Natalie Russell

Natalie Russell was literally in the eye of the storm.

As a volunteer working the recent AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, she was part of the crew that kept one step ahead of the weather for most of the week. Their efforts allowed 54 holes to be completed before a storm forced the cancellation of the final round.

Speaking on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast with host Rick Woelfel, Russell, a second assistant superintendent at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary, Alberta, recalled the situation at Pebble Beach. “For the first few days, we really got the best that we could have asked for,” she says. “We had some overnight rain (on Monday night) and the property was incredibly wet from rain that they had previously.” The crew spent Tuesday making the course tournament ready.

“It really held for the next few days,” Russell says. “We were constantly prepared. We would go out every morning with all of the tools that we needed to fix bunker washouts and things like that, and they suspended mowing a good chunk of the course because of (the rain). But we really didn’t need any of that until Saturday night when the weather really changed.”

Around 3 inches of rain fell Saturday night accompanied by winds coming off the Pacific.

“The wind was really what did us in,” Russell says. “The wind picked up to over 60 mph, and with the saturated ground, just took out everything in its path. There were trees down everywhere, TV towers. ShotLink was down. It just tore through all of the on-course structures like I’ve never seen before.”

In response to the storm, Monterey County officials issued shelter-in-place and evacuation orders. The tournament’s final round was postponed from Sunday to Monday, but it soon became apparent that a Monday finish wasn’t going to happen.

“By late Sunday night, looking at the course conditions, and the conditions of the infrastructure on the course, you could see there was no way they would be able to put things back together,” Russell says. “The grounds crew gave their best effort to put things back together, but I don’t think they were going to reach any sort of playability conditions that would have made sense to continue on Monday.”

Russell credits the greens staff at Pebble Beach for what they did to get through the week.

“They knew just what to do in that situation,” she says. “Everyone sort of jumped into action over the few days that we were able to prepare for the tournament. Everyone did their part, manned their post. For what it was worth, the conditions they were able to produce, we did have really positive feedback on. The Tour was happy with where we were at, the golfers, as happy as they could be, dealing with the wet course conditions.

“I think the product that was put out by the crew that was there that week, especially the Pebble Beach grounds crew, really just spoke for itself with what they were able to do.”

This was not Russell’s first visit to the Monterey Peninsula. She was part of the crew of volunteers who worked last year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach.

What perhaps impressed her most at the two tournaments was the grace of the Pebble Beach crew under fire. She’s trying to implement that mindset at Country Hills.

“Just how calm, cool and collected,” she says. “I don’t know if they actually feel that way on the inside. I’m sure that there’s some stress levels happening internally. But the way that they come across to the crew, the way that they deliver the information they received from the Tour and the way they’re able to sort of plan and take what’s being thrown at them and run with it to create the best product that they can. … It really shows how insignificant some of the things that we deal with in our day to day are.

“And the way they are able to keep their calm demeanor and just work with what’s thrown at them is a testament to them, and something that I strive to implement in my day to day here now.”