Featured Photo: A volunteer shovels sand in a washed-out bunker Thursday night. (Photo: Lawrence Aylward)

OAKMONT, Pennsylvania — John Zimmers points to the moving blob of green, yellow and red on the weather radar that is closing in on the dot on the computer screen that is Oakmont Country Club.

In a few minutes, Oakmont will be besieged for a third time (or is it the fourth?) by substantial rain, a little wind, a dose of lightning and a dash of thunder — ingredients that added up to delaying play for a third time and eventually suspending play for the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday.

Plenty of players, including No. 1-ranked Jason Day, never even got started. Only nine players finished. The leader in the clubhouse was Scottie Sheffler, one of 11 amateurs in the tournament, who shot a 1-under 69.

The weather forecast called for rain at Oakmont on Thursday, but Zimmers didn’t expect a total of 2 inches. It all began late Wednesday night around 11 p.m. Zimmers was at home when he heard a bolt of lightning strike close to his home. And then it proceeded to rain buckets for most of the night.

“We were able to get our mowing and rolling done [Wednesday] night, which was huge,” Zimmers says.

Earlier in the week, players who had played the course during practice rounds talked about the severe firmness of the course’s fairways and Poa putting greens. Phil Mickelson, who knows Oakmont well, was one of those players, but he also noted that Oakmont could go soft.

“If it’s wet, you can actually shoot under par here,” Mickelson said. “If there is a little bit of rain, the fairways will hold.”

Mickelson was spot on, as Scheffler’s score proved. At 3-under par was American Andrew Landry, who was on his last hole when play was suspended. Bubba Watson was 2-under par through 14 holes.

“We went from a fast, firm Oakmont to a wet, soft Oakmont real fast,” Zimmers said. “Players were shooting scores, which was expected. [Oakmont] was there for the taking.”

On Thursday morning, Zimmers and his regular crew of 50 and 140 volunteers took to the course to clean up some after the storm.

“We had some bunker washouts. The volunteers and our staff did a wonderful job this morning — just remarkable,” he said.

A chance of rain is expected today, but sunny skies with high temperatures in the low 80s are expected for Saturday and Sunday. Monday’s weather calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 87.

With the washout on Thursday, there could be play on Monday if not enough golf can be jammed into the next three days.

“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Zimmers said.

Better weather also means that Oakmont will get its mojo back quickly.

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Featured photo: Dave Delsandro literally loves the hallowed ground that is Oakmont. Photo by Lawrence Aylward.

Like many young assistant superintendents who have worked there, David Delsandro “graduated” from Oakmont Country Club in November 2010 and moved on to bigger things — he became the golf course superintendent at Nassau Country Club on Long Island in Glen Cove, New York.

The 31-year-old Delsandro had spent several years working and learning from Oakmont Superintendent John Zimmers, who he considers his mentor and good friend. Delsandro, who grew up 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, volunteered at Oakmont in 2003 for the U.S. Amateur. He then interned at the club in 2004 and 2005 before becoming Zimmers’ first assistant in 2006.

And then in 2010, like more than 30 other former Zimmers’ assistants, Delsandro had the chance to move on to Nassau and become a superintendent. But after three years at Nassua, Delsandro got a call from Zimmers, who wondered if he was interested in coming home. With the U.S. Open looming in 2016 — and recalling the thrill of hosting the U.S. Open in 2007 with Zimmers at Oakmont — Delsandro felt like he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Oakmont created a special position for him —director of U.S. Open operations and projects.

“I’d be lying if I told you that coming back to the area didn’t have something to do with it, but first and foremost [my decision] was based on chasing the U.S. Open,” Delsandro says. “It was also the chance to work with John again, as well as the United States Golf Association and the Oakmont membership.”

Delsandro says working at Nassau was a great experience.

“It’s a great club with a lot of history and tradition,” he adds. “I learned a lot of things — personally and agronomically. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”

Zimmers contacted Delsandro because he needed someone with Delsandro’s experience and agronomic skills to help run the crew. At the time, Zimmers found himself often tied up in meetings with various organizations, such as the Office of Homeland Security, in getting ready for the U.S. Open.

“I’m blessed to have him back,” Zimmers says. “Everybody respects Dave. He is also as smart as all get out.”

The humble Delsandro is smart all right — he graduated as valedictorian of Ringgolf High School in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, in 2002. Delsandro is also a graduate of Penn State University’s prestigious turfgrass program.

Delsandro says Zimmers is like his brother. Zimmers says Delsandro is like his brother. They share a special bond at one of the most pressure-packed clubs in the world of golf course maintenance.

“We have been in the trenches for so long that our relationship transcends work,” Delsandro says. “I’d take a bullet for John. I’m sure he would do the same for me.”

Like Zimmers, who has been Oakmont’s superintendent for 17 years, Delsandro literally loves the hallowed ground that is Oakmont.

“This property has stood the test of time for almost 115 years,” he says. “It has always been regarded as one of the truest tests of championship golf.”

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Featured photo: Oakmont is a penal design, with acres of sand and fields of dense rough awaiting wayward little white spheres. (Photo: USGA)

As the assembled golfers take on Oakmont Country Club for completion of the first round and beginning of the second round today at the U.S. Open, they will all know there are two keys to scoring well at the legendary major championship layout that has a reputation for exacting severe penalties on the smallest of errors.

The winner will invariably have driven the ball straight and putted well, two qualities demanded at every U.S. Open, but no more than at the western Pennsylvania layout.

Oakmont is a penal design — acres of sand and fields of dense rough await wayward little white spheres. H.C. Fownes’ design is one of the toughest — if not the toughest — in the world.

