Meet the ‘army’ that maintains the Aronimink course at the PGA Championship, starting at 3:45 a.m.
More than 100 people get up each morning to prepare the course for the championship, and stay late to set up the next day. The ringleader is Aronimink course superintendent John Gosselin.
The first people on the course each morning at the PGA Championship hit the greens at 3:45 a.m.
Those employees and volunteers aren’t actually playing a round at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, but preparing the grass for what’s to come over the course of the four-day major championship tournament, which began on Thursday.
More than 100 people will get up each day to prepare the course for the championship, which runs through Sunday. The ringleader of the whole operation is Aronimink course superintendent John Gosselin, who’s been preparing for more than five years for these few days.
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“The reason we have so many people, we have to get out and then back off the course with almost everybody before play starts,” Gosselin said. “We’re out here by 3:45 a.m., whether we’re up at the clubhouse or practice facilities or out on the golf course, and we’re usually back here by 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m., the last people might come in near 8 a.m. We have a big breakfast.”
It takes 14 people just to mow the grass on all 18 holes, and another six to swap out all the cups at each hole. They also have teams to help rake the sand bunkers, and do detail work on the course.
“It’s like an army out there, and they’re just moving around,” Gosselin said. “You don’t just go out and start. They have a sequence for everything.”
But in the modern era, preparing the grounds for a major championship also requires taking a ton of data. On every green, the team takes moisture and firmness readings, , measures the green speed, and provides that data to the PGA. That helps the PGA decide pin locations and all the minutiae of how the course will be played that day. In a tournament like this week’s PGA Championship, where rain kept jumping in and out of the forecast, keeping the greens stable and managing irrigation and drainage on the course was even more critical.
During the playing rounds, Gosselin said the groundskeeping team doesn’t do much from group to group. Members of the team are stationed across the course to babysit, and occasionally get called into action to take care of sand that splashes out of the bunker or other grass emergencies. But their jobs don’t really begin again until after the playing day is done, when the team heads back on the course at night and stays until 10 p.m. preparing for the next day.
“We get everything locked up and put away, go back and sleep for maybe three hours, and then come back,” Gosselin said.
Now, the groundskeeping team won’t be able to protect everything. With thousands of visitors heading to Aronimink for the tournament, some of the grass is going to get trampled by all of the spectators traveling from hole to hole to watch their favorite players tee off.
The club is set to host a large event on Monday, and the course reopens to Aronimink Golf Club members on Tuesday. But the recovery from the tournament will take months. They’ll still be renovating the holes and the course into September and October, after the teardown of the viewing structures and broadcast buildings is finally complete. After that, members will vote on whether they want certain changes put in place to make the course more challenging for the pros to stick around. In all likelihood, some will stick and Gosselin and his (much smaller) team will get back to work on fixing the course again.
“It does get beat down,” Gosselin said. “It’s just considered normal tournament wear and tear with all this foot traffic and all that, but if you look inside the ropes, it stays pretty nice. At the end of the day, when we open back up the main corridors and inside the ropes, these golf holes, they’re going to be fantastic.”
The 108th PGA Championship returns to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square for the first time in over six decades.
You can watch Marcus Hayes and Jeff Neiburg preview the tournament on Gameday Central from Aronimink, and be sure to check out the PGA Championship Range Show from 12-2 p.m daily, starting Wednesday.
Whether you're going, watching from home, or just curious about what all the fuss is about, we've got you covered with our PGA guide and stories on everything from Aronimink's history and design, to what the players have to say about returning to the Philly area. We even made a golf video game so you can play the course and learn its secrets.
Get it all with our full PGA Championship preview. And follow the latest news and action from the course, right here.
