LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- More than seven inches of rain saturated Valhalla Golf Club during the 65th Senior PGA Championship, causing Floyd's Fork, the creek that runs through the front nine of the course, to overflow its banks twice in four days.
If that wasn't enough, two funnel clouds played through just north of Louisville, but missed Valhalla Golf Club.
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It was just another test for 48-year-old Superintendent Mark Wilson, in his 16th year as head of Valhalla Golf Club maintenance.
With 30 members of his own crew, and some 30 more volunteers added to the team, Wilson guided the grounds crew to go the extra mile, the extra hour to get the course playable.
"I've learned more from adverse situations than from successful situations," said Wilson Tuesday morning, a day after a successful conclusion to the Championship. "This is the fourth tournament I've got under my belt on this golf course. I don't do anything that any other superintendent wouldn't do. You just react to the situation that you're presented.
"I know that when you're a golf course superintendent, there will be days when you will be wishing it would rain."
PGA Managing Director of Tournaments Kerry Haigh met with media twice during the Championship about the intent to complete 72 holes. With the waters of Floyd's Fork rising on Friday and several holes unplayable, that goal appeared impossible.
However, the sun came out, Floyd's Fork receded, and the Championship was completed on a fifth day for only the third time in its history.
"The grounds crew performed seven days of miracles," said Haigh.
Tom Watson, the 2001 Senior PGA Champion, was among many players lavishing praise, and he went a step further.
On Monday, Watson took care of lunch for the maintenance crew. While Watson was busy finishing in fourth place on the course, he had pizza delivered for the workers.
Crew members gathered at one hole on the front nine and gave Watson a loud ovation when he played through.
"A little pizza goes a long way," said Watson.
"I think that Tom's gesture was great," said Wilson. "It was great that he was thinking of us."
Senior PGA Champion Hale Irwin gave Wilson a big hug before receiving the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy on the 18th green.
Wilson has been a golf course superintendent for 24 years. A native of Beloit, Ohio, he got his first taste of how to work under tournament conditions at the 1978 Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"I was working for Brad Coker at that tournament, and I watched how he dealt with all kinds of conditions," said Wilson. "That experience helped me a lot.
"I'm very fortunate that the majority of the assistants on my crew have degrees in agronomy or turf management, and they are hoping to become superintendents at their own course," Wilson said. "It is a very talented group."
Irwin said that Wilson "obviously is someone who knows his golf course. He was magnificent."
"I'm just doing my job," said Wilson. "I'm fine, but I do need a haircut and my lawn needs mowing. I slept in until 6 this morning, and I felt like I had missed half the day."
