Our Big Day: International Junior Masters

Twenty summers ago, during his first June as the superintendent at East Aurora Country Club, Drew Thompson started planning for the International Junior Masters about a week before the opening tee shots.

“I knew it was here,” he says. “But it wasn’t portrayed like it was that big of a deal. It was nowhere near the level it is now. Back then, the kids came in and played, and there was a little hospitality room for volunteers. It wasn’t the event that it’s become.”

How times have changed. Billed as the oldest international junior invitational in North America, the IJM gathers 84 top young golfers, including a dozen girls, for a week of medal and match play. Players arrive in the Buffalo suburb four or five days in advance of the first medal round — almost as early as Thompson started preparing for the event back in 2004 — to share matches and meals. Members welcome them every year, spending the week as course spotters, securing sponsors, even opening their homes. “It’s about as close to a Tour event experience as a kid can get at that age,” Thompson says.

Thompson and his maintenance team are a big part of the continued success of the IJM, which launched in 1953 — featuring players like Jim Furyk, Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini before they were famous — and has been contested every year since besides 2020. Planning for the next year starts more than 11 months in advance, about two or three weeks after the last putt of the previous event, and Thompson really starts thinking about it “as soon as the snow melts.”

“Pretty much everything we do always has that event in mind, because we know it’s a showcase event for the club,” Thompson says. Thompson orchestrates test runs — “whether my staff knows it or not.” The first of three big member tournaments, held right before Memorial Day, provide practice runs. Gardener Kay Glosser will tell Thompson if it feels like preparation is a little behind.

“When we get to the week of the event, it’s early mornings. We’re not in here in the evenings mowing things because a number of days are 36-hole matches, so we really can’t be out there,” Thompson says. “And we have long drive contests that go on after they’re done playing. Everything we do has to be done in the morning.”

Thompson learned over his first handful of IJMs that he needs a team of 17 people to operate smoothly. He has five full-timers, including first assistant superintendent Adam Brueggeman and equipment technician Cody Kegler, then adds another seven or eight people by the end of May before filling out the staff in early June. “If we have one person who oversleeps — we start some of those days at 3:30 or 4 o’clock in the morning — we can still function and get everything done that we need to get done ahead of play,” he says. “The maintenance team here takes it seriously — and they like the early-in, early-out.” Thompson recognizes the team with a full page in the event program, highlighting them in a photo and explaining what they do.

If Thompson needs a little extra help, he knows he can ask golf professional David Jones and other club managers, but he prefers to let them manage rather than mow. His brother Thad, the superintendent at Terry Hills Golf Club in nearby Batavia (see page 30), meanwhile, will show up on the last day to swap flagsticks and return normal tee markers — “a huge help.” Tournament director Jeff Kamien and player development lead Paul O’Brien strive to create spectacular and seamless action on the course.

One more thing that’s changed since that first summer? Thompson has mellowed more than a little.

“I was a miserable prick 20 years ago,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve changed my ways. I have! I love my staff and I love my club. Don’t drive around, yelling and screaming at your guys. Coach ’em!”

— Matt LaWell