SILVIS — TPC Deere Run head golf professional Andrew Elliott could hardly wait to track down Alex Stuedemann to share some information.
Elliott wanted to pass along words from a caddie that he had talked to who was praising Stuedemann's course, saying the layout was in the best shape he had seen it in his 20 years visiting the course since it opened.
That brought a smile to the face of Stuedemann, the eighth-year course superintendent at the PGA Tour-owned facility.
He knows that despite some trying conditions in the last two-plus months that Deere Run is ready for the spotlight that will shine beginning Thursday when the $6.2 million John Deere Classic tees off in earnest.
“It's looking good,” said the humble Stuedemann while basking in the sunshine and green glow of the luscious facility on Tuesday. “We had a lot of odd weather the last five weeks or so with a wet end to May and then an extremely hot, dry start to June and then followed up by the last few weeks of humidity and rainfall and kind of an unexpected pattern.
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“But we've been dry now since last Wednesday-ish and that's helped us immensely to get caught up on the golf course and reach a lot of our targets in terms of the rough and fairway conditioning and the bunker conditioning and getting our greens' speeds where we'd like them heading into the competition.”
While Stuedemann feels as if he is still working toward those ideal conditions, PGA Tour rules advance man Mike Peterson has been impressed with what he has seen at Deere Run.
“Conditions are great despite some of the weather — the 3.5-plus inches of rain that Mother Nature threw at us,” said Peterson, who also worked the 2019 tournament. “The golf course is drying up and it's definitely helped green it up a bit.”
All that rain allowed for some tremendous grass growth leaving “fairways, tees and greens perfect,” according to Peterson. He said that the rough was to be topped at four inches this week yet the green speeds were pushing 12 on the Stimp meter.
Stuedemann got a wicked grin on his face when talking about the rough.
“The rough is diabolical in places, for sure,” he said, noting it will take a few weeks to get the rough back down to normal conditions for daily fee guests. “The density is some of the best I've seen at this property. It will provide that fair test to the guys who can't keep it in the short stuff.”
Players were enjoying the conditions at mid-week.
“It's in great shape,” three-time champion Steve Stricker said. “You know, everything about it is like I remember, and it's always been in great shape here. The rough is up like normal, the fairways are pure, the greens are pure. A little bit slower maybe today on the green surfaces than other years, but it's Wednesday, and I'm sure if we don't get any rain that things can speed up a little bit. The fairways are running pretty quick, and it's in great shape.”
Stuedemann said the weather left them playing catch-up, with course set-up being delayed by wet conditions in grassy areas caused by the 3.5 inches of rain in late May when the build and course set-up was beginning.
“We made a concerted effort in our department to not do something versus trying something and causing damage,” said Stuedemann of taking the cautious approach during preparations. “I felt that I needed to be prudent for everybody and I appreciate their patience and diligence once we were able to get off the path to really minimize the impacts it would have shown from 3.5 inches of rain over a two-week period.”
Now the grounds staff of 25 that is aided by roughly 30 volunteers is hoping not to hear the “R” word this week. But if it happens, both Stuedemann and Peterson are confident they can keep things under control as always.
