He Built This City
And then he takes it down. Last year, Oakmont. This year, Torrey Pines. Meet the mayor of Busseyville
Frank Bussey appears at a U.S. Open site full-time in mid-March.
Frank Bussey is flying. OK, not literally, but not far from it, wheeling his golf cart along a gravel road at about 30 miles per hour.
"I have the only cart around here without a governor on it," he says over the whooshing of the wind. "Of course, I have a legitimate reason: I have to get to a lot of places in a hurry."
At this moment, he's racing from one end of Oakmont Country Club to the other. It is day one of the 2007 United States Open and, as the sun is climbing into the sky at shortly after 6 o'clock, the United States Golf Association is facing its first crisis of the morning: a UPS delivery truck trying to back into the entrance to the USGA's merchandise tent has gone off the temporary road put down to get trucks in and out of the area during the Open. One side of the truck is hanging in mid-air, the other is still on the road.
"It's leaning at a very precarious angle," Mary Lopuszynski, who runs the tent for the USGA, tells Bussey. "It's full of glassware. We really don't want it to go over."
"Be right there," Bussey says. A moment later he's driving past the first tee on his rescue mission. "If I'm not there in about 30 seconds, Mary will have a heart attack," he says. Joking -- sort of.
Given that the USGA grosses between $10 million and $15 million for the week in the tent, the notion that a stuck truck might prevent other deliveries or -- heaven forbid -- make it difficult for people to get in and out once it opens for business -- might cause a panic. Bussey is far less likely to panic. In fact, as soon as he surveys the situation, he asks someone on his staff to send an extended forklift. When it arrives, Bussey's the one who takes the wheel, and the truck is pulled free.
"And he did it without breaking anything," Lopuszynski says. "That was a miracle."
The truck removed, Lopuszynski's cherished deliveries get to the tent all day long. So do all the customers. All is good again in USGA World.
MOVING IN, MOVING OUT
To the public, the U.S. Open exists between the ropes -- 156 golfers teeing it up on Thursday morning with one crowned champion (barring a playoff) on Sunday evening. But there is an entire world that exists outside the ropes that makes it possible for those 156 players to get to the first tee and to be paid millions of dollars.
That is the world that Frank Bussey, as the USGA's director of U.S. Open operations, is responsible for each year. Torrey Pines this year is his 17th Open -- 16 for the USGA. He spends more time on site than any USGA employee, arriving full-time in mid-March and not leaving until about a month after the Open is over.
"Actually, the four days of the tournament are my easiest time each year," he says. "By the time the golfers start playing for real, most of my work is done." He smiles. "Let's put it this way: If it's not done, I'm going to have a lot of 'splainin' to do."
Once the tournament is over, Bussey and his staff for the championship are responsible for getting everything they spent months moving in -- temporary roads, tents all over the grounds, TV towers, grandstands, roping for the golf course, trailers used as staff headquarters and mountains and mountains of garbage -- moved out. He and his staff are also responsible for finding places to park cars, for creating shuttle routes in and out of the golf course, for hiring companies to provide buses and tents and grandstands, for getting passes to get people in and out of the grounds during the tournament and for making sure all the players' off-course needs are met.
In addition, Bussey will negotiate with the club on how much the USGA will need to pay above the rental fee for any damage done to the golf course or the grounds by the Open's presence.
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- Golf Digest,
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