Read More: The History of Oakmont Country Club 

The fiendish greens eagerly anticipate all shots, good and bad, with the intent to wreak havoc. The key to minimizing the damage the putting surfaces can do it is to hit approach shots close and to the correct side of the hole. No big secret, that’s the path to success on any layout with tricky greens.

So who will be the best at it is the question. So let’s look at this analytically, sort of.

Everyone is going to miss greens at Oakmont, some off the tee and some on the approach. Up-and-downs are the key.

Wading into the statistics on the PGA Tour website is to get lost in a cornucopia of information that might just be a small step above useless when trying to figure who has the best chance Oakmont.

For instance, David Toms is the most successful out of greenside bunkers and Chris Kirk the most accurate with approaches from 100 to 125 yards. They will not win the U.S. Open.

Aaron Baddeley has the highest one-putt percentage. Retief Goosen leads the tour in 3-putt avoidance, but Luke Donald is tops at 3-putt avoidance in the second round. Think any of them have a chance?

Oakmont has produced notable U.S. Open winners — Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tommy Armour, but it has also been the place where Larry Nelson and Angel Cabrera lifted the trophy. Ernie Els’ first victory in the U.S. was at the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

So who is going to win the 116^th U.S. Open? I have two players in my mind that I think can be a wife-hugging, baby-kissing fool come Father’s Day Sunday evening.

Jason Day: The man, ranked No. 1 in the world, can get the ball in the hole and that’s what it’s all about. This is a tournament about pars, not birdies. With three wins this year, Day shows no sign of slowing down, plus he has two small children, a bonus for TV.

Bernd Wiesberger: His name popped up a few times in the PGA Tour statistics that would seem to have bearing in handling Oakmont. So why not the 30-year-old Austrian?

For a non-American perspective, I also hit up Tim Southwell at the English online magazine, GolfPunk.com. He’s going with Kevin Kisner, an American.

“Not a big hitter but very accurate, which will be needed at Oakmont,” he wrote in a message.

There is one caveat that Southwell added about his choice.

“I pick him every major,” he said.

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Featured photo: Dustin Johnson was all smiles after winning his first major tournament. (Photo by: Lawrence Aylward)

According to Dustin Johnson, Oakmont Country Club got its mojo back on Sunday. But Johnson did, too, and won the U.S. Open, his first major championship.

The course, which was playing as firm and fast as an asphalt parking lot earlier in the week for practice rounds, was softened by 3 inches of rain on Thursday and Friday, the first two days of the tournament, which led to lower scores by the field. The course still played soft on Saturday, and Shane Lowry took advantage by shooting a 5-under par 65. Lowry took a four-shot lead into the final day over Johnson and Andrew Landry.

But when Lowry stumbled early on Sunday afternoon, Johnson took advantage and made up ground quickly. When the day was over, Lowry shot a 6-over-par 76 and Johnson a 1-under 69, and Johnson won the tournament at 4-under par.

Clearly, Johnson negotiated a tougher Oakmont on Sunday better than Lowry.

“Today, the course finally started to get a bit of heat,” Johnson said.

While Oakmont’s Poa greens were fast every day of the tournament, Johnson said they were even faster on Sunday.

“With the pins they had out there, I thought the golf course played really difficult,” he said. “It was really hard to get it close to the hole.”

Johnson has come close to winning a major before (including last year’s U.S. Open), but ended up as the heartbreak kid. This time, it was Lowry in that role.

“Bitterly disappointed,” Lowry said after the tournament. “And, you know, it’s not easy to get yourself in a position I got myself in today. It was there for the taking, and I didn’t take it.”

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John Zimmers was blown away like a Dustin Johnson tee shot by the performance of the golf course maintenance team during the 2016 U.S. Open last month at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

Zimmers, Oakmont’s golf course superintendent, was astounded by the way staff members, including 50 regular crew members and 130 volunteers, overcame adversity – in the name of 3 inches of rain in 24 hours and a lightning strike that damaged the irrigation system – to keep the course playable, challenging and in top condition for the tournament.

Plenty of sand was being thrown and moved in Oakmont’s 210 bunkers thanks to 3 inches of rain.

PHOTO: LAWRENCE AYLWARD

“It is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever been through in my life,” Zimmers said on the final day of the tournament, shortly before Johnson walked off with the U.S. Open trophy after shooting 4-under par for the win.

While Johnson was the star in winning his first major title, Oakmont’s maintenance team members were the unsung heroes of the tournament after Mother Nature did everything in her power to wreak havoc on the course.

Most of the rain fell on Thursday, the first day of the tournament, and play was finally suspended that afternoon after three delays. Most of Oakmont’s 210 bunkers were washed out.

USGA Executive Director and CEO Mike Davis tests the green speed on No. 11 before the hole was cut for the second round of play.

“We had [all of these bunkers] washed out … sand sitting in the middle of them that was covered with silt,” said Mike McCormick, Oakmont’s assistant superintendent, adding that he had never seen weather as such in his six years at Oakmont.

That evening, it was all hands on deck to get the bunkers back up to snuff. And just as the bunkers were righted before nightfall, another wave of storms blew in overnight and dropped another inch of rain. When the crew showed up Friday morning, all their hard work on the bunkers the night before was for naught. They found themselves back in the bunkers shoveling and pushing sand. Many of the bunkers also had to have water pumped from them.

It was a trying week, but Oakmont Superintendent John Zimmers was still smiling, especially about the performance of his maintenance staff and volunteers.

