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A golf superintendent's job is never done

Mark Herrmann

July 20, 2008

Those parched brown patches on your lawn are enough to make you appreciate the lush, green grass on the golf course. No one appreciates it more than the course superintendents who really feel the heat this time of year.

If a pro's greatest challenge is a big tournament, the superintendent's major championship is a hot, dry July.

"This is what they pay you for," said Steve Matuza, superintendent at the Town of Oyster Bay Golf Course.

Peak season is here, for golfers and sprinklers. More people want to play and it takes more work to keep the course playable for them.

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"I always say that the season really starts the second week of July and goes through the third week of August," said Matuza, a third-generation worker in the job that used to be known as head greenskeeper. "The big challenge is knowing how much to water, when to water. These days, we decide that pretty much hour to hour."

Modern superintendents have more sophisticated equipment and much more data to draw on than anyone in their profession used to have. At the same time, though, golfers have come to expect better conditions, especially shorter, faster greens.

Steve Rabideau, superintendent at Wheatley Hills Golf Club, said: "You've got to balance everything. You don't want to cut them too short. It's tricky. You can't have fast, firm greens all the time. You just can't do it. You have to pick and choose.

"Unfortunately, you get to a certain point of the year and the golf course only goes one way. It goes downhill. I tell my members that all the time: 'The golf course is great, but at a point, it goes downhill.'"

Fairways and greens can get a little parched and there is no standard rule for keeping them fresh. Every course is different. Every hole is different. Matuza calls them 18 "microclimates."

Grass can get stressed out. Running heavy golf carts over it adds much more stress. But the hotter it gets, more golfers take carts, which means 15-hour days for the greens staff.

Matuza wishes he didn't have to turn on sprinklers while golfers are playing, but watering at night is asking for trouble. He said grass is more susceptible to disease from harmful organisms that thrive in the dark. "Having greens get disease is worse than having them burn out because once they get disease, they're done until the fall," he said.

Avoiding all the pitfalls is the test that made superintendents get into the business. Matuza and his brother used to go to the course just about every day when their dad was superintendent at Hempstead Country Club.

"My brother is a police inspector and he loves to play golf," he said. "I love taking care of the course."

Tournaments

Not just any place can host two significant local events at the same time on the same day. Leave it to Bethpage State Park. As the final round of the New York State Open was going on at the Black Course on Thursday, the MGA Women's Public Links Championship was on the Red. Daria Cummings of Taconic Valley won the latter with a par 74, including a hole-in-one on No. 8. Yoon Park of Bethpage tied for third with 79.

Tom Henske, a partner at Lenox Advisors, said at the State Open awards ceremony that financial management people had one thing in common with Bethpage golfers: "We're playing out of the rough."

Still, his firm kept the tournament going by taking over as title sponsor at the eleventh hour, organizers said.

A better way to garden

Check out this product, www.bigdaddydriver.com - a combination golf club and weed whacker.

The Sunday tip

"Keep your head down!"

I'm sure you've heard that one.

I've studied thousands of swings on video and I can tell you most people pick their heads up on the downswing because they drop their heads down on the backswing.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Keep your head level going back and it will want to stay level going through. Sir Isaac Newton must have been a golfer.

- Bill Leposa, PGA head professional,

Holbrook Country Club