TIME TO SHINE
Hard work has Erin Hills in perfect condition
TOWN OF ERIN – While golf carts zip past, construction workers scramble to put the finishing touches on a temporary city and the maintenance team tends to last-minute details at Erin Hills, superintendent Zach Reineking sits on the back porch of the clubhouse, a picture of serenity.
For months, he has spent nearly every waking hour at the course, nurturing a gigantic, living field of play, caressing the turf through another Wisconsin winter and a cold, wet spring. It’s time for Erin Hills to shine. The 117th U.S. Open begins Monday, when golfers play their first official practice rounds on the 11year-old public course. Reineking is the man behind the curtain, the guy in the trenches. He is responsible for having the course in pristine condition for the best golfers in the world, playing exactly the way the United States Golf Association wants it to play and looking spectacular to a worldwide television audience.
Now, that’s pressure.
But if Reineking is feeling it, it doesn’t show. He’s as calm as Jordan Spieth over a 2-foot putt.
“It’s really the only way I can handle everything that’s going on,” he says. “But it’s a tribute to the staff we have here. I have a wonderful staff that supports me. Our management team here is great. Our ownership here is great. It enables me to be calm and collected.”
He’s confident Erin Hills is ready for the ultimate test, thanks in no small part to the fact that the course has been closed this year and won’t reopen until after the USGA pulls up stakes. That’s believed to be a first for the U.S. Open and reflects owner Andy Ziegler’s desire to stage the best possible championship.
With the course closed, Reineking and his team were able get their work done more efficiently because they didn’t have to schedule maintenance practices around tee times and didn’t have to prepare the course for daily play. They could accomplish in one day what otherwise would have taken a week.
“I can’t stress enough Andy’s commitment to close the golf course and what that’s allowed us to do,” Reineking says. “It’s taken pressure off the golf course.”
Ziegler says whatever revenue was lost in May and June is insignificant in the big picture.
“We want to have Erin
“We had a tour player who played (Tuesday) and came in and said it was the most fun he’s ever had playing a practice round at a U.S. Open.” ANDY ZIEGLER ERIN HILLS OWNER
Hills put its best foot forward for this U.S. Open Championship and if we do that, there will be a lot of people interested in playing Erin Hills for a long time,” Ziegler says. “We sort of think about this as a long-term investment.”
A handful of U.S. Open qualifiers came in last week to play practice rounds and get an early feel for Erin Hills, a sprawling course with several blind shots and an unusual combination of fescue fairways and A-1 bent grass greens.
“There is sometimes a perception with a public facility new to the USGA that there is some concern with course conditions,” Reineking says. “I think the players are thoroughly impressed with the overall condition of the golf course.”
Ziegler says the feedback has been “uniformly positive.”
“They think it’s going to be an enjoyable golf course,” he says. “We had a tour player who played (Tuesday) and came in and said it was the most fun he’s ever had playing a practice round at a U.S. Open. People have raved about it. As they should. I think Zach and his team have done a terrific job getting it ready.”
Reineking has 50 maintenance workers on his staff and will have 115 volunteers — mostly superintendents and assistant superintendents at area courses — at his disposal this week.
“It will be fun to see a wide array of perspective and skill sets,” he says. If the forecast for sun and heat early in the week holds, the turf at Erin Hills will be firm and fast. Golfers will have to plan not only for where their balls land but for where they stop rolling. Add wind to the equation and Erin Hills, stretched out to more than 7,700 yards, will be a stern test.
Even a significant rain event is unlikely to slow down the course appreciably, thanks to an aggressive top-dressing program. In the last year alone, Reineking has topdressed 40 acres of fairways, tee and greens with 1,700 tons of sand.
Over time, top-dressing builds a sandy soil that helps with drainage and results in firm, bouncy fairways and smooth greens.
“I attribute that to Andy’s leadership,” says Reineking, who joined the Erin Hills staff in 2005, four years before Ziegler bought the course. “He understood that there were components of the golf course that needed improvement. He provided the resources and the ability for us to do things we just couldn’t do in years prior.”
One of the attractions of Erin Hills is that it is maintained in championship condition year-round. Other than the increased green speeds and the lower height of the fairway turf (.375 of an inch) for the U.S. Open, the daily fee golfer plays pretty much the same course.
“We’re a public play facility and that’s what we have to offer people — a chance to come play a U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open golf course,” Ziegler says.
Erin Hills is a bit of an unknown, so it will be interesting to see how the USGA sets it up each day. The course offers a tremendous amount of flexibility because of its multiple tee boxes and large greens.
Mike Davis, executive director and CEO of the USGA, says that contrary to popular belief his organization does not have a target score in mind for the U.S. Open.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Ziegler says. “What we’re hoping for is a great championship, one the spectators and fans really enjoy, and that we have a good competition. I’d be thrilled if we had three guys coming down the 18th hole at 14-under (par) on Sunday. That would be great for golf and great for the spectators.”