AV News: Hazeltine Gearing up for the Ryder Cup

Hazeltine National Golf Club here in Chaska, Minnesota, is home to the 41st Ryder Cup later this year. As you can see behind me, a lot of work is being done to get the course ready for next month’s event. Chris Tritabaugh is in charge of getting the greens and the fairways ready for the event. We had a chance to catch up about all the work that’s been done, and what they still have left to do.

For months, the crew at Hazeltine has been working hard to make sure the course is in perfect shape to host its first Ryder Cup this September. The course is taking shape almost daily. Recently, workers added seating areas along many of the holes on the course. Those seats will hold approximately 12,000 fans.

“For us, there’s a lot of infrastructure that’s taking place and going up on a daily basis, and that changes quite quickly. If you miss a day out here, you come out and they’ve got something done that wasn’t done a couple days ago.” -Chris Tritabaugh

Tritabaugh is in charge of getting the greens and fairways ready for the Ryder Cup. His staff is in charge of course maintenance. That involves the usual daily mowing, fertilizing and general upkeep of each hole.

“From my standpoint, and from my team’s standpoint, it’s fine-tuning the golf course, fine-tuning all the surfaces, all the various heights of all the cuts we have, tees, greens, fairways, intermediate rough, rough, and we’re really at a point now where we’re really starting to dial those surfaces in for the event.” -Chris Tritabaugh

AirVuz has worked with Hazeltine since October to capture drone footage of the course. While Tritabaugh said he’s seen much of the preparations and changes take place from the ground up, he’s also gotten an aerial glimpse of all the hard work.

“The aerial footage I think is one of the neatest things. I was just watching you shoot some footage this morning. I was watching some of the guys top dressing our 18th green. It’s a totally different perspective, which is really cool.” -Chris Tritabaugh

Hazeltine will be closed for three weeks leading up to the Ryder Cup, just to make sure the course stays in pristine shape for the big week. To help preserve the course, golfers must now hit from artificial turf mats on the fairways and first cut of rough. That will keep new divots from occurring, making sure the course looks its best when the pros come to town.

“I think everybody understands it. That’s the great thing about this club is everybody is all in on these events, and they understand that we’re very fortunate to have this pedigree we have and in order to keep having that you have to have years like this where you disrupt your normal course as a member in order to get to be a part of something like this.” -Chris Tritabaugh

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