They Bleed green

What’s next makes agronomic life at The Greenbrier hectic, even if idyllic surroundings and relaxed demeanors mask the efficiency needed to satisfy a billionaire owner.

In the summer of 2014 the next thing coming to the southern West Virginia resort caused internal trepidation for Kelly Shumate. The resort’s director of golf course maintenance since 2010, Shumate knows owner Jim Justice well enough to understand reasonable excuses carry scant significance in matters involving The Greenbrier’s reputation.

No spot in West Virginia attracts more influential visitors, including dozens who make millions competing on turf. By extension, what happens at the 11,000-acre resort established in 1778 affects the reputation of the entire state.

Effective managers shield their concerns from others. So, quietly on a July afternoon in 2014, Shumate took a solo Gator ride on a pair of practice fields that didn’t exist in any imagination eight months earlier. He floored the gas and then slammed the brakes. He stopped and examined the condition of the Kentucky bluegrass below the tires. The roots held strong.

The ride proved surfaces cultivated by his team could handle the violent wear produced by another team. The New Orleans Saints were bringing a $133 million roster to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., to start training camp a week later.

“After I did that little test, I knew we were good,” Shumate says. “When you are talking about those $10 million kneecaps, I get so nervous. The field, the big building and all the prep work … But if the field wasn’t ready, it was all for not. I was really feeling the pressure of making sure that we were going to be good to go.”

Here’s the part that separates The Greenbrier’s tale from other ones: the PGA Tour had left the resort less than three weeks before the Saints arrived. Shumate’s team learned how to build and maintain NFL-caliber fields while preparing a course for PGA Tour play and maintaining two resort courses.

We have a lot of guys on our crew that love working here. We tell them they kind of bleed green for Greenbrier.” —Kelly Shumate, director of golf course maintenance, The Greenbrier

Hectic is the routine at The Greenbrier. The PGA Tour returns for a seventh straight year this July; the Saints are returning for a third straight summer; thousands of visitors are returning for rounds on The Old White TPC, Greenbrier and Meadows courses.

And, yes, what’s next has already been determined. Justice somehow convinced Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino to combine on the design of an 8,000-yard private course that will sit atop a 2,400-foot mountain less than five miles from the resort’s stately entrance. Shumate, who also oversees the maintenance of an 18-hole Tom Fazio-designed private course, a 132-year-old nine-hole course and Brier Patch Golf Links in nearby Beckley, seems a bit surprised when a visitor suggests the agronomic operation isn’t normal. “I guess I’m into a lot,” he says. “But I have a lot of really good people helping me.”

Hurrying for the NFL

When you hail from southern West Virginia, Jim Justice is your local billionaire. In fact, he’s the state’s only billionaire. Justice’s holdings include numerous coal- and agriculture-related businesses, but enhancing The Greenbrier became his primary business focus when he purchased the resort from CSX Transportation in 2009.

Billionaires pounce on opportunities, and Justice, who grew up in southern West Virginia, started noticing one upon hearing New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton’s effusive praise of the resort after he caddied for PGA Tour player Ryan Palmer in the 2013 Greenbrier Classic. Two weeks before that Christmas, Justice inquired about Shumate’s availability for a post-holiday meeting. Justice also made what seemed like a random request: he wanted Shumate to begin learning how to build a football field.

Google searches and calls to industry friends who manage sports complexes occupied Shumate during the holiday. The more Shumate learned about the construction and maintenance of football fields, the more he realized the process is “like building a big golf green.” But, “Mr. Justice just said football field,” Shumate adds. “I didn’t know how many, how big or what for.”

The relationship between Shumate and Justice extends 16 years and is different than most head agronomist-billionaire pairings. Shumate was working as the Brier Patch’s superintendent until Justice picked him to lead The Greenbrier’s maintenance staff three weeks before the inaugural Greenbrier Classic in 2010. Shumate and Justice were both raised in southern West Virginia and are heavily invested in the region. Because of Justice’s penchant for boosting the remote section of Appalachia surrounding the resort, Shumate thought they might be building fields for a youth sports organization.

