Random Photo #2

A unique experience

Today’s random picture post is a good one; definitely one of my most unique experiences as a golf course superintendent. Allow me to set the scene: Late October of 2016, and we were simultaneously basking in the afterglow and absolutely spent from the Ryder Cup, which had concluded just less than a month earlier. At this point in the season, we all just wanted to make it to winter and winter was close. Then one day, as I was walking down the first fairway, I looked down and was aghast…

I came to Hazeltine shortly after a regrass. While I wasn’t part of the process, anyone who has been part of a regrass can likely tell you they become obsessed with keeping undesirable grasses out of their new stand; I was no different. One of the first things I did when I arrived was to throw all the perennial ryegrass in the dumpster. If you have ever seen perennial ryegrass in pure bentgrass, you know why. Keeping our surfaces pure was paramount.

…the first divot I saw had Kentucky bluegrass seed in it. Not just that, but the hated perennial ryegrass. I checked another and another and another, all containing my mortal grass seed enemies. I made a call, I was mad, I probably swore, I walked/ran to the next fairway, same thing and the next, same thing. I was incandescent with rage!

There had been a mistake, a mistake I thought we had taken every possible measure to avoid, but it had still happened. How and why isn’t important, what happened next is the story. 

I knew if we didn’t remove the seed, we would end up looking at horrible leopard print contamination forever; it would be almost impossible to remove. Our team went to work and came up with a plan. Everyone grabbed irrigation flags and walked the fairways flagging every divot that contained the offending seed. At first we had hoped the seed was only on a few holes, or in a few divots, but as you can see in the photos, it was widespread. 

Next, the team set up a decontamination rig: generator, shop vac and lots of eyeballs. It was not the project we hoped to be implementing as we basked in the Ryder Cup afterglow; but as our team has always done, they rose to the occasion. 

There are a few spots out there, but not more than I can count on one hand. I know where they are and when I walk by them, I smile and think about what might be the craziest most unique experience of my career.