To make matters worse, a lightning strike late Thursday afternoon hit a tree near the 17th hole before traveling underground and knocking out a section of wiring in the irrigation system, which caused leaks on the already-saturated course. “The weather hit us harder than I think anyone could have imagined,” said McCormick, adding that he had never seen anything like it.

Read more: John Zimmers on Embracing The Challenge at Oakmont

While it was “demoralizing,” especially with the bunkers being washed out twice in 12 hours, McCormick said the crew, which included many volunteer superintendents from throughout the country including former Oakmont assistants, stepped up to the task(s).

Assistant Superintendent Mike McCormick said the weather hit harder than anyone could have imagined.

“We were faced with a lot of adversity here,” McCormick said. “I’m proud of the way that people worked and the product that we put out.”

After the rain, the course’s condition was still spectacular, but it was softened, which led to lower scores. But with sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s on Saturday and Sunday, Oakmont, known as the toughest course on the planet, regained some of its mojo. When it was finally over on Sunday evening, only four players finished under par (three of them at 1-under par).

“I think the golf course held up well,” Zimmers said of the H.C. Fownes design.

Joe Reiff was like a doctor on call at the U.S. Open. But in this case, “Dr. Reiff” was on call to maintain mowing equipment in the Oakmont Country Club golf course maintenance facility. Reiff, a master certified technician from Shearer Golf, a John Deere distributor in Burbank, Ohio, spent more than 100 hours in the maintenance facility during U.S. Open week. When a mower came in after being used on the course, Reiff would check its height of cut, cut quality and maintain it, among other things. “I’m just helping anyway I can,” Reiff said. Shearer Golf loaned about $1 million worth of John Deere equipment to Oakmont for the U.S. Open.

PHOTO: JOHN DEERE

At the beginning of the week, during practice rounds, Oakmont was playing as firm and fast as the nearby Pennsylvania Turnpike. Jordan Spieth, the defending U.S. Open champion, said he expected an over-par score would win the tournament.

“I don’t think anybody is going to be in the red come 72 holes,” said Spieth, who struggled the entire tournament and finished 9-over par.

U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson was all smiles in the media room after winning the tournament by three shots.

PHOTO: LAWRENCE AYLWARD

Word on the street was players were hoping for rain to soften the course. They got their wish … and more. In dealing with the weather, Dave Delsandro, Oakmont’s director of U.S. Open operations and projects, put it best. “The only thing consistent about the environment we work in is its inconsistency and the fact that were surrounded by invariables all the time,” he said.

On Friday of the tournament, Zimmers admitted he was worried about the crew – that they were beat down and tired, especially from repairing bunkers. Nobody had slept much. “But they just responded and responded and responded,” a wowed Zimmers said.

There were times when Zimmers was more than concerned. “I can’t lie. Sometimes it felt overwhelming,” he added.

On the final day of the tournament, Zimmers appeared more relaxed. He was satisfied in knowing that the Oakmont crew did everything it could, including mowing fairways in the dark on Friday night, to ready the course for each day of play. And on Sunday Oakmont began to play like Oakmont.

The maintenance crew works diligently to repair damage in a washed-out bunker. The bunkers received much attention during the tournament because of the rain.

“Today, the course finally started to get a bit of heat,” Johnson said after his round on Sunday.

During play on Sunday, the Oakmont maintenance facility area was clearing out as most of the volunteers returned home. But Brett Bentley, a former Oakmont assistant who volunteered on the crew, stayed behind to celebrate his first Father’s Day with his wife, Laura, and 6-month-old daughter, Brielle, who both traveled about 90 minutes from West Virginia where they live to Oakmont to be with Bentley, the superintendent of Pikewood National Golf Club in Morgantown, West Virginia.

“Rewarding – there is nothing better,” Bentley said of his first Father’s Day. “I’m excited that they are here.”

For Bentley, who worked at Oakmont from 2000 to 2009, it was a thrill to return to the place where he cut his teeth to work on the crew for one of America’s greatest sporting events.

Former Oakmont Assistant Superintendent Brett Bentley, the superintendent at Pikewood National Golf Club, came back to the club to volunteer on the maintenance crew. Bentley also celebrated his first Father’s Day at Oakmont with daughter, Brielle.

“The greens were tight and healthy. The detail of the course was phenomenal. It is the best turfgrass conditions I have ever seen here,” said Bentley, who helped stage the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007 when he was Zimmers’ assistant.

For Bentley, it was a tiring week, but a good week. There was no better place to spend his first Father’s Day.

For the 45-year-old Zimmers, who has seen a lot of things at Oakmont in his 17 years as superintendent … let’s just say he will never forget the way the Oakmont crew and volunteers stepped up to make it happen.

Read more: Dave Delsandro is Back Where He Belongs: Oakmont

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It’s midpoint in the golf season in the Northeast where I live, so I’m cleaning out the thoughts in my head, the way I clean out the various pockets of my golf bag. How did a full can of Tab get in here?

No matter where one stands on the United States Golf Association (USGA) ruling given to Dustin Johnson during the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club after his golf ball moved as he prepared to putt, can we all agree that green speeds are too fast and heights of cut too low?

If those greens were at 11.5 feet on the Stimpmeter, what transpired would never have occurred. At some point enough is enough and maybe it’s now. Since we’ve reached the point where gravity and not wind, rain, sleet or hail is playing a significant role in the ruling of a golf ball that had come to rest, golf has now wandered well past the line of common sense.

There are only two golf entities that can stop the folly: the USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Holding a professional open on a layout with green speeds of no more than 10 feet would go a long way to getting country clubs and golf courses to dial back their agronomic demands.

