For Ryder Cup superintendents, years of anticipation expire in a flash

 

Host sites are named years in advance, so the run-up, with its obligatory restorations, projects and upgrades, seems to last forever, taking the superintendent on an impassioned roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. Then, after investing heart and soul into preparing a golf course for its place on the world stage, the moment flashes by in a single week, often leaving a superintendent physically and emotionally drained and psychologically unprepared to get back to the day-to-day grind of managing a golf course once the excitement is over.

 

When he was preparing for the 2004 Ryder Cup Matches at Oakland Hills near Detroit, Steve Cook, CGCS, sought advice from fellow superintendent Bill Spence, who prepped The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the event in 1999.

 

"He told me to be ready for when the circus leaves town," Cook said. "The media's not calling anymore. Nobody is calling anymore. They've all moved on to the next guy.

 

"After it's over, nobody wants to be there. You don't want to be there, it's hard to keep your staff motivated and interested. And the members still expect to play the golf course in a week. You're on an emotional roller coaster."

 

Chris Tritabaugh, superintendent at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, site of this year's Ryder Cup, is still riding the high that comes at the crest of the hill. He's yet to experience the deflation that comes with riding through the valley.

 

For as much planning as he did for the physical aspects of the Ryder Cup, like course preparation, keeping projects on schedule and organizing volunteers, Tritabaugh spent much of the four years he has been superintendent at Hazeltine preparing for the mental aspect as well. And the only part of the tournament that didn't play out as he visualized it in his mind was the day after, when he expected that emotional downturn. Instead, the morning after the matches were over, Tritabaugh came back to the golf course seeking more.

 

"That moment hasn't come yet. I visualized this whole thing from volunteers, food, drink, the way the area would be set up, to the way the golf course would look, to the way we do our morning routines, the way we do our evening routine, even down to what I thought I would do the day after," Tritabaugh said. "And everything went exactly like I expected it with one exception, and that was the day after."

 

 

Rather than stay home and sleep in, and no one would have blamed him if he did, Tritabaugh went to the course and made sure everything was just right for VIP play the following day.

 

"I wanted to do it, I didn't just want to take the day off, because I felt like I had to get back out there and continue to soak it all in until the very last moment," he said. "But as I drove around I didn't feel that way at all. I saw everything I wanted to see, I did everything I wanted to do. I touched every part of it. I don't have any regrets about it. There is no part of it starting from four years ago until the culmination of it this weekend that I feel like I missed."

 

Tritabaugh received an assist from Mother Nature with mostly benign conditions in the final run-up to the tournament and during the week of play. Curtis Tyrrell wasn't that lucky in 2012 when he was the host superintendent for the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.

 

Three successive years of record summer heat made getting ready for the matches a challenge, especially considering the amount of guest play at Medinah.

 

"The emotional part of it is not something people ask about, but it's a reality. It's hard to describe, because we all tell our own stories to go along with it," Tyrrell said. "Here, it was brutally hot. We had record heat in 2010 and in 2011. I remember in 2012 I said to myself that it couldn't get any worse than it had been the previous two years, but I was wrong. It got even hotter."

 

Weather was only part of the stress that Tyrrell faced four years ago. The real pressure came from the realization that his work at Medinah would reflect on the entire Chicago area.

 

"The build up was intense. From the day I stepped on the property I was focused on one week, and it was like that until it was over," he said. "There was a huge emphasis on what it meant for the City of Chicago."

 

Medinah management had made a commitment to allow about 13,000 rounds that summer before shutting down the course for final Ryder Cup preparations. As luck would have it, spring came early and so did opening day at Medinah.

 

"Holy crap; everybody was evaluating you. It was intense pressure and local scrutiny," he said. "People would come out to play and thought they would be getting Ryder Cup conditions all summer. If it didn't meet their expectations then word got out. It was not uncommon for the press to come out and say we were struggling."

 

Like Tritabaugh, Tyrrell, who was hired at Medinah in 2008, spent four years preparing for the Ryder Cup. It wasn't until after the first practice round was completed that he was able to relax.

 

That was when players were asked to publicly evaluate course conditions. All of them, to a man, gave Tyrrell and his crew two thumbs up.

 

"I was lurking around by the tent trying to hear what they were saying," Tyrrell said. "Someone asked me if I had heard what they said. I told them no, and that's when he told me they all said they loved it. That's when I was able to relax."

 

After years of preparation getting Medinah's Course 3 ready for the world's best players, Tyrrell and his crew moved from the Ryder Cup to a renovation of Course 1 the Monday after the tournament was over, so the letdown didn't come for him until the summer of 2013

 

"That's when things started to settle down and I had to internally deal with it," he said. "It was a terrible feeling, and I still don't like it today, because it was that much fun." 

 

 

For Cook, the letdown was unexpected.

 

"After everyone has left, nobody wants to be there. You don't want to be there, and you're trying to keep your staff motivated," Cook said. "But your members still expect play the course in a week. 

 

"I didn't realize the impact it would have on me. It was much greater than I expected, so I don't have the answers. It's just what comes with the event. You go from the front page to the back page. That's the way it works, it helps a little to know it's going to happen."

 

Tritabaugh sought Cook's wisdom on how to make the tournament run as smoothly as possible. That advice included keeping the circle of volunteers tight to control the process and to make sure the food they are served is top notch.

 

Tritabaugh followed Cook's advice on the food, but his army of volunteers ballooned with about 50 who had some sort of connection to Hazeltine and another 140 who did not.

 

That circle included assistant Ryan Moy and Jeff Johnson, superintendent of the nearby Minikahda Club.

 

"If I was the air traffic controller, Ryan was my dispatcher. He handled everything," Tritabaugh said. "And Jeff, he is my best superintendent friend by far."

 

Also at his side were brother, Adam, wife, Lindsay, and Hazeltine green chairman Reed Mackenzie, who was a scorer during the event.

 

"He takes that job pretty seriously, and we're both pretty quiet, so we didn't talk a lot," Tritabaugh said of his green chairman. "We watched a lot and I told him 'thank you for hiring me.'

 

"On Sunday, I walked the course with my wife and Jeff out ahead of play. I was able to spend time with everyone I wanted to spend time with."

 

 

Although the post-Ryder Cup hangover has not affected Tritabaugh yet, it will eventually if history is an indicator.

 

Still, those who have ridden that roller coaster before say the view from the top of the hill was enough to just the feeling that comes when the ride is over.

 

"It was a career-defining moment to be part of something so big that required so much planning; to be involved in playing the game at a level you don't reach very often," Tyrrell said. "The feeling was the frustration of it being over. I wish there was another one to gear up for. 

 

"The real thing for me to manage and deal with is how it affects you, your family and your friends, because it does. You own it with everything you are. You give up a lot of life to do something that special. It's an experience like I've never had, and I'd love to do it again."