Quick syringing for greens at Congressional

The staff is on top of it out here at Congressional. Mike Giuffre told me he has over 150 volunteers out here, and every single one of them has been on time everyday.

There's been some buzz in the media that the greens are looking worn, but I'm not seeing it. There are a few stress areas around the collars on some greens, but I think people are trying to anticipate drama, and they're just wrong. I'll get some close-up photos this afternoon and share tomorrow.

While the greens look good, Giuffre does look worn. Unfortunately for Giuffre, he woke up ill this morning. Just a cold. But there's no time to be sick this week, so he's just toughing it out.

Interview with U.S. Open host superintendent Dave Hutchinson

If you're not signed up to receive the Golfdom Insider (and why wouldn't you be? It's free, it's got tons of content... sign up here.) then you missed my interview with Congressional superintendent of greens and grounds, Dave "Hutchie" Hutchinson.

I've also got an interview with the main man, Michael Giuffre, director of golf course maintenance, but I'm saving that one for another day.

In the meantime, here's the link to check out the interview with our friend from South Africa, Dave. (Dave is pictured on the right, Blue Course superintendent Derek Trenchard is on the left.)

Congressional and TPC Potomac

A busy day at two amazing golf courses.

Spent most of the day out at Congressional, meeting the team that will be hosting this year's U.S. Open. I met with five different members of the Congressional team... Mike Giuffre and Dave Hutchinson gave me a lot of time today, and I got the VIP tour of the course while the course was closed. After today, there will only be one more day when the course is closed before the Open. Plus, beautiful weather... it was a very good day.

But I wasn't done when I left Congressional at 3 p.m.! I still had some gas in the tank, so I headed over to TPC Potomac, which is just down the street, to get a course tour and meet up with Tim Connolly, first assistant at the course. Tim wrote for the blog while he was at National Golf Day recently.

It was a busy, but productive day. Check out these two photos -- the first photo is No. 18 at Congressional, the second is of No. 12 at TPC Potomac.

Three more stops tomorrow, then back to the airport, back to Kansas.

A big "thank you" to everyone who took time out of their schedule to meet with me today. I know how valuable time is, especially when the U.S. Open is staring you down!