I’d pay money to see top-tier golf professionals play an event on a golf course where conditions are the same as they were 50 years ago. I’d be willing to watch them use modern equipment and play from modern lengths, but the turf has to be maintained circa 1966. I know for sure that there would not be a repeat of the Johnson debacle.

Call for a government study

I recently witnessed one of the strangest rounds of golf I have ever seen. I watched as a scratch golfer played the front nine in 8-over-par, including a three-putt triple on the first hole, then made the turn and played the back nine at 3-under for a 43-32, five-over 75.

The only noticeable difference was that prior to the tee shot on the 10th, the player bought an ice cold concoction of hops, malt and water, which he finished by the end of the second hole. At that point he purchased two more that he casually downed over the next seven holes.

Maybe the effect of the golden, bubbling fluid was purely psychological, maybe it was physical, maybe even emotional, or maybe it was a coincidence. Nevertheless, it was an amazing example of the fickleness of the game.

It also makes one wonder just how good some tour professionals would be if they were allowed to knock back a few on the golf course.

That’s inches people!

One of the biggest golf agronomic pet peeves I have is the listing of green speeds as 10.1, rather than 10-feet, 1 inch. Is anyone ever going to write “the greens were rolling at 10.11 on the Stimpmeter?” Of course not. The speeds are based on 12 inches, not increments of 10.

The future is now

For the most part, what appears on my Facebook page as salient advice is nothing more than pablum. Occasionally, though, there is the enlightening thought that gives pause.

“Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you. Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you’re in right now,” read a recent meme.

It’s a tough lesson to follow living in a world where we are all directed to look to the future and not be concerned with the moment, where we are too worried about the afterlife to embrace this life.

Working on golf courses exposed me to that idea. It didn’t matter what the weather was predicted to be that afternoon, especially because there was nothing one could do about it. What counted was what was happening right then. There was no use in being concerned with suppositions.

An American Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron, said, “The Buddha taught that we’re not actually in control, which is a pretty scary idea. But when you let things be as they are, you will be a much happier, more balanced, compassionate person.”

The golf course superintendents I know who understand this concept are far less stressed than those who don’t.

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Our national champion-ships offer a platform to celebrate the talents of individuals and teams, as well as the excite-ment, strategy and human interest stories of the sports they represent.

Super Bowl. Final Four. Stanley Cup. NBA Finals. World Series. The list goes on. The television ratings, media coverage and social media volume clearly indicate we connect with the events and the people.

I have always thought the U.S. Open should be mentioned in the same breath as the above events. But it seems that our national golf championship has been mired in such frequent controversy as of late that the water cooler talk the next day is not about the great competition, but rather a strange ruling, questionable course setup, sub-par telecast or other issue. Rather than celebrate the game of golf, we talk about its archaic nature.

PHOTO: ISTOCK

Let’s be clear. The game of golf that the Saturday morning group plays at the local municipal course is still a wonderful experience. I don’t see anyone quitting the game because of the ruling faux pas in the final round of this year’s U.S. Open. But there is no doubt golf needs all of the good karma it can get.

I certainly do not want to come off as a curmudgeon, but the professional game is the best marketing tool we have for the sport – for better or worse. We need that platform to bring back some of the personality and excitement that has been missing.

Those who manage the U.S. Open are good people. They have proven their competency over the long haul. But I believe they have lived by a mantra of living on the edge. Courses are being pushed to the brink in terms of set up and conditioning. The unspoken target of even par makes an unplanned change in weather or honest miscalculation in setup a recipe for disaster.

The pressure of the event affects more than just the competitors. Nobody wants to see 20-under par at the U.S. Open, but the result after 72 holes should not look like an MMA fight.

My call is for a “kinder, gentler” U.S. Open. Let’s show the world what the game offers. Fortunately, we get four majors per year to display the game’s personality.

On a related note, my mini rant about the U.S. Open also concerns the element that receives more scrutiny than anything other than Tiger Woods’ health. That is the golf course. It is rare when the week’s Twitter feed isn’t full of golf course superintendents questioning the commentary about the course. Nobody likes to see the work and expertise of their peers be called into question, especially when it is done by someone they perceive to lack the knowledge to make such comments.

Having been behind the scenes of a television production for the U.S. Open, I can tell you there is a concerted effort by television personnel to learn about the course through research and conversations with the golf course superintendent. I have never witnessed the intent to put the superintendent in a bad light. In fact, you will hear of many compliments being directed toward superintendents.

But it is time to go one step further (actually it’s beyond time). The superintendent needs to appear on the live broadcast of the event. We have had architects, golf professionals and even owners in the booth. The person who best knows the course and thus can provide the viewer the best information is the superintendent.

This is not a new concept. Progress has been made over the past two decades in injecting the golf course superintendent into the media. It would be great to see the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and the USGA work to make it happen.

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Cornfields stretch as far as the eye can see when you exit U.S. I-41 to get to Erin Hills Golf Course. Red barns and grain silos dot the landscape on Wisconsin’s 167 less than 50 miles from downtown Milwaukee, and you begin to realize that this U.S. Open venue will be different than any other.

You could almost miss the golf course as it blends into the rolling hills carved by the ancient glaciers that created the surrounding Kettle Moraine and the Great Lakes. In late March, the native fescues that surround the playing surface are still a dormant brown, which blend seamlessly into the broken corn stalks that sit untouched since last year’s harvest. If not for the bentgrass greens starting to show some color as a result of more than 10 acres of tarps used this winter, it would be hard to tell there is a golf course there at all. It is majestic in its minimalism, and the first thing you notice is the acreage around this place.

