THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 5, 1994 TAG: 9407050142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
The guys inside the gallery ropes won't be the only ones on display this week at Kingsmill's River Course.
When the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic comes to Williamsburg - events are ongoing this week, with the tournament beginning Thursday - the work of the guys who set up those gallery ropes and perform a myriad of other chores is on display as well. Chores like hand-raking the sand traps, mowing the greens, placing port-a-johns in strategic locations and attempting to ensure that every blade of grass on the 6,797-yard layout is just so.
For Ken Giedd, Kingsmill's director of golf and landscaping, this is the week he and his crews seek perfection. If the course is in great shape, the players' complaints are minimal. The last thing Giedd and his staff want is for one of those babblers-for-hire on ESPN to utter a phrase for millions to hear, such as, ``Oh, and Lanny Wadkins has to make this rather difficult shot from a horribly thin, burned-out patch of turf.''
``You never get everything exactly the way you want it,'' Giedd said last week. ``When Thursday morning is here, you've run out of time and there's the golf course, go ahead and tee it up. But I don't think you're ever completely satisfied with how the golf course is. You're always trying to get that last little corner dressed up.''
Giedd said preparations for the tournament go on all year, but it is in the final month leading up to it that activity intensifies and the daily routine is affected by the last-minute push. In the past, he has likened it to the way most people get ready for company coming by doing a little extra cleaning and a touch-up job or two.
Ninety people are on the Kingsmill property's maintenance and landscaping payroll, and just about everyone will have a hand in getting the River Course ready.
``What we do for four weeks is scramble around and try to make it as good as possible,'' Giedd said. ``Obviously when you know something's going to be on TV, it might make a difference in how you do it.''
The weather makes a big difference, too. Giedd said the Anheuser-Busch Classic occurs at a time of year when the Bermuda grass is just coming out. Irrigation doesn't produce the same effects as a good rainfall, and with summer heat and little rain, the rough doesn't grow.
``If we get a lot of rain we have a nice, lush carpet,'' Giedd said, ``and if not, we have a desert. The things you can't control are the things that are the most frustrating. We can do a lot of things, but it's awfully hard to make it rain.''
There has been a fair amount of rain recently, and Giedd said Kingsmill is in pretty good shape. He said there are no major weak spots, but the pros still find a few areas that don't meet their standards.
The PGA gives pros a critique sheet after the tournament. A few critiques representing the majority opinions are then turned over to tournament officials.
``Most of the comment sheets were pretty favorable last year, and that translates into no major changes in our preparation or presentation of the golf course,'' Giedd said. ``If we've got a weak spot out there, we recognize that going in and we're probably going to get a comment on that.
``There are little things around the golf course the pros are going to pick out. I'm talking about the front half of a tee might have thin grass on it. You're not going to change that at the last minute, and you would expect to hear that on a comment card. Sometimes they'll see things we don't see, like they'll mention a limb that needs to be cut off on one side of the fairway.''
And with that, Giedd has to cut the conversation off. He has been summoned to the 18th green to check on something, and he has to run.
``There's an awful lot of that this week,'' Giedd said. ``The radios and the beepers go crazy.'' by CNB