Selection and preparation (Course management)

How the USGA chooses championship sites and what superintendents do to accommodate the events

That time of year is approaching – the heart of golf season. For some facilities, that means preparing to host one of the 13 USGA national championships that take place between June and October. Sites are selected based on how challenging the course is, the room it has to accommodate spectators and geographic location. Once sites are selected, golf course superintendents prepare the courses for the scrutiny they will receive during these events. That preparation varies.

“If it’s a U.S. Open, there’s a fair amount of preparation,” says Mike Davis, senior director, rules and competition for the U.S. Golf Association. “Most of the time, when we visit a U.S. Open site, we look at new tees, fairway widths and grass preparation.

“When selecting a site, we take the course as is, generally speaking,” Davis adds. “The first thing we need is an invitation from the host club in writing. But it’s all about the golf course – it has to be good enough to test the players. If we’re looking at a site, say, for the U.S. Amateur or U.S. Open, length becomes more of an issue. If a course is 6,400 yards from the tips, it isn’t enough golf course for those players.”

The USGA also checks to see if a course has a nice balance of par 3s, a nice mix of par 4s and par 5s and what the green complexes are like – if they have undulations, are they large and flat or relatively small and elevated.
The USGA looks at the club, too.

“Will they be enthusiastic?” Davis asks. “How will the players be treated? Is there enough room? But no one site is perfect for any championship. For example, the course might be hard to get to or have limited accommodations.”

The USGA receives between 300 and 400 invitations annually to host its national championships, according to Davis. Some are specific about which tournament they want to host, and others are specific about the year in which they want to host a championship.

The minimum amount of time needed to select a site for a tournament is two years, according to Davis. However, for the bigger championships, such as the U.S. Open, sites can be planned as far in advance as seven years.

Long and narrow
For clubs that host USGA national championships, tweaks to the designs of their courses need to be made before the tournament – mostly making them longer and narrower. Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., which will host the U.S. Amateur Aug. 21 to 27, planned to make changes to its course before it was chosen as the host site, according to golf course superintendent Jim Nicol.

“When USGA officials came out to the site for the first time, they didn’t ask for much,” he says. “The only changes the USGA asked for was the narrowing of holes nine and 11.”

At Hazeltine, the landing zone on the ninth hole was narrowed by sod and bunkers; a new bunker was installed short of the green on the 11th hole to narrow the landing zone; the tee on the par-3 13th was extended so the hole plays 247 yards instead of 204 yards; the bunker left of the green on the 13th was rebuilt; the landing zone on the 14th was narrowed by adding bunkers; a new tee was built on the 15th hole and it was extended from 586 yards to 637 yards; and the championship tee on the 18th was lowered and moved, extending the hole from 457 yards to 472 yards.

“These changes will give us better ideas of what we need to do for future championships,” Nicol says.

Similarly, at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan., which will host the U.S. Senior Open July 6 to 9, changes to the course already were planned with design firm Coore and Crenshaw, and implementing them was accelerated in 2004, according to golf course superintendent P. Stan George. Changes include a few new tee boxes, five new bunkers, aesthetic improvements of other bunkers and an expanded practice tee.

“We were looking for more length and strategy,” George says. “We narrowed the fairways in the spring of ’05 with USGA recommendations.”

Additionally, Newport Country Club in Rhode Island, which is hosting the U.S. Women’s Open June 29 to July 2, lengthened its course from 6,700 yards to 6,800 yards by moving the tees back on four holes.

Conditioning tweaks
In addition to the design changes for the championships, the course conditions change a little, too. For example, the USGA requires certain green speeds for the national championships. Determining them is based on the caliber of players and the architecture of the greens. The green speed at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., for this year’s U.S. Open (June 15 to 18) are required be 11.5 going into the tournament and no faster than 12 during the tournament, according to Davis. Flatter and larger greens than the ones at Winged Foot might be required to roll at 13.

There are several ways to achieve a certain green speed. Davis says it’s preferable to achieve green speed without rolling because greens that have been rolled will be noticeably faster in the morning than in the afternoon, more so than if greens were just cut.