Consider this one time where Justice had Shumate fooled. Shumate walked into the early 2014 meeting and was greeted by Justice and multiple Saints executives. The group handed Shumate blueprints of the fields at the Saints’ Louisiana headquarters. They wanted The Greenbrier team to replicate the fields, albeit with appropriate grasses for the environment. The Saints – and more importantly Justice – wanted the fields ready for training camp in July. The group asked Shumate if the latest sod could develop the necessary roots to withstand NFL-sized players participating in daily drills. Completing the two natural grass fields by mid-May would give The Greenbrier a chance of hosting the Saints’ 2014 training camp. The area designated for the fields is located on a hilly section along the road leading to the resort’s section. Trees covered the land, slate rested below the ground.

Picking the proper sod and sand represented the two key agronomic keys to constructing the fields, according to Shumate. The Greenbrier team toured multiple sod farms before selecting a low-mow variety of Kentucky bluegrass from a New Jersey farm. Shumate describes the sand they selected as being “a little bit firmer” than sand used on golf courses.

Construction started in March, and Saints facilities director Terry Ashburn assisted with key agronomic and logistical decisions. Dates are foggy because of the frantic nature of their jobs, but Carrington Bryant, an NFL fan and Meadows course superintendent, remembers the vibe when full-time staff members first saw the field blueprints in Shumate’s office.

“Kelly had a big map out and he said, ‘We’re going to do this,’” Bryant says. “And we asked, ‘Where?’ He said, ‘That hillside over there.’ So we did it.”

Bryant’s statement epitomizes the let’s-do spirit of The Greenbrier. A crew combining lifelong southern West Virginians and turfgrass travelers whose careers brought them to southern West Virginia completed a project involving staggering numbers – Justice spent $30 million to build two grass fields, a synthetic field and sports performance center – without seeking acclaim or attention. The project took less than three months to complete. Nobody got hurt because of loose roots or poor drainage, and the Saints returned to West Virginia last summer, bringing the New England Patriots along for two days of joint practices.

‘Bleeding green’

The reputation of those big greens on the side of the hill is spreading. Instead of flying home after facing the Detroit Lions last fall, the Arizona Cardinals practiced at The Greenbrier for the following week’s game at Pittsburgh, making Shumate’s staff the only agronomic team to prepare playing surfaces for Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson in the same year.

The unassuming Shumate uses the first 15 minutes of a nearly one-hour interview in his office acting like the head coaches who conduct practices at the resort. He stresses the enormity of his job decreases because of the team around him. He estimates half of his workers started their Greenbrier tenures before he arrived at the resort, and he credits his predecessors Robert Mitchell and Pat McCabe for instilling practices that simplify his job. “We have a lot of guys on our crew that love working here,” Shumate says. “We tell them they kind of bleed green for Greenbrier.”

It takes someone with an enormous job to understand what separates The Greenbrier from other operations. PGA Tour senior vice president of agronomy Cal Roth leads a department that oversees agronomy for 146 tournaments on six tours. Roth’s relationship with the resort started shortly after Justice purchased the property. Justice and Slugger White, a high-ranking PGA Tour official and West Virginia native, are childhood friends. When General Motors ended its sponsorship of the Buick Open in 2009, Justice lobbied White and other Tour officials for the July date.

Roth worked with The Greenbrier crew to prepare The Old White TPC, which was originally designed by Charles Blair Macdonald in 1914, upgraded by Seth Raynor in 1924 and renovated by Lester George from 2001-06, for tournament play. Thirteen agronomists work for Roth, but he has handled The Greenbrier Classic from the event’s inception. Of all the facilities he visits, Roth says none feature as many longtime crew members as The Greenbrier. Some courses can’t keep employees for 70 days; The Greenbrier boasts numerous employees who have worked on the maintenance team since the 1970s. “They have the same mindset,” Roth says. “If you give them direction, they find the best way to get it done.”

A newbie by The Greenbrier standards, Josh Pope is the superintendent of The Old White TPC. He forged a relationship with Shumate while serving as a Greenbrier Classic volunteer in 2010. The pair kept in contact, and Shumate offered Pope the superintendent position in late 2014. Pope, a North Carolina native, arrived at The Greenbrier after assistant superintendent stints at prestigious Pikewood National and Oakmont Country Club. Like others learning the nuances of The Greenbrier, Pope quickly became enamored with the staff.

“They have so much pride in what they do and they have so much knowledge in the golf course, which is very beneficial to me,” he says. “A lot of other places, when the superintendent goes there, they might have to reassemble an entire crew. But our team has been here for so long, they know the golf course and they take so much pride in what they do on a daily basis. We couldn’t produce what we produce out there if we didn’t have those guys.”