Erin Hills Golf Course sits on 650 acres in Erin, Wisconsin. The golf course maintenance staff manages 280 acres, including 4.5 acres of A4 bentgrass greens and 40 acres of Chewing’s and hard fescues in the fairways. “You can fit five Merions inside of this property,” says Zachery Reineking, CGCS, director of golf course maintenance. “And it is really maintenance intensive; 138 bunkers need hand raked every day; tee times start at 6:36 every day during the season and golfers play until dusk. But management has a clear vision of what we are trying to do here, so we have the resources to make it happen.”

That sprawling property will allow the USGA to make 35,000 tickets available each day for the U.S. Open. “One thing that will be on display is the vast acreage of unmowed fescues that are such a prominent part of the golf course,” says Darin Bevard, USGA Championship Agronomist.

The supers of Erin Hills (from left) Assistant Adam Ayers, Director of Maintenance Zach Reineking, Assistant Alex Benson-Crone, Associate John Jacques.

The golf course stays connected to its agriculture roots by turning into a farming operation for a few weeks in the fall. The maintenance staff harvests more than 5,000 bales of the more than 140 varieties of native fescues, and local farmers pick them up to use on farms in the community.

“Erin Hills benefits because the mowed grass is actually removed, which is beneficial for the quality of these unmowed areas, and all of that plant material does not go to waste,” Bevard says. “It’s not always just conserving water or using less fertilizer. There are many ways to foster sustainability.”

The sustainable vision of the golf course began at the architecture phase and is embedded into the culture here. Reineking talks about water management, fertility and chemical plans with a passion impossible to feign. He cares deeply for the golf course, the minimalistic statement it makes and the community around it. This is home for him. He grew up in Sheboygan and caddied at Pine Hills Country Club, a golden-age course designed by Harry Smead and Bob Lohmann in 1928. He earned his degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and interned at Black Wolf Run, a Kohler destination by Pete Dye that was named the best new public course when it opened in 1988. When Reineking graduated in 2004, there were a lot of eyes on another Kohler, Wisconsin, destination: Whistling Straights was hosting the PGA Championship.

But the full attention in the area wasn’t solely focused on Pete Dye’s masterpieces that were hosting major tournaments. Additionally, “there was a lot of buzz about this place called Erin Hills,” Reineking says. So much so, the USGA awarded Erin Hills the 2008 U.S. Women’s PubLinks before construction began. They hadn’t broken ground, and they were already on the clock.

Erin Hills had just hired grow-in superintendent Jeff Rottier (now at the Janesville Country Club) away from Whistling Straights, and he was building a crew. “It was appealing to me because there weren’t a lot of golf courses being built at that time (2004), so the chance to do a grow-in was something unusual,” Reineking says. “I graduated in December, took the job in February, showed up in June and started planting grass in August.”

Reineking earned the head superintendent job in 2009 during a management shakeup. Wisconsin businessman Andrew Ziegler bought the course in 2009 and brought with him a badly needed cash infusion that would transform the already noteworthy course into a championship-caliber layout. Architects Dana Fry and Michael Hurdzan, original architects along with Ron Whitten (see story p. 20), embarked on a $2.1 million renovation project that added bunkers, moved a green and altered a couple “quirky” holes.

Shortly after the renovation was complete, the USGA named Erin Hills the site for this year’s U.S. Open. They’ve been on the clock since 2010, but given the course’s history, the maintenance team is accustomed to this kind of pressure. There is a buzz around the shop as the clock ticks down each day. “This has been seven years in the making for us,” says associate superintendent John Jacques. “We all have a passion for Erin Hills, and the U.S. Open is extra incentive that makes the extra work rewarding. We love it.”

That hard work is easy for the USGA to see.

“The conditioning of the golf course is excellent,” USGA’s Bevard says. “One of the unique agronomic strategies that has been employed is to incorporate perennial ryegrass into fairway areas where fine fescue did not perform well. Areas of high traffic or poor drainage quickly thinned-out with fescue alone. Fine fescue performs better in well-drained soils. Perennial ryegrass and fine fescue perform very well together. Zach was very wise to use a grass that performed well in high traffic and persistently moist areas. The fairways are still dominated by fine fescue, but incorporating perennial ryegrass in these difficult-to-manage areas provides better playability than a monostand of fine fescue would. This was a smart, practical decision.”

The maintenance staff has the benefit of a strong owner that enables them to excel. This is a place that is all about the golf. There is no pool, no tennis courts and no golf carts. This is a golf destination, or at least it will be after the Open. The course has been closed since October, and it won’t open again until after the tournament. That dedication to the Open allows the staff to manage the golf course without worrying about customers. They aerated last fall, laid out 10 acres of tarps, made player paths, and there is no rush to get the golf course ready until the world’s best descend in June.

And then there is the money. Erin Hills’ maintenance budget on an average year is about $1.4 million. This year it is more like $1.8 million. Jacques and assistant superintendents Alex Benson-Crone and Adam Ayers were “doing all the little things” that come with hosting the tournament on a chilly day in March. That included not just overseeing the first mow on the freshly untarped greens and the course’s irrigation audit. There is also the ancillary tournament prep, like grading areas for hospitality tents and running water lines for potable water to tents and concession stands throughout the property. With all that acreage, there will be no shortage of concessions.

Reineking knows how important his team is to the level of perfection the golf-only facility is trying to make. “Superintendents get credit for the attributes of the turf, but it really starts with building a great staff, and workers are harder to find, including interns and assistants. We are fortunate to have the people we do.”

The continuity of the staff has made a big difference as well. The team has traveled to the past five U.S. Opens to see how other golf courses have prepared and executed the country’s championship. They’ve been keeping track of every detail, including how to treat the 120 volunteers that will supplement the course’s 55-strong maintenance staff.

