PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Every year, some of the world’s best golfers compete in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
But have you ever wondered how the grass always looks so good?
“It takes a great team,” said Jeff Plotts, director of agronomy at TPC Sawgrass.
Plotts and his team work year-round to get the course ready for the tournament.
“This is the third year doing the overseed, and we’re just getting better and better each year,” Plotts said. “It’s been a really good year for us, difficult weather-wise, but we’ve been able to endure and have some really good conditions.”
This year, Plotts said, they tried to improve some of the conditions based on player feedback.
“One of the things we really focused on this year was trying to make the fairways a little bit firmer, so we added a lot of topdressing sands this past summer, did a lot of aerification, things to really make the playing surface a little firmer,” Plotts said.
Plotts said his team starts their days early during the week of the tournament.
“We’ll be fortunate to have 70 volunteers in from around the country this year, and we’ll prep the golf course in the morning and take a little break while the play is going on,” he said. “Then we come back out in the evening and set it all back up again.”
Their work doesn’t go unnoticed as the golfers hit the course every year.