Getting off to an early start at the U.S. Women’s Open

Garret Boddington is superintendent at Sebonack Golf Club, host of the 2013 US Women’s Open.

There was nothing unusual about the way Sebonack Golf Club superintendent Garret Bodington began his career. He cleaned clubs in the pro shop at Sakonnet Golf Club in Little Compton, R.I. as a young teen. He then went off to the University of Rhode Island to study turf management and horticulture. But what happened next can only be attributed to luck and perseverance.

As the U.S. Women’s Open kicks off this week on the Long Island course, Bodington can proudly take some of the credit for its fast play and gorgeous views.

“The unique thing about my job here is I was fortunate enough to build a top 100 golf course and host a championship at one, too,” he says.

How did that happen? In 2001, he read an article about Michael Pascucci and how he and his family had just bought a piece of property in Southhampton, N.Y. This was near where he was working at the time, so he cut out the article.

As luck would have it, a friend just happened to know the Pascucci family and arranged for an introduction. Bodington went to see the property and they kept in touch.

In 2002, Pascucci came by to see Bodington at work during the U.S. Open, which was held at the Black Course of Bethpage State Park. In March 2003, he started working for Pascucci full time.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be with this project, which has turned out to be incredible,” Bodington says. “I had other opportunities but I picked this one, not realizing it would be this great. The owner was a winner so I knew it would turn out to be a good project.”

For the next year-and-a-half, he traveled the country checking out golf courses and learning about how they are built. “That paid off because when we decided we were going to have Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus partner up for designing Sebonack, we ended up going out and building the golf course ourselves,” he says. “We actually trained all our staff and worked with design associates.”

He learned a lot speaking to superintendents who had grown-in golf courses, including what had worked for them and what had not.

“I wanted to learn from the mistakes they made during construction that they probably wouldn’t have done again so we didn’t make those mistakes here,” Bodington says. Important concepts he took from the courses he visited included root raking and hydro-seeding, ideas he picked up at Pacific Dunes and Bandon Dunes. Bill Jones at Friar’s Head and Bill Shuford at Laurel Links were two local superintendents who gave him advice on growing-in as they have the same grass on their greens.

Sebonack is the site of the US Women’s Open 2013.

Sebonack is located on 300 acres of land with scenery few other courses can offer. “It sits right on the Bullhead Bay. We’re 52 miles out to the ocean. We have the Bullhead Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean a mile to the south.”

Now, eight years later, he’s preparing for the U.S. Women’s Open.

“We’re built on sand,” he says. “If it’s dry enough, it should play fast and firm.” The greens consist of creeping bentgrass, the fairways and tees feature fine fescue and colonial bentgrasses, wheres the primary rough has chewing’s fescue and sheep’s fescue.

“It’s been a cool spring. We haven’t had a lot of heat and stress to the grass,” Bodington says. “So for me, much of the day is [spent] planning.”

Sebonack’s 52 acres of fairways keep’s the superintendent busy. “The challenge we have is the size of the golf course.”

The tournament’s start time is 6:45, due in part to the size of the course. “We’re going to have about 150 people here in the morning working for us, based on the sheer size of the playing surfaces here,” Bodington says. “Sebonack is one of the bigger 18-hole golf courses in the United States.”

Volunteers literally will work day and night to prepare, with about 100 in the morning and 50 to 75 at night. “We’re going to work 4 a.m to 9 a.m.,” he says. “We have to really be on our game to get everything done before [the players] get on the golf course. That’s a challenge for us to get everything done in a decent amount of time.”

John Deere, a partner on this event, is providing some much needed help. “We’re going to be using over 20 fairway units every morning to make sure we get done on time,” he says. “Out of any of the championships they’re providing equipment for this year, based on the size of the course, [John Deere] said this was the biggest tournament fleet they’ve had.”

Boddington (center) is thankful for his grounds crew at Sebonack: Nick Venturino (left) and Nick Mol (right).

Bodington also is thankful for his hard working team: long-time senior assistant Nick Venturino and first assistant Nick Mol.

And although he’s proud that the first U.S. Women’s Open in Long Island is taking place at his course this week, a look back at Sebonack’s beginnings reveals another stellar accomplishment: the creation of the course logo.

As the old, dilapidated manor house that stood on the property was being torn down during the construction of the course, Bodington rescued a pair of shutters that featured  two crescent moons that connected to create a letter S, the first initial of the owner’s last name. He thought the shutters should be used as the logo for the golf course and his boss agreed.

“That was one of the things I’ve done on this project I’m most proud of,” he says. We didn’t have to pay a marketing firm; we came up with the logo on our own.”

The shutters now have a special place in his office. “As a superintendent, you don’t get a lot of chances to do things like this in your life,” he says.