Even the most dedicated lawn-care enthusiast can only dream of recreating the picturesque sea of green found on a manicured golf course.
Each day at Reynolds Lake Oconee, an army of golf course maintenance workers meticulously mow, trim, rake, and water our six pristine golf courses. In the coming weeks, the golf course maintenance team at Great Waters will be taking their usual routine to the next level in preparation for the LPGA Tour's Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee.
On October 22, Reynolds Lake Oconee will welcome the world's top female golfers to the Great Waters course as they vie for the title of the televised tournament. Until then, the course will be carefully prepared for a top-notch golf experience.
The Golf Course Maintenance teams at Reynolds uphold a high standard for all courses year round, but this high profile event and a tight timeframe have provided a challenge for the Great Waters maintenance team — one they are ready to tackle. According to Golf Course Superintendent Brandon Hayes, the typical daily maintenance team of 20 will be more than doubled to 50, and with the tournament teeing off at 7:45 a.m., the crew will start each day at 5:00 a.m., working in the dark for more than two hours.
"The biggest challenge is the short notice," says Hayes. "Typically events like this are planned years in advance and we had roughly seven weeks to get ready. However, our maintenance standards are high on a daily basis and early fall is a great time of year for golf and maintenance, so if there were a perfect time of the year to have such short notice for an event, this is it."
A much-loved course for Members and guests alike, the Great Waters course will be tweaked and adjusted to accommodate the professional golfers.
"Knowing that these are the best players in the world, our approach is to create a challenging but fair test of golf that hopefully they will all enjoy," says Vice President of Agronomy Lane Singleton. "The course setup will obviously be a little different than what our Members would typically experience, but not that far removed."
"As soon as we learned that there was even a possibility of the event coming here, we started to make changes in preparation," says Hayes. "Raising rough heights and doing a little extra sod work were the big things early on. We will do more handwork all around the course, more hand-watering, and add some sand to bunkers. It is all about having a golf course that will play great and show well on television."
Preparing the course itself for the tournament isn't the only challenge. The Great Waters team must also consider the logistics of accommodating both a large field of players, Tour employees, and the accompanying Golf Channel television crews.
"The Tour and the Golf Channel handle most of the set-up, but rope and stakes, signage, the TV compound, parking, and all of the other stuff that must be put up or moved around the course for the tournament can be a challenge," says Hayes.
With such a highly publicized event, the golf course maintenance team is more than motivated to show off their hard work on the pristine course for a national television audience.
"Without a doubt there is excitement amongst our agronomy team, our Members, and company," says Singleton. "Anytime your efforts and hard work can be on display for millions of people, that is a great feeling, but also there is some nervousness leading into the event. The pressure of that many eyes upon the course can be taxing but we like a good challenge... especially with only a month to prepare!"