“We are going the extra mile to provide more things for the volunteers to do in their down time,” Jacques says. “We’re creating a lounge area that will be fully catered. People will be able to watch golf, play arcade games or get a nap in the sleep lounge. We want to highlight Erin Hills for those 120 guys and want them to have a good time.”

That final detail for the supers is consistent with the vision that began with the original blueprints and sustained through its renovations and preparations. Every person on this property seems to believe that they are all pulling in one direction to highlight this very special property.

“Everything has been leading up to this,” Reineking says. “I sat down with Andy when he bought the golf course and laid out my five-year plan, and that relationship has grown, and now we really have something special because he has given the course the resources it needed to take it to where it is now. We’ve been shut down since October. Our owner has made a financial commitment, and we are going to deliver on it. You only get once chance at a first impression, and on a stage with 20 million people watching we are going to have this place as close to perfect as possible.”

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While his roommate was following the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Billy Casper around Beverly Country Club in Chicago during the 1967 Western Open, Ron Whitten was elsewhere — far from the action – dutifully exploring the tees, greens and bunkers.

His love affair with golf courses was ignited.

“My friend and I were among those attending an engineering institute at Northwestern University during the summer between our junior and senior years of high school,” Whitten says. “His dad had drove in from just outside of Chicago for the weekend and took us to play Chicago Golf Club and then the next weekend we went to Beverly Country Club for the Western Open. I was so enamored by the design and beauty. I knew right then and there I wanted to be a golf course architect.”

Whitten would return to his Papillion, Nebraska, home for his senior year and began collecting whatever information he could find on the subject. He enrolled at the University of Nebraska with every intention of following through on his desire to learn how to design golf courses. But family and friends encouraged him to pursue a more stable profession. He would graduate in 1972 with a degree in education and plans to go to law school.

But the architect flames still burned deep inside. He worked his junior and senior years of college for legendary golf course superintendent Joe Hadwick at the Country Club of Lincoln, all the while writing to golf course architects to pick their brains and collect information.

“I had to make a decision,” Whitten said, still with a feel of some consternation despite the passing of 50 years. “I was offered an assistant superintendent position at Hillcrest Country Club after I graduated, but I really wanted me to go to law school. Everyone told me to go to out of state, because if you stayed home, your family and friends would expect free legal advice. So, I went to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, to become a trial lawyer.”

Whitten sat out of school for a year to establish Kansas residency and continued his collection of information on golf course architecture. He would graduate and become an assistant district attorney. In 1978, one of those architects with whom he corresponded, Geoff Cornish, called him with a proposal – to pool their resources to write a book. In 1981 The Golf Course was released, and updated and re-released as the Architects of Golf in 1993. While he was writing the book, Whitten continued his legal work.

“Working with Geoff was great. He had done research and wrote a few articles beginning around 1950, and had heard I was interested in writing a book. So he called me up. He was smart, talented and as fine a gentleman you’ll know. He was a wonderful resource,” Whitten said.

Whitten finally took the leap to follow his passion full time in 1983 when he spotted an advertisement for a full-time general interest writer for Golf Course Management magazine, the monthly periodical for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Based in Lawrence, Kansas, just 25 minutes from his home, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for him. He was given the job, which lasted all of nine months.

“I was fired,” Whitten said with a chuckle. “Let’s just say it did not work out. But in the end it may have been the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Fortuitously for Whitten, a fellow Topekan, who just happened to be the editor of Golf Digest, reached out with another opportunity. Nick Seitz was looking for someone to write about architecture. Not ready to give up his legal career and going through a divorce, Whitten accepted Seitz’s offer with the stipulation he could do it part time. That arrangement lasted until 1990 when he decided to make it a full-time gig.

When Whitten turned 50 in 2000, he decided it was now or never to hang a shingle and form a small part-time design company. The only restriction Golf Digest put on him was his courses could not be considered for an award or ranking from the magazine. Shortly thereafter, he teamed with Stephen Kay to design The Architects Golf Club in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, just 40 miles west of Newark near the Pennsylvania border. Each individual hole reflected the work of different architects.

“That was my first course, but it could have been my second,” Whitten says with a hint of resignation. “I had created the ‘design-a-hole’ contest for Digest and received unbelievable response. One day in 1992 a man from Chicago by the name of Mike Keiser called me to design a golf course on a piece of land in Oregon using the designs submitted by the readers. I told him it would be a waste of a natural piece of property and that he should get a real architect to do the job. He offered me the job, but I turned it down. He then hired David McKlay Kidd, and of course, we know it today as Bandon Dunes.”

While Whitten’s work was beginning on The Architects Golf Club, Bob Lang, a businessman, put out an RFP for a golf course to be built in rural southeastern Wisconsin. Whitten submitted a proposal, as had the team of Mike Hurdzan and Dana Fry. Knowing Whitten had tossed his hat in the ring, Hurdzan reached out to his longtime friend to ascertain if he was interested in teaming up on the presentation. Whitten jumped at the offer and the trio went on to win the bid to design Erin Hills Golf Course, the site of the 2017 U.S. Open.

As if Whitten wasn’t busy enough writing for Golf Digest and working on Erin Hills, he decided to become a golf course owner. In 2003, he and longtime friend Kirk Wyckoff bought Chisholm Trail Golf Course, located some 80 miles west of Topeka in Abilene, which is the boyhood home of President Eisenhower. The course was previously owned by an optometrist who used students from Kansas State University’s landscape design program to layout the course.

