For the members of Longue Vue Club, it has been a slow and steady journey back to its roots when it was known as "The Millionaires' Club."
Built by Robert White in 1922 and reworked in 1935 by A.W. Tillinghast, Longue Vue is located above the Allegheny River northeast of Pittsburgh in the town of Verona. It was founded as a playground for some of Pittsburgh's most well-heeled residents. And that's a mouthful in a city where the well-to-do include names like Westinghouse, Heinz, Carnegie and Mellon, and Oakmont literally is a hop, skip and a jump away.
Just a few years ago, members described conditions at Longue Vue as "unplayable" and "horrific", and members were fleeing for greener, drier, fairways at some of the 'Burgh's more famous layouts, including Oakmont, which is less than six miles away by car.
Since superintendent Josh Saunders was hired six years ago, the course has been restored to rightful and historic place among Pittsburgh's elite golf courses.
"When you think of golf in Pittsburgh, what do you think about? Oakmont, Fox Chapel, Field Club? Longue Vue flew under the radar. Now, I think we're in that conversation," Saunders said.
"That's not being conceded. That's just being confident because I know what we've accomplished the last five years."
When Saunders, a finalist for the 2013 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta, arrived at Longue Vue, fairways and greens were soggy mix of 70 percent Poa annua and 30 percent creeping bentgrass with some annual ryegrass intrusion around the greens and in fairways.
Today, the course is a dried down version of its former self.
"I know we're in the Poa capital of the world, but those numbers are flipped," Saunders said. "Managing Poa in summer is challenging, but managing it in season is challenging too when Oakmont is right down the street. And now, we're 100 percent clean of ryegrass."
When Tillinghast left Verona, Longue Vue's tees all were neat and square. When Saunders walked the course during his interview, some tees were square, some were circles and some were a mixture of both.
"I told the members the first thing we were going to do was get rid of those squircles," Saunders said.
A native of Virginia and a graduate of VPI, Saunders is a Pete Wendt protege at Kinloch Golf Club near Richmond. He also interned at Westchester Country Club under Joe Alonzi as well as at Augusta National. He says the responsibilities heaped upon him by Wendt coupled with the challenges of managing turf in the Mid-Atlantic have helped prepare him for just about anything Mother Nature and Pittsburgh's golf market can throw at him.
"Pete's philosophy and the way he delegated responsibilities to his assistants made me feel like a head superintendent even when I was fourth in line," he said. "As I worked my way up from AIT to second to senior, I always felt in the loop. The amount of information I absorbed helped pave the way for my future. I will never go back to the Mid-Atlantic and grow grass because of what I learned there in those seven years, and I'm a Virginia native, but everything I learned there I will take with me the rest of my career.
"Maintaining turf in that area, I don't even know where to start. Every day was new and every day was a challenge. You couldn't rest. You had to be on your toes every day from a water standpoint and a disease standpoint."
That's not being conceded. That's just being confident because I know what we've accomplished the last five years."
Longue Vue currently is in the throes of a master plan with architect Jim Nagle, and current projects include a revamped practice area that will include an expanded driving range and enlarging the practice green from 3,000 square feet to 9,000 square feet.
Part of the reasoning behind work on the practice area is to keep up with the game's current trends.
"We want to keep current with where the game is going, and the trend right now is less golf and more practice," Saunders said. "This club deserves to be ranked, and our goal is to get a tournament. But we have some things we have to take care of before we can get to that point, and one of them is the driving range area."
Construction also is under way on a new maintenance facility.
Membership shares Saunders' zeal for attracting a tournament at some level.
"During his short tenure, he has done remarkable things and the course conditioning has improved dramatically," wrote Longue Vue member David Koi in his nomination of Saunders for TurfNet's 2013 Superintendent of the Year Award.
"With Josh at the helm, many of our members feel that Longue Vue has been restored to its long tradition of greatness."
Part of that return to greatness, Saunders said, was simply focusing on detail work.
"Tillinghast knew this property had tremendous potential. Somewhere along the way, they got away from the details, and I mean just down to mowing a straight line," he said. "It's OK not to be like Augusta every day, because if that is your goal, you're going to get some plant stress. So, if you get away from that, why not make every detail stand out to make the place pop? Those details are what the golfer sees every day."