Frustrated golfers restlessly twirled umbrellas. Caddies repolished sets of gleaming irons. And the rain kept puddling on the greens.
The last thing Dave Fruchte wanted was to rain on someone’s parade. But the man responsible for the beauty that is the Pine Needles course wasn’t exactly in tears over the cloudburst.
It rained hard early Monday, creating some concerns from certain quarters that there might be damage to the course. But those concerned quarters didn’t house the course superintendent.
“This was perfect as far as I was concerned,” Fruchte said, not bothering to suppress a grin. “You don’t want this happening for the contestants and spectators, but it was the best thing that could have happened to the course.”
The rain had stopped when Fruchte paused for a short conversation in the early afternoon, but the one thing that Fruchte did worry about briefly was the hail that fell. You don’t exactly like to see holes being dug into greens that you’ve nurtured to perfection.
“That first storm about 8 or 8:30 a.m. caught us by surprise,” he said. “It dumped almost half and inch on us in about 15 minutes and then it started to hail. That’s when I got worried. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt the greens.
“If this had happened on Thursday or Friday, they never would have gotten the round in. But on Monday, it’s perfect.”
Another concern during heavy rain is damage to bunkers. The sand that has been so carefully sifted and raked and checked for consistency can be quickly rutted by running water.
“I didn’t see any bunker damage,” Fruchte said. “The main thing we’re trying to do now is make sure the natural cart paths aren’t holding water. We don’t want them to be a muddy mess for the spectators.”
There is a general consensus that the Pine Needles course is in even better condition for this Open Championship than for the one in 1996. It should be, according to Fruchte.
“The first one was kind of like a dry run for this one,” he said. “I’ve been working on the course 11 years for this one.”
Those 11 years have obviously paid dividends. You may hear a lot of things from the players this week, but you won’t hear any complaints from the players.
Fruchte, whose official title is director of golf course and grounds for Pine Needles and Mid Pines, knows how to prepare a course for championship golf. In addition to the 1996 Open, he prepped Pine Needles for the 1991 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur, and also was in charge of The Honors Course in Ootewah, Tenn., where the 1989 Tennessee Amateur was held.
One of the characteristics of a U.S. Open course, men or women, is the quickness of the greens. Rain or no rain, look for Fruchte to have the Pine Needles putting surfaces slick.
“The USGA wants the greens to be at 10 or 10.5 on the Stimpmeter by Thursday,” Fruchte said. “Hopefully they’ll be there for Thursday’s and Friday’s rounds.”
And how about for Saturday and Sunday, when the shirt collars get a little tighter and the nerves are closer to the surface?
“They might be a little quicker by then,” Fruchte said.
Although Pine Needles is playing to almost 6,300 yards for the women this week, the greens will probably be where the championship is decided.
Take it to the bank: Before this week is over, Donald Ross will have played a bigger role in deciding this championship than any caddie.
No, the greens won’t be bikini-waxed as an almost famous golf analyst once said about Augusta National in his last year of working the Masters. But they will be spoiling some shots that the golfers thought were pretty good when they left the clubfaces.
Don’t watch the clasps of the players after an approach shot if you can read lips and are easily offended.
