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Inside GCM by Seth Jones |
Caring for consistency
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It was the first major of the year, the Kraft Nabisco at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. I was there early, only the third member of the media to check in at the tournament.
A phone call later, and John Miller, CGCS, GCSAA’s LPGA Tour agronomist, was there at the media center to welcome me to his de facto office for the week.
For a good part of my stay in Rancho Mirage I shadowed Miller for a future feature story in GCM. I kept telling him that if I ever was a pest, or he needed to conduct any business without me in his way, to let me know, and I’d be happy to get lost for a while.
That never happened. He was eager to show me the ins and outs of his job, to introduce me to everyone he knew, and to demonstrate just what this new position is doing for GCSAA and the LPGA.
Miller showed me a mistake he had discovered on the course: the second cut leading up to a green was cut to a point on one side, while on the other side, it was squared. “This is unfair,” Miller told me.
It’s three inches of grass, I thought to myself.
But this is what Miller is there for — he’s the ultimate fine-tune guy. And working in conjunction with GCSAA Class A member David Johnson, director of golf course operations at Mission Hills, and his staff, they had that course hitting on all cylinders.
“It’s great for the LPGA — it gives them the opportunity to get consistency at all their different events, especially majors,” Johnson, a 20-year member, told me. “The players can enjoy the same benefits that the PGA Tour players have enjoyed for a long time — of having the same conditions everywhere they go.”
In just the first few weeks of the LPGA Tour schedule, Miller had been in Hawaii, Orlando, Mexico City, Palm Springs, Miami and Williamsburg, Va. Soon he’ll need the passport again as he visits South Korea and China. If his time at those places is anything like it was with me, he’ll be leaving a positive impression on a lot of golfers and golf fans around the world, representing GCSAA while he does it.
At Lorena Ochoa’s press conference, I asked her about the work of Miller, and how having the same GCSAA member keeping tabs on every Tour stop was working out for them.
The first thing she did was thanked and congratulated GCSAA on this new position and the work that has benefitted their tour, especially in terms of consistency from site to site.
Yes, GCSAA was congratulated and thanked, at a press conference of the No. 1 woman golfer in the world.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could make that a constant, too?
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