Currier preparing for winter, 2002 open

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - "I'm hoping like crazy we don't get a lot of snow this winter," said Craig Currier, superintendent here at the Black Course at Bethpage State Park and host to the 2002 U.S. Open.

Currier was brought on in 1997 just as the Black Course, one of five public layouts offered here, was closed for an entire year to undergo a $2.7 million refurbishment. Golf course architect Rees Jones donated his services in enhancing the 1936 A.W. Tillinghast design.

Tees and bunkers were rebuilt, some bunkers were restored or moved closer to the greens, and about 250 yards were added to the design during the renovation project.

Even with the makeover, Currier knows that winter weather has the potential to be damaging. The facility, which keeps three or four courses open year round, was hit by as much as 15 inches of snow in a single weekend last winter. "If it snows, we have flooding here," said Currier. "Over New Years weekend, my whole crew was basically monitoring floods."

INITIAL CHALLENGE

Before he arrived at the facility, maintenance practices were limited, according to Currier. "They hardly did anything," he said. "In all fairness, they only had a crew of four or five people."

Currier was recruited from an assistant position at Garden City Golf in Garden City, N.Y. to step up the maintenance program at Bethpage. "We've spent a ton of money on equipment, anywhere from $250,000 to $350,000 each year, to upgrade all five courses," he said.

"The crew has also grown substantially," said Currier. "We keep about 50 people on staff for the winter season. We now have a maintenance team that compares to similar facilities."

12 ACRES OF BUNKERS

Currier and his crew will be tackling bunker sand replacement as their biggest project this winter. The layout sports over 12 acres of bunkers.

"The bunkers are enormous here, and they've been contaminated with quite a few stones in the past few years," Currier said. "Several of them are really steep, and we've had a few bad washouts. We'll start work on them this fall and continue until early next spring putting in new sand."

Last winter, the Bethpage facility had about 25 inches of snowfall altogether, according to Currier. "Knock on wood, we didn't have any winterkill last spring," he said. "We had some ice developing for a little while, but we went and verti-drained the areas and broke it up.

"The two previous winters, we had very little snow," said Currier. "Hopefully we'll get that again. It certainly makes it easier. We do a lot of our tree work throughout the winter season as well."

WINTER PREP

Preparations at Bethpage for the upcoming winter include overseeding, aerated turf, and snow mold treatments on the greens. The Black Course was closed for a few days after Labor Day this year to overseed a few fairways that weren't quite where Currier wanted them.

"I also have about five or six acres of sod ordered," Currier said. "We're going to go around and strip off all the high traffic areas around greens and bunkers and resod them."

Currier aerated the greens in August, following the Met Open, and did the roughs nd green surrounds in early September. "I'll be topdressing all the fairways this month with a light shot of straight sand," he said. "We've been topdressing them a couple of times each year.

"We'll also be overseeding them this month with ryegrass," said Currier. "We'll go with bluegrass, though, in our green surrounds. We reseeded all the roughs last fall with rye as well. With the dormant seeding in, we'll pump up the roughs in the spring to get them a bit thicker."

The main focus for Currier this fall will be to get the dormant seed fed well so that the grass comes out in decent shape in the spring.

THE OPEN

The Black Course is shut down every year on Nov. 15, and opened again around April 15. "We'll keep the course open next spring through Memorial Day, and then we'll close it for 13 days prior to the tournament." Currier said. "I imagine the place will be somewhat in disarray."

The Red Course is usually closed Dec. 1 and opened again at the end of March. The Yellow, Blue and Green courses, weather permitting, are played year round.

"The Green and Red courses, holes one and 18 of each, will be established as corporate villages during the Open," said Currier. "The first hole of the Yellow Course will become the driving range. All next spring, our scheduling is going to be a little bit whacked out here. But having those 13 days to set up will be nice."

Copyright United Publications, Inc. Oct 2001
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