Tour Guide 2025: Albertsons Boise Open
This familiar face in the tournament scene kicks off for the 36th year this month, bringing pros to the scenic and mountainous city of Boise, Idaho.
Hillcrest CC’s superintendent, Matt Gourlay, says he’s ready to bring on another successful year of the tournament, and he’s got a long family history in the industry to back him up.
“I’m a third-generation golf course superintendent. My dad was a golf course superintendent. My grandfather was one,” Gourlay says. “My grandfather was also a founding member of the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. My mom was a soil scientist. She owned her own soil testing laboratory and helped write the 1993 USGA Green Zone specifications.”
Gourlay himself has plenty of experience with tournaments, hosting 10 professional events and volunteering for more than a dozen others. His main goal with the 2025 Albertsons Boise Open is to keep his high maintenance standards to showcase his 6,880-yard, par-71 course.
“I just wanted to try to make sure that we let the golf course shine and let the team members that I work with relish in what they’re able to accomplish on the golf course and how well it looks and plays for the tournament,” he says.
Crew Contributions
As part of the Korn Ferry Tour, Hillcrest CC faces its own challenges for tournament preparation, mainly hot, dry weather conditions in the weeks prior that can reach the upper 90s and strain the annual bluegrass greens. However, Gourlay says the work his crew members do to maintain their professional standards for tournament preparation makes all the difference.
“The full-time guys have been here for a long time. We even have a seasonal individual who’s been with us for 20-plus years. He just keeps coming back every year because he loves the atmosphere, the culture that we have and the tasks that he’s assigned. He just absolutely loves it,” he says. “It’s very rewarding to work with the people that we have here at Hillcrest. They’re unbelievable individuals.”
Plus, Gourlay says it’s great to have a core group of ambitious learners on the team who have plenty of experience with tournament hosting. One individual in particular has participated in 29 Boise Opens throughout his career.
“They have been with this tournament for so long that they know what their role is for that week,” he says. “That’s a testament to the prior golf course superintendent, Joe Aholt, on how well he built the team here and how much they bought into hosting the Boise Open.”
Due to year-round expectations of excellence and a long history of tournament experience, Gourlay says Boise Open preparations are relatively straightforward.
Three weeks before the event, lots of planning occurs to make sure the build-out for spectators and the three nights of concerts cause minimal damage. The week prior, Gourlay said there is a lot of work to do with the PGA Tour agronomists.
“It’s a lot of hours,” Gourlay says. “It’s definitely rewarding.”
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