“I wanted to put into action my philosophy of affordable golf and Chisholm Trail was the perfect opportunity,” Whitten said. “We charged $17 for 18 holes. It was a wonderful piece of property. We called it a poor man’s Prairie Dunes because it was cut out of the sand hills of central Kansas. The problem is it was not located near a large population. If this was near Topeka or in Kansas City I know it would have worked.”

The course was sold in 2006, but not before Whitten maintained a three-year weekly schedule of spending at least two days in Wisconsin and the rest of the work week in his office in Topeka working for Golf Digest. Every other weekend was spent at Chisholm Trail doing maintenance. Throw in family life of a wife and five daughters, it became obvious he could not continue the schedule long term.

Having turned 67 in March, Whitten knows he could easily retire having experienced an unusual and diverse career. But such is not the case. He and golf course architect Tom Clark have been working on a project in Lake Anna, Virginia, which has been slowed by changes in ownership.

“I don’t see myself slowing down at this point,” Whitten says. “This is my passion and I have been able to live it out almost my whole life. Why stop now?”

The post How Ron Whitten’s Career Merged from Law to Golf appeared first on Superintendent.

In addition to its latter-day inception in 2006, there is at least one other aspect of Erin Hills Golf Course that is sure to captivate superintendents throughout the 117th U.S. Open. At 652 acres, the venue, located 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, is as huge as it is new.

“Think about that,” Dana Fry, one of the three course architects, says about the acreage. “Nobody has ever confirmed this, but I find it hard not to believe: It has to be the largest single site with just one golf course on it to ever host any of the major championships. That is just an unbelievable amount of land for just one golf course and no other development. I think, from a superintendent’s perspective, they’d be interested in that fact.”

Interested is one thing; envious would be another. Superintendent Zach Reineking has faced and overcome extraordinary obstacles, according to Fry and fellow course architects Mike Hurdzan and Ron Whitten.

“When you look at the total acreage of fairways and greens and natural areas and tees and things that Zach’s got to maintain, it’s a good thing he’s a young man,” Hurdzan says, “because I don’t know if an older one could stand that pace. He’s an unsung hero.”

Fry adds, “I mean, can you imagine? Basically, it was his first head superintendent’s job (from assistant superintendent in 2009), and he’s going to host the national open. Obviously, saying it’s the career highlight for him would be an understatement, as it is for Mike, Ron and I from another perspective.”

While quick to credit the house superintendent, the trio of Erin Hills architects reluctantly accepts praise over their collective design of the par-72 public course.

“We feel like we’re an elite company,” Hurdzan says, “but we certainly acknowledge the fact that we’ve been very fortunate to have the right piece of ground, and the right owners, and the right place and time in the game, with the right philosophy at the USGA.

A lot of pieces fell into place here.”

Erin Hills will be the sixth public facility to host the U.S. Open. Architects

‘Minimalist all the way’

The concept of Erin Hills originated in late 1999, Hurdzan says, when owner Bob Lang began purchasing parcels of land to accommodate a nine-hole course for his friends and employees. Over the next three years, the design discussion was “stop and go” based on Lang’s personal economics, Hurdzan says. Until that time, none of the three architects had entertained thoughts of a U.S. Open coming to Wisconsin for the first time.

“Bob will tell you that, in the back of his mind, he sort of hoped that he could host a major championship someday,” Whitten says. “It was in 2003 that we first discussed it with him, and he became very enthusiastic.”

USGA Executive Director/CEO Mike Davis, then the U.S. Open director, in 2004 accepted Lang’s invitation to visit Erin Hills and walk the property. Impressed, he nonetheless said USGA needed to see a course before it could commit to a U.S. Open. However, later that same year, Davis returned to Erin Hills with then-USGA Executive Director David Fay, who, to everyone’s surprise, offered Lang the 2008 U.S. Women’s PubLinks despite the lack of a course.

“All we’d done is mowed it out and stuck in some broomsticks as flags. We hadn’t done any construction,” Whitten says. “Yeah, we had the permitting done, but we had no construction budget, and Bob was still sort of waffling on whether he wanted to build this course or not. David Fay said, ‘I’d like to see how it plays in June. Would you like to host the U.S. Women’s Public Links?’ Bob jumped at the chance. We were flabbergasted because we hadn’t started building the course yet. The only other course I can think of that had that situation was the Ocean Course (at Kiawah Island Golf Resort), where they awarded the ’91 Ryder Cup before Pete Dye started building it.”

At that point, Whitten says, it became a matter of how he, Fry and Hurdzan could design Erin Hills inexpensively and minimalistically, yet still suit a major championship in terms of not only the challenge and character of each hole, but also ancillary issues that need be considered with major tournaments, such as traffic flow. Whitten says their design philosophy was simple and, in turn, cost effective: Try not to disturb too much earth. “The property was so beautiful – rolling Kettle Moraine glacial landscape that stretched, literally, for as far as the eye could see,” he says. “Our philosophy from the very beginning was just to try and find the best 18 holes we could find on that property and build it efficiently and inexpensively without moving a lot of earth.”

Hurdzan was already in the midst of completing a similar mission in Medora, North Dakota, where Bully Pulpit Golf Course would open in 2004 with a construction budget of less than $625,000. “That was a very, very minimalist golf course,” Hurdzan says.

With Erin Hills, the three architects committed to doing it the “Old Tom Morris way” by arranging the golf course around the land rather than vice versa. Frequently they had no choice – the glacial till was covered by only 6 inches of topsoil. “It was terrible stuff to work in,” Hurdzan says.

The architects hoped the minimalist strategy would parlay into cheap rounds of golf. “When we first started, Golf Digest had that ‘best public golf courses for under $50’ or something like that,” Hurdzan says. “And we said, ‘With this piece of ground, we’ve got to be able to do real well in that rating.’ So we were thinking minimalist all the way in the beginning.”

