P. 6 - LA PLAYA
WWW.PLAYACOMMUNITY.COM
VISTA MAR REPRESENTS AT THE
113TH US OPEN
By Mike Rienzi
hailed from Scotland. You might be
able to imagine that my mix of
Spanish and Southern English made
for some interesting communications
with the young Scotsman! Amazingly,
we had the entire golf course mowed
and prepped for play prior to 6am
every morning.
Left, Matt Shaffer, Right Mike Rienzi
P
hil Mickelson watched his last
chance chip slide past the hole
on the seventy second hole of the
championship as I was exhaustedly
flopping into my seat for the long flight
back from Philadelphia to Panama.
The end of the longest and most
rewarding week of my career as a golf
course superintendent.
On June
9-16, I had the tremendous opportunity to represent Vista Mar and all of
Panama working the 113th United
States Open championship at the
venerable Merion Golf Club in
Ardmore, Pa.
This story actually started all the way
back in 1987. As a young man of
seventeen years old, I happened
upon a classified advertisement in the
local newspaper for a laborer position
at a local country club. Little did I
realize, that day would be the
beginning of a long journey to the
pinnacle of competitive golf. That
was the day that I met Mr. Matt
Shaffer. Back in 1987 Matt was fresh
off his stint as assistant superintendent at Augusta National Golf Club
working for the legendary superintendent Mr. Paul Latshaw and eager to
make a name for himself in the
industry. Matt mentored my career
from the first day I stepped on his golf
course, to the Sunday morning of the
championship when we shared a
reminiscent moment together and I
presented him with a Panama flag as
a thank you for all that he has done for
my career.
Merion Golf Club, founded in 1896,
and designed by Hugh Wilson, has
hosted more USGA championships
(18) than any other golf course in the
United States, including 5 United
States Open Championships, and
was the host of the 1930 United
States Amateur tournament in which
the famed Bobby Jones completed
the “Grand Slam” of golf winning the
US and British Opens along with the
British and US Amateur tournaments
in the same year. It is a feat that has
never been completed since. Merion
was also the host of the 1950 United
States Open in which Ben Hogan
completed his comeback from a
horrific car accident. Hogan’s famous
1 iron on the 72 hole of the tournament spawned perhaps the most
famous photograph in the history of
golf.
Working major tournaments is not a
new adventure to me by any stretch,
having spent a considerable amount
of time during my career at Augusta
National Golf Club, and participating
in such tournaments as The Masters,
United States Women’s Open, and
the United States Amateur Championship among others, but Merion is
special.
Things are a little bit different than my
normal days as a golf course superintendent at Vista Mar. The regular staff
at Merion was augmented by a who’s
who of golf course superintendents.
One may think that this would create
a too many chiefs, not enough Indians
situation, with so many individuals
that are used to being in charge.
Contrary, all the participating superintendents accept a lesser role for the
success of the greater cause, the
biggest golf tournament in the world.
My days started at 2:30am with a very
sleepy shuttle from a local hotel to the
golf course for a daily staff meeting
and hot breakfast. After discussing
morning assignments and any special
instructions for the day, we headed
out on the course to complete our
tasks. My primary job during the
week was mowing the green
approaches on the front nine with a
Merion staff member. My partner,
Blair, was actually a turfgrass intern
from Penn State University, and
After morning tasks were completed,
most of the rest of the day was spent
resting and networking with my
industry peers. My travel all the way
from Panama was quite a topic
among the other superintendents and
some of the ever present media
members looking for an interesting
angle for their editors. After a catered
lunch, we were free to go out onto the
course and watch golf, but most staff
members chose to watch the tournament on the close circuit TV feeds set
up in the maintenance facility. Many
dignitaries stopped by to offer
congratulations for our efforts.
Receiving thanks from such legends
such as Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd,
and Johnny Miller was quite an
experience.
Our afternoon tasks were variable in
their start times due to the rain and
large field of golfers the first part of
the week, with some evenings not
starting until after 7pm. We again
mowed the entire golf course every
evening and spent a lot of time filling
divots, fluffing the sand in bunkers
and cleaning trash and debris from
the course. Most evenings ended
around 10-11pm, making for 20+ hour
days!
The US Open is all about playability,
not the green colored aesthetics that
most amateur golfers look for in a golf
course. Most people believe that the
job of a golf course superintendent is
to “grow the grass”, but in actuality,
our job is to provide a surface for a
game. Maintenance activities that
occur at the US Open that you most
likely will not see at your local club are
things like rolling fairways, green
speeds over 14 feet on the stimpmeter, and the fluffing of the rough with
rakes to make for a tougher lie.
Bunkers are fluffed and furrowed for
increased difficulty and the rough is
grown up to heights over 8 inches. It
is truly a test of the best golfers in the
world.
Being a part of the biggest golf
tournament in the world, at a golf
course universally considered to be in
the top 5 in the world, and with such a
storied history, is a career highlight
that I will never forget, and representing Vista Mar and Panama made it all
the sweeter.
OCTOBER / OCTUBRE 2013