Newport Beach Country Club Magazine Winter 2020 | Page 28

“We try to … get everything as consistent as possible for the week of the
tournament, … so we do all the heavy lifting … the week before, when I
arrive, during advance week,” Maloy says.
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NEWPORT BEACH COUNTRY CLUB MAGAZINE
THE AFTER EFFECT
After the tournament, all of those structures that were put in place need
to be taken down, so the golf course maintenance team works closely with
third parties to ensure this process does minimal wear and tear to the
course. “If we’ve gotten some rain and it’s too wet, then they alter their tear-
down practices,” Dey says. “So they tear down all the structures and they
move out from an area on the golf course, then, depending on how badly it
was beaten up, we’ll come in and aerify it and fertilize it and do some extra
maintenance and cultural practices to that area.”
Dey also points to the magnets that are attached to the golf course
maintenance team’s vehicles, which they use to pick up any loose screws
or small metal pieces that have been left behind and could potentially
cause damage to their cutting units. “If you get a little metal piece in
there, even like a ball marker or a divot repair tool or a screw, they all
do the same damage,” Dey explains. “At the same time, they’ll puncture
and pop tires left and right, so we try to minimize that type of damage as
much as possible.”
Once the clean-up has ceased, everything goes back to normal, but mem-
bers can expect the same quality course year-round thanks to the maintenance
team’s ongoing efforts. “Our goal is to produce the same conditions that we
produce for Hoag throughout the year for our members,” Dey says. “So we’re
always trying to make sure that, in a sense, we’re ready for any tournament to
come in at any time. That’s what our goal is because, ultimately, we’re here for
the members.”
NE W PO R TB E AC H C C .C O M
IN THE MIDST OF IT
Once tournament week is underway, Maloy points to the importance of
paying attention to detail and executing certain maintenance practices more
frequently than the standard operating procedure.
“They might mow fairways on a normal, weekly schedule, … [but] when
we get into town for tournament week, they’re mowing the green, the tees,
the fairways, the approaches [and] the intermediate cut, every single day
and, in some instances, it might be a double cut—they might cut the greens
in the morning and in the evening—so it really depends on a lot of environ-
mental conditions,” Maloy says.
In order to keep up with all of this additional work, some extra man-
power is required, so volunteers are recruited from across the country to
come in and help out for the week. Maloy explains that one of the tasks
these volunteers are assigned is to collect three important parameters of
data. This includes moisture, which is measured using a meter that is stuck
in the ground to calculate the volume metric moisture at a 3-inch depth, so
they know the root zone of the green and how often it needs to be watered
without causing any damage to the grass. Other points of data collected are
a firmness test, for which a weighted ball is dropped on the grass and the
ball mark that results is measured (the softer the greens, the larger the ball
mark will be), as well as the green speed, which determines how fast the
greens roll when players are putting on them.
“We collect all that data and now we have something off every green that
we can take an average [of] and then we can determine where we were com-
pared to the day before, so we kind of have a baseline that we can keep it in
bounds [of] and we can adjust things according[ly],” Maloy says.
Additionally, the golf course maintenance team can be found arriving at
the club before dawn and staying until well after dusk. Though members
might not see much of them, as they tend to stay behind the scenes in the
maintenance building. “We’re always on call, so the TOUR officials are out
there managing the play, managing the rules and, if there’s an issue that
comes up, like a sprinkler head breaks or a cup gets damaged during the
middle of play, they would call us out on a 911 to come out and address
the issue,” Dey explains.
“At the end of the day, we want the golf course to show the best that it can
for the members, the membership, the Pickup family, the Martin family and
for the best golfer to come out on top,” he adds.