Flexibility is a shared characteristic among employees. A peak season crew of 18 is responsible for maintaining The Old White TPC, and employees must be willing and capable of assisting in other areas. Pope and Shumate communicate multiple times per day about the condition of The Old White TPC and other agronomic projects. Shumate has similar conversations with Greenbrier Course superintendent Nate Bryant, director of grounds Curtis Webb and Carrington Bryant, who leads the maintenance of the football fields.

Mangers understand what provides the biggest benefit to The Greenbrier drives decisions. “It’s great to be in an environment where you have so much going on,” Pope says. “It takes a lot of communication and a lot of time management and discipline to know where to focus your current day activities at any given time. You have to be able to juggle and be able to help out the greater picture.”

No two days are identical for Shumate, who crafts budgets and agronomic programs and represents his department in meetings with Justice, PGA Tour and Saints officials, course architects, contractors, suppliers, and other industry and resort figures.

Making it better

The golf courses feature contrasting agronomics. The Old White TPC and private course include bentgrass greens, tees and fairways; the Greenbrier and Meadows courses are a mixture of bentgrass, Poa annua and ryegrass on low-mow surfaces. The nine-hole Oakhurst Links is maintained to replicate a late 1800s experience. The resort’s golf season runs from mid-March through mid-November, with the bulk of the play coming May-September.

The Greenbrier Classic, which is July 7-10 this year, occupies daily thoughts, but Pope says preparations intensify in June. Roth arrives in West Virginia a week before tournament and his presence coincides with increased mowing frequencies and a shift to hand watering greens, fairways and tees. The staff is supplemented by around 40 tournament volunteers.

The demands of hosting a summer PGA Tour event at a site tucked between mountains brings agronomic challenges. Foggy mornings are normal, and Pope says dew often returns to leaf blades after the crew completes its morning mowing. Deceptive humidity means bentgrass receives competition from common Bermudagrass in fairways, Roth says.

The mountain views are exhilarating – until they are mixed with perplexing weather conditions. Observing a storm and receiving precipitation from it can be different matters. “You will see a storm moving up through the valley and right when you need some rain during that hot time when it’s dry out, it will miss you. The mountain ranges divert the storm,” Pope says. “You know how it goes in our industry. When it rains, it pours. When you don’t want it, it comes. When you need it, it doesn’t come.”

Following the inaugural Greenbrier Classic, greens were modified and resurfaced with Tyee bentgrass. Other improvements to The Old White TPC since the PGA Tour’s arrival, include firmer fairways created via an intensive fairway topdressing program, more efficient drainage and irrigation head adjustments that allow the course to support what Roth calls a “competitive rough” for The Greenbrier Classic even if dry conditions persist. The PGA Tour elevated The Old White to TPC status in 2011. “Kelly’s non-stop,” Roth says. “He doesn’t settle for what it is this year. He’s going to make it better next year.”

As soon as Roth and the PGA Tour leave town, Shumate frequently fields the same question from staff members. “I love it how the day after he leaves they are coming to me: ‘Did Cal say we were in good shape? What’s going on?’” Shumate says. “That shows me how much they care and how much they value what they do. They want to put on a good show.”

The quality of the recent turf shows at The Greenbrier raises questions about what’s next for Shumate and his team. Is the Nicklaus-Palmer-Player-Trevino collaboration scheduled to open in 2017 the final major project in a frantic decade? Or is their boss – who happens to be running for Governor – plotting something wilder than an agronomist can envision?

Displaying billionaire bravado, Justice tells anybody who will listen he wants to bring a U.S. Open to the new course. The idea seems improbable. Stories like the one at Chambers Bay, which opened in 2007 and hosted a U.S. Open in 2015, are anomalies. But quality turf can satisfy anybody agreeable to something different. Just ask the PGA Tour and Saints.

“You have to realize whether the Tour is coming or the Saints are coming, if something goes wrong with it, you are on the firing line. It all points back to you,” Shumate says. “The Saints could have come here and done all their stuff, but if the fields weren’t good, they wouldn’t have wanted to come back or they would have had to leave and go somewhere else. The same way with the Tour. They are not going to want to come to a facility and put it on TV if it’s not what they are wanting to show. That’s a lot of pressure, but I think the people in this business whether it be sports turf or golf course maintenance, they have a level of pride and they strive for the same thing. They want the best field or the best golf course they can possibly make.”