The following article originally appeared in The Pilot in March of this year.

Paul Jett and his grass have a lot in common these days. They’re both waiting.

Jett, superintendent of Pinehurst Resort’s No. 2 Course, is waiting for the U.S. Open in June.

The grass is just waiting for the weather to stay warm long enough for it to show itself.

"Obviously, the Bermuda isn’t growing right now," Jett said, sitting in his office on a cold morning a couple of weeks ago. "So, there’s nothing going on there. We’re just maintaining the mowing of the fringes and the height of the greens."

Despite the dormant Bermuda, there is still plenty going on for Jett and his crew on the course that will host the Open June 17-20. If it isn’t grass, it’s sand.

"The biggest thing we’re working on is the bunkers," Jett said. "We’re working on consistency in the depth of the sand and the firmness. We don’t want them concrete-hard, but we do want them to be the same all over the course.

"There are 109 bunkers on No. 2, and to assure all 109 playing exactly the same is a problem."

Jett is a 34-year-old graduate of Clemson University, where he majored in horticulture. He spent four years at Pinehurst from 1986 to 1990, then went to the Duke University course for five years before returning here in 1995. The coming of the U.S. Open was the lure.

"If you’re a course superintendent, the only two major tournaments that you can host are the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship," Jett said. "So, first of all, I feel fortunate to even be here. It could be anybody here at No. 2.

"There’s a sense of pride in bringing the Open to an old golf course that has stood the test of time; a thinking man’s golf course. I feel good about it, but it reflects more on the course than on me."

Preparing No. 2 for the Open has been demanding, and Jett admits it has also been a learning experience.

"We’ve definitely learned some things that we’ll use in the future," he said. "We’ve done things different this winter, including the use of a Hydro-Ject system that makes small, barely visible aeration holes in the greens that keep the air and water circulating. With this system, we can pull water out of the greens after a heavy rain, and we can blow air up through the greens.

"We’ve already seen the benefits from this in a better root system, so we’ll continue to do that after the Open."

The upside-down saucer effect of the Donald Ross-designed greens make certain pin placements hard for even the greatest golfers in the world to reach at times, so Jett is working to make them as fair as possible.

"We’ve done a lot of top dressing around the greens to make the slopes as smooth as possible," he said. "This way, balls hit short of the greens can bounce on and it gives the players an option instead of flying the ball to the pin. But we have to make sure we keep the integrity of the course."

If the reactions of golfers playing the course now are an indication, Jett seems to have accomplished his goal.

"Most of the comments I get now are from members and they’ve been very complimentary," he said. "They’re excited about the pros coming in, and they want to see the same thing happen to the pros that has happened to them day in and day out, such as the balls hitting the greens and rolling off into the collection areas. They want to see what the pros can do to the golf course."

Jett is beginning to feel a little of the excitement himself.

"It builds a little bit," he said, "but the Open is still three and a half months away. Once they’ve played the first major — the Masters at Augusta National — and we know we’re the next one, we’re on deck, the time will be getting short and we’ll start feeling it more.

"But it’s more a feeling of anticipation than knowing we have a lot of work to do. We’ve set the course up, and now it’s a matter of the grass starting growing. The mild weather has taken out the chance of winter kill, and if the temperatures continue to warm for the next few weeks, the Bermuda will be ready to pop."