Toledo Country Club is like a lot of golf courses throughout Ohio this spring in that there definitely is no shortage of water.
A near-record 8.52 inches of rain fell in the Toledo area in June. According to the National Weather Service, that total was 36 percent more than the 6.26 inches that fell in the area during the same month a year ago and 248 percent more than June's historic average of 3.43 inches. The record for June was 9.77 inches of rain set in 1902, according to the NWS.Dump that much rain on hard clay soils and the outcome is predictable. In fact, there was a day when Toledo CC superintendent might have a real cause for concern. Summers such as this are precisely why Tim Glorioso, CGCS, has spent much of the past 15 years installing new drainage at this 1897 Willie Park Jr. design.
"We've installed drainage on nearly every hole here," Glorioso said. "Prior to all of the drainage projects we've accomplished here, No. 2 would be under water. No. 12 would be under water. No. 15 would be under water. No. 13 would be under water.
"I've been meaning to document how much we've put in. It's been so much, I couldn't tell you how many feet we've put in."
The drainage systems installed by Glorioso have done the job.
Toledo's drainage, 18-24 inches worth, includes standard pipe and pea gravel and about 12 inches of coarse sand that Glorioso described as a cross between USGA sand and a choker layer.
After an additional 3 inches of rain during the first 10 days of July, Toledo is, for the most part, dry enough for play and dry enough to mow.
"Before, on a day like today, we'd be closed," Glorioso said.
His resurrection of this parkland-style course renovated and rebuilt by Hills & Forrest in 1997 almost never occurred for numerous reasons. First, turf management is a profession that Glorioso found by accident. Second, he nearly declined the job when it was offered to him.
A landscape architecture major at Ohio State, Glorioso spent the summer between his junior and senior years working for Mike McBride, then the superintendent at Jack Nicklaus' Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
Some 30 years later, McBride still remembers Glorioso, now 48 and the next president of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation, as an atypical summer employee.
"Tim was a guy who was a good employee and asked quite a few questions regarding the turf world," McBride said. "I'd give him a hard time for leaving in the middle of the day, when actually he was heading to OSU for classes - I think.
"A good guy that you knew had some untapped potential."
His background in landscape architecture and experience at places like Muirfield were good enough that he landed a job as the assistant at Hillcrest Country Club near Pittsburgh. Six years later, he was named the superintendent. It was then that he figured he'd need more formal education in turf management and earned a degree through Penn State's two-year program.
"When I started working at Muirfield, I thought ?I really like this,' " Glorioso said. "I didn't realize then that every golf course wasn't like Muirfield. I thought they all were like that."
When he was offered the job at Toledo, Glorioso initially declined. The 125-acre property along the Maumee River had potential, but trees blocked the river and those clay soils had taken their toll on playing conditions.
Only when the club said it needed someone to breathe life back into the course and would give him the resources he needed to accomplish that, did he change his mind.
"When I got here, you wouldn't even know the river was there because there were so many trees," he said.
It's been a process of steady improvement ever since. He's taken out hundreds of trees and emerald ash borers have taken 128 others. Now the river not only is in view, but it offers views along the back nine where a pool, playground, a renovated amphitheater and short, uphill par 3 hole symbolize the pride the members have in their club. And the drainage improvements symbolize the pride Glorioso takes in providing great playing conditions for them.
"It's all about providing them with a good product," he said.
"They let me get the equipment I need, and they've let me put in a ton of drainage. The membership here has been great. They're very supportive. "