As highlighted across the past five editions of The Cut, Royal Melbourne Golf Club greenkeeper Hugh Ryan is currently interning at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York which played host to the recently concluded 45th Ryder Cup. Hugh was a key part of Andrew Wilson's crew as they prepared the famous Black Course for the tournament which made headlines across the globe. After a mammoth month leading into the event and having provided The Cut with regular course updates during that time, last week's edition marked Hugh's last update as he reflects on what was an epic, and at times controversial, week. 

The ASTMA wishes to thank Hugh for his contributions and for the insight he has been able to provide during the event. The next edition of Australian Turfgrass Management Journal will carry a full recap of Hugh's time at Bethpage and involvement in preparations for the Ryder Cup. Read on below for Hugh's final update... 

Wow! What an enormous Ryder Cup week it was with the golf finishing a lot tighter than expected. After Europe’s record-breaking domination of the Friday and Saturday foursomes and fourballs to take an 11.5-4.5 lead into the Sunday singles, the US team made a stirring comeback scoring 8.5 points on Sunday to fall just short 15-13. It was the third time since 2004 that the Europeans have won the Ryder Cup on American soil, with Luke Donald becoming just the second European captain to win back-to-back Ryder Cups. The celebrations afterwards were epic! 

I am sure most of you would have watched and heard plenty of commentary about the event over the week, including course conditioning and spectator behaviour. Unfortunately, after having a near perfect build up weather wise, we received about 25mm of rain on Thursday which had a big impact on the way the course played. With temperatures only reaching the mid-70s (low 20s Celsius), the fairways, which mostly consist of a heavy clay base, struggled to dry out which meant softer surfaces. The greens were rolled 3-4 times in the morning and in the afternoon across all three competition days and felt firm underfoot and rolled truly as expected.

Close to 100 volunteers joined our crew for the week including employees from 2027 Ryder Cup host Adare Manor in Ireland and 2029 American host Hazeltine. The morning shift started at 4:30am with a 5:30am start on Sunday due to later tee times. Greens, tees, fairways and approaches were cut every morning. We also did a full cut on Wednesday night in anticipation of the rain on Thursday. Rough was cut almost every day along with green surrounds being hand cut with rotary mowers three times throughout the week. On Saturday, greens were mown and only needed greens were rolled in between sessions to help get more speed into them. Bunkers were hand raked every morning with the exception of the fairway bunkers on 5 and 7 due to their size and low possibility of being in play.

Extra security precautions were also taken on Thursday night with President Trump on site on the Friday. Along with bulletproof glass shields protecting President Trump, there were several sniper towers/look outs in the area. Spectators in the nearby area had to pass through an extra security screening check. Interestingly, we actually had to leave some mowers and carts at the clubhouse on Thursday night so they could be checked for any weapons or bombs. This equipment stayed inside the “clubhouse bubble” were it was collected by staff after they passed through security in the morning before continuing their normal routines.
 
My role for the week was hand-mowing approaches which was done every morning and three nights throughout the week. I also floated between the blowing and bunker crews when needed in the mornings. Afternoon jobs consisted of hand-mowing every night which changed between approaches and green surrounds. With advance and tournament weeks combined, for the 14 days I was on the clock for 202 hours! Thankfully this week we have had a few corporate days which allowed the crew to have some well-deserved time off. continued... 

The conclusion of the Ryder Cup effectively signals the end of my time at Bethpage State Park. I finish my internship here on 13 October after which time I will be heading south to the Tom Fazio-designed Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida for the next six months. Thank you all for your feedback over the last six weeks and I hope I have provided an insight into what was going on here at Bethpage for the biggest golf tournament this year.

Lastly, I would like to pay my respects to now former work colleague Jim Reidy who sadly passed away only two weeks ago aged 81. Jim grew up in Farmingdale, NY and was a well-regarded superintendent in the Long Island region. Jim joined the Bethpage team in 2000 at the age of 56 and worked there up until his passing two weeks ago. Your co-workers become a part of your life and Jim will always be a part of the Bethpage family.

Ryder Cup official photos: Michael Reaves, Scott Taetsch and Maddie Meyer/PGA of America