My archenemy Ted Sturges told me in ~2004 that we should do a Feature Interview with Sam MacKenzie, the then Green Keeper at his Ross course. Many members suggest such, so I asked why in particular. Ted's response was ‘because he is a superb human-being and he is excellent at his job. Plus he is in the midst of working with a Bruce Hepner on an in-house restoration.’ All I can say is, better late than never!
I had the opportunity to spend time with Sam MacKenzie last fall at Olympia Fields Country Club when the club was still basking in the glow of successfully staging the US Amateur. Sure enough, Mother Nature had thrown them a curve ball of heavy rain right when the USGA showed up. Nonetheless, thanks to Sam’s expert planning and execution the North and South courses shined and the event triumphed.
Great architecture and great green keeping both center around water control. Sam makes clear what he considers important: 'There are two things that I have never delegated to anyone, watering the golf course and deciding what plant protectants and fertility we apply. Even after all of these years I am still learning how to water. I take input from my senior staff to formulate our plan for watering. With regards to plant protectants and fertility, too many things can go wrong when mixing products together and if a mistake is made it’s going to be mine, not one of my subordinates. The health and well-being of the courses as well as their playability are heavily influenced by both and I never want to be out of touch with either.'
In the season greeting from last year, I asked what topic(s) did we need to discuss more on GolfClubAtlas.com. Drainage came back as topic #1; you will note that it gets its due here.
Sam has been in the profession since 1979 so five decades of advances in green keeping are chronicled. For example,
'When I started in this business 3/16" (.18") was probably the industry standard for putting green height and if yours was 5/32" (.15") you were considered ultra-low. This was accomplished with a mower that had a rigid head, a standard thickness bed knife and an eight bladed reel. Today many courses mow at 7/64" (.10') and others are approaching 3/32" (.09"). This wouldn't be possible in many cases without a flexible cutting head to better follow contours, an ultra-thin bed knife that allows for a lower height with less drag, and a 14 bladed reel that increases the frequency of clip. Of course other factors such as cultivation, sand topdressing, and rolling all play their part in allowing us to mow this low. Needless to say, the height of cut we attain today along with the quality of cut, has made the biggest impact on both speed and smoothness of putting surfaces.'
Think about that! Today’s green height is half (!) what it was when Sam began. We are all the beneficiaries of the huge strides in agronomy, irrigation systems and how to best use what when to achieve firmer, superior playing conditions. Of course, it isn't by accident, a lot of work/knowledge goes into spoiling golfers world-wide. Read this detailed answer to get a glimpse into how closely things are monitored at a place like OFCC:
'As systems became automated, the ease of watering improved, but the consistency and uniformity still left a lot to be desired. By contrast, today's irrigation systems offer the best way to manage the amount of water applied to the golf course. The advances of sprinkler and particularly nozzle technology have made automated irrigation close to mimicking rain. Years ago we watered by time, but the problem was that each sprinkler delivered its own rate. Three minutes on one head might be more like five on another. Today three minutes on one head is truly three minutes on the next. We now think in terms of how we measure rain, we apply water by the hundredth of an inch. We use evapotranspiration readings to determine how much water needs to be replaced (for our soils we generally replace about half of what is lost). We also utilize moisture meters on the greens to determine the percentage of moisture in the soil.'
The photographs in the recently added Olympia Fields course profile leave no doubt that Sam runs a top-drawer operation at OFCC. We thank him for spending so much time on his interview and for sharing so much knowledge.
Best,