The wildest ways superintendents get back at golfers in popular ‘revenge’ tournaments
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Golf course superintendents spend all season trying to avoid and curb criticism from nit-picking golfers. What’s their reward? Well, at many clubs, the end of the season is the traditional time for “Superintendent’s Revenge” tournaments, where the goal is flipped. How can I set up the course in the most brutally unforgiving way possible?
That’s the task put to supers around the country during these annual events. We’re curious about all the ways in which supers extract their revenge, so we asked our Golf Digest+ members about the wildest, most creative ways they've been humbled. If nothing else, these events remind us all who’s boss.
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Creative obstacles
Our super clutters a par-4 fairway with over a dozen pieces of equipment including tractors, mowers, etc. Only relief possible from equipment is an unplayable lie. — John Wood, Fort Myers, Fla., Lexington C.C.
At my prior club, on a par 3, they would lay a toilet seat around the hole, with the opening facing away from the tee on a ridge. Only way to sink it was to play from the back of the green and hit a good line up and over the ridge. — Jerry Simmons, Cary, N.C., Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club in Powell, Ohio
They park a backhoe across the front of a green on a par 3. — Gerald Eick, Rapid City, S.D., Meadowbrook G. Cse.
Cappi Thompson
They park a tractor in the middle of the fairway. — Richard Rothbard, Weston, Mass., Berkeley Hall
They put a mattress down on the green, so you have to putt around it. —Tom Alter, Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Severe slopes
The pins are all on 5 percent or more slopes (he uses an extra-large cup on one 10 percent slope) — James Hawley, Bellingham (Wash.) G. & C.C.
Each hole will have a typical pin position as well as a severe pin. You get an additional stroke taken off your score if you hole out on the severe hole, making it a high risk/reward. — Eric Lucy, Dubuque (Iowa) G. & C.C.
There is a blow-up dinosaur on the 18th fairway, 50 plastic forks stuck into one of the greens, pins on five percent slopes or on the fringe, a water hose snaked onto one of the greens. One of the cups is miniature sized, one might be bucket sized. — EJ Blanchard, Madison, Miss.
Ours is called The Crybaby. It is played from nearly 7,700 yards, and the hole locations are set by the previous year’s winner. — Glenn Walton, Manchester, N.H., The G.C. of New England
Holes cut off the green
Put the cups on the fringes, aerate the greens that morning, aim all the tee boxes toward the OB. — George Marakas, Coral Gables, Fla., The Biltmore
They put pin placements in greenside bunkers, and you tee off from the cart paths. — Ed Grunauer, Chicago, Whistling Straits
They either place a hole in a bunker or raise the edge of the cup slightly above the level of the green — Mitch Galnick, Longmont, Colo., Lake Valley G.C.
Fan defense
They put a Buffalo Blower on the green with the discharge right behind the hole. — Tedd Evans, Brookings (S.D.) C.C.
Set up a blower next to the green. — Cris Collie, Locust Grove, Va.
Setting up a huge fan near the hole that makes holing the putt very difficult. — Michael Keenan, Dublin, Ohio, The Landings Club, Savannah, Ga.
