MERRITT, B.C. — There are more superstars in golf than those named Woods, Mickelson and a few others. Some grow and groom courses. Armen Suny is one of them, and he's been spending a lot of time here in the B.C. Interior, 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, where mountains, deserts and lakes are the natural features, and where, on Monday, a hard freeze had settled in.
But the conditions don't stop Suny from examining the rugged ground for which he's responsible. Suny's come from his home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to wander the site of the Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club, where he'll be listed as a co-designer with founder Richard Zokol and architect Rod Whitman; they're here, as was Whitman's enthusiastic associate Jeff Mingay from Windsor, Ont.
"Look at this ground," Suny said as he examines the native vegetation that will interfere with a golf ball's progress but not hide it from view when the course has a soft opening for members, probably next October. "You can hit it anywhere and you can find it." He admires golf that can be all things to all people and believes Sagebrush will meet that objective.
Suny's a master of his profession. He was born in Philadelphia within a 15-minute walk of the renowned Merion Golf Club. Suny graduated from Penn State University's highly regarded turf grass management program, was the assistant superintendent at Merion when it played host to the 1981 U.S. Open and has since held a variety of significant jobs in his field.
For one, he was the superintendent at the Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver when it played host to the 1985 PGA Championship. He took on a similar role in the area at the Castle Pines Golf Club when it started to be the host of the International, a PGA Tour event. He started in 1992 to consult for clubs looking for superintendents and, frequently, to establish their maintenance programs. When the Southern Hills club in Tulsa, Okla., wanted to change superintendents recently, it asked Suny to interview candidates. Southern Hills will play host to the PGA Championship in August.
Suny's relationship with Sagebrush developed from his friendship with Zokol.
They met when Zokol was on the PGA Tour full-time and playing the International. Zokol hired Suny to oversee much of the course construction and materials used, with special attention to the greens and irrigation practices. Suny has been interviewing candidates for the position of superintendent and has identified somebody already.
That person shares Suny's approach, which is simple and controversial. It comes down to this: irrigate as little as possible, so that roots can do down deep. Too much irrigation makes for lazy, soft turf that demands excess water. Hungry, lean grass creates a firm surface. It's a different ballgame, a more enjoyable and complex ballgame.
The result is usually textured grass that offers a contrast in colours. It's not wall-to-wall green, which is fine with Zokol and Whitman. Whitman's a creative loner who has about as much interest in marketing himself à la Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones and some other architects as he does in doing e-mail. That's to say, none at all. He does have a cellphone, but, Suny said, "He barely answers that."
So what? Whitman's designed Wolf Creek in Ponoka, Alta., and Blackhawk near Edmonton and most people who have played these courses love his minimalist approach. That's what Sagebrush promises to be — minimalist to the max.
The greens will be huge, some as large as 20,000 square feet because of the scale of a property that works up and down some steep slopes and overlooks pristine Nicola Lake. Construction started in July, and the plan is to move only 40,000 cubic yards of earth. Most courses average 800,000 to 1,000,000.
The dirt that's been scraped and moved reveals fairways, bunkers and greens that should stimulate the interest of any golfer.
"On a site like this, most guys would be moving one to one and a half million," Suny said. "This is going to be the first minimalist course in the mountains. Nobody's done it before. The potential is huge. I'm seeing holes here I've never seen anywhere else. It's going to put Rod on the map."
Suny could be right. He has no intention of being wrong.
"He's gracious and his knowledge is second to none," Zokol said.
Suny, Zokol and Whitman are pursuing a dream, and it's looking more likely every day that they'll realize it.
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