{"id":280,"date":"2016-06-17T18:52:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T22:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/?p=280"},"modified":"2016-06-17T21:19:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T01:19:11","slug":"oakmont-crews-work-around-the-clock-to-undo-storm-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/2016\/06\/17\/oakmont-crews-work-around-the-clock-to-undo-storm-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakmont crews work around the clock to undo storm damage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although play was suspended in the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, the course maintenance crew at Oakmont Country Club never stopped working.<\/p>\n<p>Literally, never.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of guys have not had sleep probably in two days, so it\u2019s just trying to get this caught up, get a lot of golf caught up,\u201d course superintendent John Zimmers said Friday. \u201cThe staff and the volunteers have done a remarkable job just working all kind of hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t even know what day it is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Oakmont prides itself on always being Open-ready, nothing can prepare a course for 2.93 inches of rain it endured from Wednesday through Friday morning. Zimmers said the weather was as \u201cbad as I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt probably undid a lot of our work where we were at Wednesday,\u201d Zimmers said. \u201cI\u2019m still very positive. I think we\u2019ve done the best we can, and the staff has done the best they can, and that\u2019s all you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-box\">\r\n<div style=\"display: block; padding-top: 0;\">\r\n<iframe frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/1105443290001\/19b4b681-5e7c-4b03-b1ff-050f00d0be3e_default\/index.html?videoId=4951309498001\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;\"><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"caption\">Gerry Dulac looks back on the second day of action at Oakmont. (Video by Matt Freed)<\/p>\n<p>The first priority for the Oakmont crew of 150-160 people was to manage the playing surfaces. Zimmers said the bunkers had to be repaired four or five times as the water kept pouring in, requiring the traps to be pumped out and shoveled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had probably close to 80 or 90 people working on bunkers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, a lightning bolt struck a rare Oakmont tree, went through the ground and hit the main water line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt then traveled underground through those pipes and wires, and it caused additional leaks,\u201d Zimmers said. \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The resulting geyser-like leaks \u2014 at the 17th hole, in front of the range tee and at No. 12 \u2014 shot out water at a rate of 1,500 gallons per minute, Zimmers said, and the crew worked \u201call night\u201d to repair them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been very fortunate to get everything repaired and fixed, so it\u2019s not going to impact play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>With this much rain pouring on Oakmont\u2019s parade, the crew couldn\u2019t give the greens their usual treatment of mowing and rolling. That would come Friday afternoon, between the first and second rounds, when the crew also cut fresh holes for each green. Zimmers hoped to do additional mowing Friday night. Once the crew members are caught up on the tees, fairways and greens, they\u2019ll be able to focus on the rough over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Wet weather also affected spectators, and entry gates did not open until 8 a.m. Friday, 30 minutes after the first tee time of the day. To help the crowds, the Oakmont crew added wood chips covering muddy paths and cleaned up the viewing areas, Zimmers said. Spectators had to navigate some soggy or muddy patches in the sloping pathways, but there were many fewer mud-streaked legs on Friday than on Thursday. The sun was also doing its part to burn up the lingering moisture on the course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been to a lot of tournaments with a lot of rain, and it looked worse than this,\u201d said Terry Roberts of Upper St. Clair, who joined the crowd Friday. \u201cThis is actually better than I expected, so they did a pretty remarkable job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dede Foreman, who traveled from Owensboro, Ky., to watch her daughter\u2019s boyfriend, Kent Bulle, play in his first U.S. Open, said Oakmont held up \u201cvery well\u201d given the circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe course looks perfect,\u201d she said, watching Bulle compete on the ninth hole.<\/p>\n<p>Her own strategy for navigating muddy spots? Stay on higher points on the course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaven\u2019t seen too many people fall,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1750 and Twitter: @BloomPG.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the rain finally stopped, Oakmont\u2019s maintenance never did.\n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/2016\/06\/17\/oakmont-crews-work-around-the-clock-to-undo-storm-damage\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,19,8,11,10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[16],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/06\/OAKMONT_crews_work.jpg?fit=2400%2C1904&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"While the rain finally stopped, Oakmont\u2019s maintenance never did","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7unGv-4w","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}