MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — On the course at Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort not far from Delaware Water Gap, the sound of golfers teeing off is heard all day.
But before golfers can tee off, greenskeepers are hard at work getting the course ready. Their day starts well before the sun comes up.
On this morning, the frost on the grass delayed the crew from getting out on time.
Tommy Young is one of the assistant superintendents of the 27-hole, three-course golf resort overseeing just about everything that gets done. He started working here 11 years ago when he was in high school.
"A lot of people say, 'Ah, so you mow the grass all day.' It's really not the case for me, at least for a lot of us. It's a morning job for most of us is the mowing, but yeah, there's a lot more involved," Young said.
Young showed Newswatch 16 how much work greenskeepers do to prepare the course for play.
Cutting new holes was first on the agenda, starting with the putting greens. A golf hole cutter with a small blade helps cut the hole when twisted.
It's used twice on a hole—once to pull out a plug of grass which will be reused to close up another golf hole, and second, to pull out additional dirt so the cup can sit in the ground.
New holes are cut every day.
Then it's time to cut the grass. But this isn't like the mowing you do on the grass in your backyard.
There are different types of blade settings for mowing greens, fairways, and rough on the course, and it must be done on all 27 holes.
The greens are trimmed every day to keep them in perfect condition.
Lastly, it was time to rake all the bunkers. They're better known as the sand traps on the course.
It takes about 10 minutes to rake an entire bunker. Multiply that by 5 or 10 across the course, and you'd be here for a while.
Luckily, the maintenance team has a machine they use to do this.
Greenskeepers move tee markers, clean up debris, look for damage on the course, and, most importantly, check the soil's moisture.
All of this happens every day on the course. That's why the resort is looking to hire more greenskeepers and maintenance staff for the course.
"People care about their work here. A lot of the guys grew up here. Even in the '70s, they were caddies, some of them."
So the next time you play a round of golf, remember how much setup and maintenance goes into the playing conditions you enjoy.