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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 8, 2009Paul GroganSILVIS, ILLINOIS BARRY CRONIN: This is Paul Grogan, golf course superintendent at TPC Deere Run. Just give us a little bit of an update on the state of the world out on the golf course. PAUL GROGAN: I think the wet spring we had is continuing. We were kind of hoping it was out of here. But Mother Nature has her own ways. We had six tenths of an inch on Saturday, which means we missed the majority of the storm that went south of us. But we didn't miss this one. We had an inch and a tenth so far today, so that's kind of where we're at. And the golf course as you can imagine is a little on the damp side. Probably I'd call it on the wet side. So that's where it's at. Hopefully it'll play good this week. The fairways will firm up probably by Friday unless we catch an event tomorrow. Greens will be on the soft side, and hopefully we can make up some -- a few more birdies for the charity part of the event. They'll throw a lot of darts tomorrow, so hopefully we'll see some good scores. Q. What are the coming hours like for you and your staff now? PAUL GROGAN: Our mornings usually start at 5:00 and we usually are done with the morning shift at 9:30. We send most of our staff home at 9:30, and we had about eight or ten of them stay until 1:00. We'll start again tonight at 4:00, and due to that much rain we won't do much tonight. We'll probably hopefully roll greens, check the bunkers and then we won't do much mowing, so we'll just bring up a lot of mud, fill the divots. There weren't a lot of rounds completed today, maybe none. I think we got a couple groups finished nine holes, and that's about it. So we'll fix what divots there are and go back to our normal schedule tomorrow. Hopefully double cut greens in the morning, rake bunkers, and then we'll go back in the evening and mow all the short grass again. Q. The decision to call play today, how do you figure into that? I imagine you and Clair talked quite a bit. PAUL GROGAN: I have some input, but basically it's a tournament decision along with the head rules official, Marvin Ginn. I have some input but I'm not the deciding factor, let's put it that way. I wouldn't want to make that decision. I just gave my input. Q. How much more water could the course handle today to still be fairly playable in the coming days? PAUL GROGAN: Greens and tees are fine. I mean, we probably don't want to get into a tournament where we've got to lift, clean and place. So I am thinking fairways we don't much more water in the fairways. The players don't like to see mud on their ball, especially after their experience at the U.S. Open. Our fairways are pretty tight. It's pretty tough to get mud on the ball. So hopefully we don't catch a lot more moisture, and then we should be okay. It'll make for nice rough this week, though, let's put it that way. BARRY CRONIN: One of the things you guys may remember is Paul was named and this course was named operation of the year last year. One of the reasons is the rebuilding of the bunkers that took place since he's been here. Why don't you talk a little bit about how the bunkers used to be and how they drain a little bit better now. PAUL GROGAN: If it was three years ago, we would be out there with our trash pumps trying to get the water out of bunkers. After today's event, I think we've had maybe one bunker to fix, and that was just a little wash-out of maybe three feet long, which will take all of about ten minutes. So it's amazing. We can continue to play golf. If they were in the tournament today, we could continue to play golf, otherwise two years ago we would have been done for the day. That's a huge improvement, especially with the way the weather events seem to be around here this year. Q. What kind of staff do you have out here this week? PAUL GROGAN: I have 26 people on staff that work for the TPC. We have numerous volunteers from one of the local clubs. In the evening we might swell to 40 people. Mornings we're about -- we may run about 30 people. So not a huge staff to run a major tournament, but most of the people here have been here for a lot of years. They know what's going on, they understand it. They know the charity element of this tournament, so they're all on board. Q. Worst hole out there? PAUL GROGAN: Worst hole? They all -- some look worse than others, but they'll all drain pretty quick. I mean, I don't think there's any bad holes right now. Q. Were you expecting this much precipitation? PAUL GROGAN: I was expecting a storm in the middle of last night, and this one just came from a different direction. This morning I thought maybe a quarter inch or a half inch but not an inch. Q. Did you guys get all the mowing done this morning that you wanted to get done? PAUL GROGAN: Yeah, by about five minutes (laughing). Last night we got wet with about ten minutes to go. We didn't get wet this morning. We just made it back to the maintenance facility. It takes us about three hours in the morning, and it takes us four to five in the evening. We got it done this morning, barely. BARRY CRONIN: Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it very much. End of FastScripts |
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