Construction started in 2004 and the course opened in 2006, accompanied by Fay’s commitment to deliver the U.S. Women’s PubLinks. An invitation to host the 2011 U.S. Amateur would soon follow, as would the monumental 2010 announcement that the 2017 U.S. Open would be coming to Erin Hills.

Lang, however, wasn’t there to celebrate the news. In October 2009, he sold the property to Andrew Ziegler after the financial commitment to bring the U.S. Open to Erin Hills became overwhelming – a scenario that had made life difficult for everyone.

“Zach really battled through some tough times because the financial resources weren’t there to get the course in the condition that it needed to be,” Fry says. “He didn’t have the equipment – the money – to do things properly. He stuck it out, and then when the new owner bought the golf course, the financial resource situation changed.”

Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten collaborated on the design in the early 2000s and an extensive $2.1 million renovation in 2008/9.

‘Nobody is perfect, not even Mother Nature’

Renovations occurred at Erin Hills following the women’s amateur tournament in 2008 and again in 2013. All three architects continued to play roles in the changes despite simultaneous transitions during their careers.

Fry and Hurdzan were partners at Columbus, Ohio-based Hurdzan/Fry Environmental Golf Design until 2012, when they formed their own namesake firms – Fry Straka Global Golf Design and Hurdzan Golf Design.

“My father and my son are obviously the two most important male figures in my life,” Fry says, “but Mike is right there with them. He’s like a second father to me, and without him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

“Dana was a magic ingredient for our company,” Hurdzan says. “Being creative and being an artist are two different things, and Dana had skills that our company didn’t have. That’s why Hurdzan/Fry had so many wonderful projects for 20-plus years.”

Whitten, the architecture design editor with Golf Digest, had joined Fry and Hurdzan in 2000, when he turned 50. “I announced that I was going to try and dabble in golf design because that was my midlife crisis,” he says. “Mike and Dana graciously let me team up with them on a project, and it was just my luck that it was Erin Hills.”

In 2008, Whitten temporarily left the design team after having a fallout with Lang. “Because I’m such a passionate, argumentative guy, and because Bob Lang had a limited window in which he wanted to get things changed, he asked me to stay away. So I stayed away. And then after Andy Ziegler took over, Dana and Mike invited me to discuss all the potential changes.”

The most prominent of those USGA-influenced amendments involved the relocation of several greens and the elimination of a blind par-3. “The line I always use is, ‘I’m a writer, I get edited all the time,'” Whitten says. “I can’t think of a championship course that hasn’t been remodeled – Augusta, Pebble Beach, even St. Andrews. Nobody is perfect, not even Mother Nature. Things have to be adjusted.”

Collaboratively, Hurdzan wouldn’t change a thing. “When you get three guys together, trying to decide something like that, you have to have a lot of mutual respect in order to be able to make it happen,” he says. “I think that’s what this golf course is: a testament to a true collaborative effort.”

‘Model of sustainability’

Erin Hills is the 51st venue to host the U.S. Open, but only the sixth public facility to do so. Each of those six courses has hosted the event during the last 10 years, starting with Torrey Pines (’08) and including Bethpage (’09), Pebble Beach (’10), Pinehurst (’14) and Chambers Bay (’15). Return engagements are scheduled for Pebble Beach (’19) and Torrey Pines (’21).

Only Erin Hills and Chambers Bay, which opened in 2007, are not considered traditional courses. Fry, in fact, is quick to note how rare it is for a designer to live long enough to see his course selected to host a U.S. Open.

“One of the goals of the USGA is sustainability, and Erin Hills is, in lots of ways, a model of sustainability that the USGA is looking for,” Hurdzan says. “So not only can they showcase a public golf course, they can showcase a golf course that was designed and built and maintained with sustainability as one of the hallmarks.

“We tried to preserve as much of the natural as we could. We used grasses that needed less water, fertilizer, pesticide and energy sources to maintain them. We limited the irrigation to just the fairway areas, either one or two rows. We tried to preserve a lot of the native grass areas that were outside of the golf course. Those are the sorts of things that we’re talking about. The big one is just trying to build a golf course that needs less water or fertilizer, pesticide and fossil fuels,” he says.

Fry cuts to the chase: “We’ve never had a U.S. Open on a golf course like what they’re going to encounter” at Erin Hills.

“There is an American mentality of wall-to-wall green and uniform lies and perfection in turf that is going to take time to overcome,” Whitten says. “When you go up to Erin Hills, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the playing conditions of that golf course. It just isn’t as lush and emerald green as the Northeast courses or the Northwest courses.”

As confident as the Erin Hills architects are, they remember the growing pains and criticisms that Chambers Bay endured just two years ago. “The comments early in the week are going to be, for the three of us, very nerve-racking because we all think the comments are going to be very positive. The concern among the players will be, ‘Are we getting into another Chambers Bay?'” Fry says. “But the turf conditions and the financial resources behind [Erin Hills] and the golf course design itself are completely polar opposite from what they had at Chambers Bay.”

Fry expects a second U.S. Open to come to Erin Hills in the near future. “I think there’s a very real chance,” he says, adding that anything less would be disappointing.

“I went through withdrawal pains after the course opened [in 2006],” Whitten says. “We spent six years planning that course and plotting that course and walking that property over and over again, and debating what were the best 18 holes that we could find. We found so many holes out there. I’m proud of what we accomplished because the one thing we did set out to do was let nature dictate the routing. And I think when you go out there, you would say, ‘Boy, this thing flows really naturally. It’s almost effortless.'”

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