CASTLE PINES — The robot mower is stuck in the rough on No. 18 at Castle Pines Golf Club.
Yep, the BMW Championship is ready to go.
“The robot gets less confused if you drag it to the fairway,” Scott Pavalko says.
Scott’s the brilliant director of golf course and grounds at Castle Pines, or what us muni players call the head greenskeeper. We’re driving his electric work cart around this 8,130-yard masterpiece — the longest course in PGA Tour history — so you and I can learn how they made the perfect golf course more perfect-er for the Tour’s first visit to Colorado since the 2014 BMW at Cherry Hills Country Club.
The International was played here for 21 years. But you’ll see a totally different course when the BMW opens with practice rounds Tuesday and the $20 million real thing Thursday to Sunday.
The autonomous mowers are everywhere at Castle Pines — dodging the Pro V1s on the driving range; trimming the 800-person concert venue that’s set to host three private shows during BMW Championship week, including country star Luke Bryan; and here, on the 511-yard finishing hole, where Scott parked his cart to reboot the robot as it "searches for GPS.”
“It needs bigger rims,” one of the human mowers says.
The course itself is more breathtaking than it’s ever been. Thank Pavalko, an Ohioan who packs an old Cleveland wedge in his everyday cart — and the 56 members of the grounds crew; and the 25-person horticulture department that planted $80,000 worth of annual flowers this year; and Jack Nicklaus, the course architect, who reengaged at Castle Pines when the course overhaul began in 2017. Nicklaus remains very involved and will be around this week.
“His eye for a golf course — there’s nothing like it,” says Pavalko.
So how did Castle Pines prepare for Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark and the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings?
In short: Meticulously, with a goal of 12% moisture content on the greens. Exhaustively, with all 77 sand bunkers touched in a course-wide renovation. Anxiously, with fingers crossed golf’s longest hitters don’t shoot 25-under on, you know, the longest course in PGA Tour history.
The golf course has added 500 pine trees and 600 yards in length the last few years, part of a major renovation spearheaded by George Solich, president and chairman of Castle Pines.
Thank Solich, too, since FedEx Cup tournaments don’t come to Colorado without his vision.
Grounds tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s round already are sold out — an “unprecedented” ticket sale, the Western Golf Association said. The Douglas County sheriff’s office said the BMW Championship will be the largest sporting event the county has hosted.
“It’s an understatement to say professional golf has been missed in Colorado,” Solich said.
At 6,300 feet in elevation, Castle Pines insiders (OK, a couple caddies) say the 8,130-yard course will play like 7,400 yards at sea level for Tour players. Tee it up this high, the ball flies.
Members of the grounds crew admit there’s more at stake than $3.5 million to the winner. There’s the hope a world-class layout counters golf technology despite a mile-high handicap.
Not long ago, a crew of Walker Cup selections played Castle Pines and hit driver-7 iron on No. 1. No. 1 is a 659-yard par 5.
The folks in charge of maintaining Castle Pines are so very good at their job. The BMW Championship will remind a bit of “Yellowstone.” The action’s good, the storylines juicy. But if we’re being honest, the attraction is the backdrop, a real-life postcard you must see to believe.
The challenges from a maintenance perspective begin with Colorado’s rugged climate. As a Midwest greenskeeper at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club (Illinois), Bob O’Link Golf Club (Illinois) and Muirfield Village Golf Club (Ohio), another Nicklaus layout, Pavalko didn’t water in the winter.
Here, in Denver’s south suburbs, it’s not unusual to go from 0 degrees at 4 a.m. to 55 at 4 p.m.
Castle Pines waters in the winter — extensively - with an irrigation system remade since 2017.
“We’ll lean toward drier (greens) for the tournament,” says Pavalko, who has helped prepare courses for three BMW Championships, eight Memorial tournaments (at Muirfield), a Presidents Cup, Genesis Invitational and a U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
What would be optimal weather conditions this week? No rain, please, and a slight breeze.
Moisture control is foremost in a grounds crew arsenal. It’s the only way to dictate the debate.
Publicly, members of the super-private club claim they want the fairest test of golf possible. Get them on the 19th hole and they’d prefer the putting greens replicate a granite countertop.
“I’d like to say I’m a good golfer until I play in this rough,” longtime Castle Pines member John Elway said.
Then there’s the wildlife. The natives vary between 800-pound elk with toxic urine and 2-ounce voles digging divots where divots aren’t supposed to be.
“All creatures great and small,” Pavalko says.
Castle Pines last year hired a full-time wildlife manager with a college degree in that kind of thing. His duties include managing 250 head of elk, who took over the 17th fairway in February.
Pavalko has a video on his cell phone that could pass for an elk migration outside Gunnison.
Castle Pines trail cams show coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions.
Pro tip: climb to the clubhouse at least once. Vistas from the practice green show Scraggy View and Pikes Peak. Nicklaus wanted the clubhouse down low, along Santa Fe Drive. Castle Pines founder Jack Vickers suggested up top.
“Course looks incredible, Scott,” a member says, swishing past in a cart.
The robot mowers have escaped the rough and are humming along into the 18th fairway.
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