“We’re telling clubs to slow down green speed,” he says. “Superintendents are able to get greens faster and firmer than ever. But we need six or seven hole locations, and if the greens are too fast or firm, it reduces the number of hole locations.”

For the Senior Open, the USGA requires green speed to be 10 or slightly more on the Stimpmeter.

“I didn’t roll the greens when we hosted the Women’s Open in 2002 and don’t anticipate rolling them for this tournament,” George says. “I won’t do it because of green speed. There’s a concern of getting greens too fast. Our greens are small – 4,700 square feet. If the greens are too fast, that reduces the number of hole locations that are available on the green. If we mow and the greens are at 9.5 feet, we’ll mow it again instead of rolling. We’ll double cut the greens in the morning and single cut them at night for the Open and during all other championships.”

But Nicol says Hazeltine’s course has developed a problem with anthracnose on the greens, so he developed a program that includes a higher height of cut and more frequent rolling to achieve desired speeds.

“Prior to the event, I hope we’ll be able to provide the USGA with what they want,” he says. “The USGA officials are pretty happy with what we have.”
For the Women’s Open, Newport golf course superintendent Bob Reynolds says the USGA wants the greens rolling at 11.

Firmness also is a factor in green conditions. For example, greens for the U.S. Open are required to be firmer than the greens for the U.S. Girls’ Junior.
A little different than greens, fairways are more consistent. The USGA requires the height of cut to be 0.5 inch for the championships.

“We want the fairways low enough to where golfers can nip the ball to get spin,” Davis says. “We have had fairways down to 0.25 inch, but that height of cut gives players too much distance and balls tend to roll into divots too much.”

Cultural practices change a bit, too, when preparing for a USGA championship. At Prairie Dunes, George won’t aerate this spring or topdress too close to the tournament. But he will aerify three weeks before the tournament and brush and groom the turf.

“You can’t groom it to death before the tournament, especially in July in Kansas,” he says. “We’ll groom the course a bit more than normal in preparation for the tournament. We’ll drag a broom on the fairways once every three weeks before mowing. It stands up the grass a bit more and gives a better cut, but the average golfer won’t be able to tell.”

For the Senior Open at Prairie Dunes, the rough is required to be 4.5 inches high. It was 3 inches before tournament preparation started.
For the Women’s Open at Newport, the rough requirements are:

• Immediate rough - 1.5 to 2 inches;
• First primary cut - 2.5 to 3.5 inches;
• Second primary cut - 3.5 to 4.5 inches; and
• Outside the gallery ropes - 6 inches

Reynolds narrowed Newport’s fairways and says the maximum width is 25 yards, except for one of the fairways on a 450-yard par-4 hole that was kept as is so golfers could be aggressive off the tee.

Reynolds says he’s topdressing much more than usual to prepare for the tournament. He’s topdressing the approaches once a month. Before tournament preparation started, he wasn’t topdressing them at all.

“The USGA officials really liked the place when the Amateur was here in 1995,” he says. “The course played hard and fast then because the Amateur was in August. This time around, the course will be more soft and lush.”

Those conditions are a result of Newport not having any tee or fairway irrigation.

The biggest impact
Even though there can be a lot of stress involved preparing to host a USGA national championship, there’s a lot of satisfaction, too. Nicol says the USGA tournaments are fun and exciting to host even though there’s self-imposed pressure to try and keep a certain level going into the tournament – and there’s probably some let down afterwards.

For George, it’s just as important to him to have the course in as good condition for the members as it is when the club hosts tournaments.

“When hosting a tournament, there’s more work, more stress and more scrutiny,” he says. “I’d be fine if, during my career, I never hosted a major. It’s not something I always wished for.”

Reynolds says the entire state of Rhode Island will be impacted by the Women’s Open.

“This is a world-class event that’s good experience for everyone involved including college students, the club and the state. It will be the biggest event the state has ever seen.”

In the end, Davis says golf course superintendents are the key to the tournaments.

“It doesn’t matter which championship is conducted, but when you talk about the success of a championship, it’s about the superintendent and the grounds crew,” he says. “They have the biggest impact on our championships.” GCN