Some golf course superintendents sleep at their clubs because they have no choice—they often work such long days that it doesn't make sense to go home and turn right around for the very early starts their jobs require.
And when they stay at the course, accommodations are hardly five-star; sleeping on a green, in fact, is usually more comfortable than trying to catch Zs in the cramped spaces that most "supers" call offices—if indeed they have offices at all.
At Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., though, Director of Grounds Mark Kuhns and his staff have roomy offices and every other comfort of home at their disposal in the main building of the club's new $2.3 million Grounds Administration complex. They can shower, cook hot meals, do laundry, lift weights, or just relax and watch TV in a suite with a great view of the course (and cushy sectional sofas that accommodate naps quite nicely).
The irony, though, is that while as many as 14 interns actually live in the building and enjoy all of these comforts full-time—sleeping two to a room in quarters that are nicer than most college dorms—Kuhns and his full-time staff now find themselves spending less time at the office, and more at their real homes. "For the first time in my career, I actually have a life," says Kuhns, a 25-year industry veteran who came to Baltusrol after serving as superintendent of several leading Pittsburgh-area clubs, including Laurel Valley and Oakmont.
Kuhns and his staff are hardly slacking off while on the job, though. There's more activity than ever at Baltusrol, as the club—which has hosted seven U.S. Opens and many other top men's and women's amateur and pro events—gears up for its first PGA Championship (and 45,000 people) later this summer (August 8-14).
But the huge boost in efficiency gained from the club's new maintenance complex—which opened last year and includes several new or refurbished buildings for fertilizer and pesticide management, regular maintenance and repair, and equipment staging and storage, in addition to the office/dormitory structure—is making it possible for the Baltusrol grounds department to do everything that's needed to prep for the PGA, and still get home for dinner. Kuhns, in fact, even has more time to indulge his self-taught passion for landscape masonry and personally construct new stone headwalls and bridges for the streams that run through Baltusrol's two scenic courses.
Impossible to Imagine
No one at Baltusrol even wants to think about how the club would now be trying to get ready for a major tournament with its previous maintenance setup. The club actually began planning to upgrade its grounds and maintenance facilities even before it knew that it would be awarded the 2005 PGA, because the situation had become that dire.
"It was not a good thing," says Kuhns about the facilities that he saw when he first came to Baltusrol to apply for the Director of Grounds position. "Metal buildings were falling off their foundations; roofs were leaking profusely; almost all of the equipment sat outside and when it was washed off, everything would slop right into our streams."
"Dilapidated would be a good word," adds Scott Bosetti, Superintendent of Baltusrol's Lower (Championship) Course. "It was awful, and not just outside. We had as many as 13 people sharing office space maybe one and a half times larger than what I now have just for myself. We actually took a picture of and put it into a PowerPoint presentation that we made to the Board, to show what we had—or actually didn't have—to work with."
Bringing the Plans to Life
After earning the position of Director of Grounds (largely on the strength of essays he wrote as part of the application process, outlining short- and long-term strategies for the department that included a major facilities upgrade), Kuhns' primary objective upon arriving at Baltusrol was to see if he could actually get some—or any—of the plans he'd put on paper to come to life. "In my wildest dreams," he admits now, "I never thought the whole thing would fly."
But Kuhns found his biggest supporter and advocate in the best place of all: the chairmanship of the club's Greens Committee. Jeff Toia shared the same understanding about how important the Grounds department was to the club as a whole, and about how much it was being hindered by current operating conditions. He encouraged Kuhns to front-load his proposal with everything on the department's wish list. "His only in-struction was: 'Mark, I only want to swallow this pill once,' " Kuhns says. "That was certainly a condition I could work with."
From the Baltusrol perspective, Toia says, "We felt that in order to achieve the level of conditions we wanted on the golf course, we had to have the best in facilities, equipment, staff and budget, and approach everything in a very professional way. It was clear that with what we currently had, there was no way we could achieve those goals. We had to start over—and that was a good thing."
A Lot for the Money
Leading what he calls a "nickel tour" of all that grew out of Baltusrol's decision to revive its Grounds department from the ground up, Doston Kish, Superintendent of the Club's Upper Course, points out these features and benefits as he goes through the three floors of the main building and the three supporting buildings in the complex:
•A mud room near a side door of the Administration Building, with hoses and a dehumidifier for wet gear.
•Outside equipment washdown area with screened drains to catch clippings, and a filtration system—described by Kish as a "pool filter on steroids"—that recycles the wash water.
•An isolated, contained 300-gallon mixing station for fertilizers and pesticides. "We used to plug into irrigation and sprinkler heads to mix right on the course," Kish says. "And our lunchroom was right where we kept the pesticides."
•A brand new, well-lit equipment maintenance and repair building with epoxy floors "that reflect the light and are easier to clean," according to Equipment Manager Todd Simms. The doors "open at different angles, allowing us to get larger trucks up on the lifts," he adds. Simms is also enthused that he now has his own office, computer and phone line, which lets him access manuals and order parts online. Simms' shop also has brand-new grinders with touch-screen controls that read out in both English and Spanish.
•A nearly 12,000-sq. ft. equipment storage and staging barn, with neatly organized 25-foot-high pallet racks at each end. "The pallet racks are huge in clearing floor space," says Kish. "Now we can palletize equipment like snow plows and put them up and away in the off-season." Two forklifts help with the storage tasks. "Forklifts are something most greens managers only dream about," says Kish.
At the end of the tour, Kish uses the "d-word" again. "To have the members provide a facility like this is a dream come true," he says. "It's phenomenal Mark had the wherewithal to ask for it, and just as phenomenal they gave it all to us."
But what about the members, who had to pony up the $2.3 million through a special assessment—are they equally wowed by the results?
"After it opened we had a number of members out for a tour," Toia adds. "Pretty much every one admitted they just thought the department 'cut the grass' and were naive about all the other things they do. When we showed them things like the spray rigs and how batches of fe
rtilizer and chemicals were mixed, they all agreed it was the logical, right thing to do.
"We were happy to bring it in at that cost," Toia adds. "We think it was a really good value that will pay off many times over for the next 30 or 40 years. Our needs analysis made it pretty clear we weren't overdoing it in any area. If you want to attract the most professional people who can do the best job for you, you have to provide a workplace that makes them want to be there and allows them to perform at their best."
Certainly, the PGA will be the ultimate performance test for the Baltusrol Grounds department, with "the eyes of the world," as Kuhns describes it, scrutinizing every inch of the course's condition. But with the capabilities and comforts made possible by the new complex, Kuhns is confident his staff is ready to help the club "put its best foot forward"—and he certainly isn't losing any sleep over what lies ahead.
All of the club's 2004 interns (left) returned for 2005, and no wonder—where else can you get a room this nice that's literally on the site of a Major championship? School nameplates for each of the "dorm rooms" add to the collegial feeling.
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