Our Big Day: The Spirit

Michael Dieckhoff will sometimes say that his wife, Nikki, knows when he needs to arrive at work, but she never knows when he will return home.

Well, that’s not entirely true. For one week every other year, Dieckhoff never returns home. Now in his 21st season as the director of agronomy at Whispering Pines Golf Club, Dieckhoff helps oversee the biennial Sprit International Amateur Golf Championship, a weeklong tournament modeled after the Olympics that brings together the top two amateur men and women from 20 countries across six continents. Dieckhoff and his 38-person maintenance team work “daylight to dark” during the two weeks leading up to the tournament. But when Monday hits and the competition starts, he never leaves the property. “We stay either over at Camp (Olympia) or we have a couple houses outside,” Dieckhoff says. “We stay on property and my head mechanic stays on property. That way we’re here and if one of us wakes up, none of us are late.”

Founded by Corbin Robertson Jr. — who was once estimated to control more coal reserves than anybody or anything in the United States besides the federal government — The Spirit is rooted in competition and philanthropy. Its major beneficiaries include the Houston Food Bank, The Immunization Partnership, Medical Bridges, Inc. and the Baylor College of Medicine Teen Health Clinic. Its list of alumni is even more impressive: Masters champions Danny Willett, Jordan Spieth and Charl Swartzel, longtime women’s No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, and former men’s No. 1 Jason Day have all competed in the event.

“The tournament dang near runs itself as far as players and all that good stuff,” Dieckhoff says. “We just get in early, get out of the way, and give ’em the best course we can.”

Dieckhoff learned about long hours and attention to detail during springs at the Masters — he interned in 1995 and returned the next year, working 128-hour weeks both years — and brings that level of exactitude to The Spirit.

“The countdown clock is sitting up at the front of the breakroom and everything you do, you take a little extra hop in your step to make sure that, OK, this is what we really want to do,” he says. “You’re a lot more aware of a mistake and what it can cost you at the end of the year. If we get a little too aggressive, do we have time to grow out of it? If we skip this fertilizer app, do we have enough behind it to keep us going?

“A lot happens in the last two weeks: Putting a fresh edge on everything — bunkers, cart paths, that sort of thing — getting the water where you want it, getting the firmness where you want it, getting the speed on the greens where you want it.”

After 14 long days of prep, Dieckhoff and his team — including Championship Course superintendent Cody Fisseler, The Needler superintendent A.J. Pursley, assistant superintendent Ben Fischer and equipment manager Javier Alfaro — arrive around 3 each morning of the tournament. The rest of the team will each work two of the six days on a three-day rotation.

Once jobs are finished for the day, the team is free to walk the course and follow golfers. Because about 80 percent of the team is of Latino heritage, most are following the Mexican players. “The Mexican team normally comes down to the shop and talks with them afterward,” Dieckhoff says. “They’re just beaming. They get their flag signed, hats signed, shirts signed, players thank them, and they’re grinning ear to ear for the next month.”

After the last putt drops, Dieckhoff allows himself, quite literally, one day of rest.

“I go home, I kiss my wife, take a shower and go to bed,” he says. “In that order.

“I think one year, I slept 14 hours.”

— Matt LaWell