members are filling ball marks with small amounts of greens mix when repairing them.
The next series of photos are all from the tree near the fourth green whose branch fell on a fan and two television workers Friday afternoon.
Crews began working on removal of the branch just minutes after the final group cleared the nearby 18th green.
This shot was taken from the fringe on the fourth green and is the angle fans would have seen from the bleachers on that hole.
An employee with Tree-Tech was lifted above the branch, where he secured a strap that was later hooked to a crane.
Workers with Turner/CBS Sports support the end of the boom microphone prior to the branch being lifted from it.
Mark Kuhns talks with members of the Tree-Tech staff and workers from Turner/CBS Sports about the removal of the branch near the fourth green.
The removal of the branch that fell from this tree near the fourth green, and the eventual removal of the entire tree, became a media event of sorts.
