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By Michael Clemmer*

THE GREENSKEEPER

We both arrive before sunrise: I, in my late model SUV, he, in a twenty-year old pick-up truck, with lots of chrome and five other guys. I park in the lot by the clubhouse, they, a half-mile and a world away, at the maintenance barn. They usually get their orders from the Superintendent's assistant, a straw boss with aspirations of being the big dog one day. He speaks in English and they struggle – as a team – to understand. One in their group – a bilingual Alpha Dude – translates.

After checking in at the Pro Shop, I load a shiny, one month old, Club Car with my gear and head to where I want to be when the sun comes up. Golf courses are magical at dawn. Teaming with wildlife, they are all Yin, waiting for Yang. Just before dawn, in autumn, nighttime and dew point temperatures often will match, and patchy dense fog will form in the valleys.

The Greenskeeper.jpg
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The Falls ~ Number 9, Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Magnolia Grove, Mobile, Alabama

It would be spooky if it weren’t such a lovely place. I fight off a ridiculous "Mine, all mine!" feeling and remind myself that the odds of getting a good photo on a golf course at sunrise is lower than it is at sunset. You need luck, even if you've gotten it all worked out – just right – with the Superintendent. You can only hope the image in your head doesn't get tracked up, or worse. Remember, best-laid plans often go awry.

As I alluded above, we go to great lengths to work things out in advance: tractor-mowers will be kept off "that fairway," The Greenskeepers and the little mowers they use to "mow the dew off the greens" will be sent somewhere else. And, “Call us about the sprinklers...” The sun comes up… and the cell phone doesn't work, or plans were forgotten, or lost in translation. As I said, "You need luck."

I arrive at my destination, plant the tripod and wait; the sun is half over the horizon when I hear the first low rumble of a Toro "Workman" utility vehicle, pulling a rattling trailer loaded with a Greensmaster 1000 mower. The morning air is thick and sound can do funny things; I try not to worry. The "Workman" is following the serpentine cart path, my cart path!

Often, my "spot" isn't really that close to the green. Actually, sometimes it can be quite a distance from the green, and way off the cart path, too. Do I leave and go block him off? Should I try to speak in Espaniol, or Spanglish, and tell him he needs to defy his bosses’ orders and obey mine? He's getting paid almost nothing, he works hard, and is very grateful for his job: "No habla Ingles."

It's too late to head off to another location, so I watch as he does his job: five, ten, fifteen, twenty laps, back and forth across the green, at a fast walk. He takes out a long fiberglass whip and whips the cuff; puts the flag back in the hole, and loads his mower back on the trailer. Depending on the property and how many other guys are working, he may mow as many as nine holes by himself. I crack open a bottle of Bolthouse Farms "Mocha Cappuccino" and peel a "Clif Bar" and watch the young man perform a greatly unappreciated job: making golf course greens look beautiful.

Credits

Originally posted by MichaelClemmer on 06 Dec 2010.
All contributors: MichaelClemmer,
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