by Paul Pierce, Jr.
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of Virginia Golfer magazine. To read the full digital issue, click here.
Long before the first tee shot at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, preparations were underway at The Federal Club for what promises to be the most significant tournament in the club’s history. While the goal is to prepare a championship golf course, Director of Agronomy Ryan Holbrook knows the real work extends far beyond the turf: He’s also preparing the people who will bring it all to life.
Every agronomic decision—from mowing heights and irrigation to bunker preparation and course setup—has been made with championship week in mind. The same is true of personnel decisions. Yet unlike so many aspects of tournament planning, course conditions remain at the mercy of Virginia’s unpredictable weather, where weeks of preparation can be altered by a single storm or heat wave.
Success won’t be measured in compliments or headlines for Holbrook. In fact, the best outcome is for no one to notice his work at all. His goal is to simply present a golf course that is demanding, fair, and never becomes part of the story.
“I don’t want it to come down to a stroke that we did something on or someone didn’t like something we did,” Holbrook said.
At The Federal Club, that pursuit begins with creating consistent playing conditions. That’s no small task in Virginia’s transition zone, an area the United States Golf Association defines as “too far north to grow warm-season grasses well and too far south to grow cool-season grasses well,” forcing turf managers to adapt constantly.
Each morning begins while the course is still wrapped in darkness, as Holbrook’s crew mows greens, rakes bunkers, sets tees and hole locations, and prepares the course for member play. The Federal Club is one of the few courses in the Richmond area maintained entirely with cool-season turf, featuring bentgrass greens, tees, and fairways framed by turftype tall fescue rough. While those grasses reach their peak in October—perfect timing for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship—they require careful management to survive Virginia’s punishing summer.
When the final putt drops on Oct. 11, 20 players will earn PGA TOUR cards, making every shot and every bounce matter. That reality only heightens the responsibility on Holbrook and his maintenance team to deliver a golf course worthy of deciding careers.
PREPARING FOR THE UNKNOWN
Preparation for that moment didn’t begin this season. It started more than a year ago, when the Korn Ferry Tour first contacted The Federal Club about the possibility of hosting its season-ending championship. Since then, Holbrook, his superintendent, two assistant superintendents, an assistant superintendent-in-training, and nearly 20 full- and part-time employees have worked toward a single objective: presenting the golf course in championship condition.
For Holbrook, the opportunity came at the perfect time. Although he had spent years preparing golf courses, he had never experienced a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event as part of the agronomy team. Wanting to see firsthand what tournament week required, he contacted Christian Sain, director of golf and grounds maintenance at The Country Club of Virginia, and asked if he could shadow his team during the club’s final Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
After a decade of hosting the PGA TOUR Champions event, Sain’s operation became a prototype for what Holbrook hoped to build. Rather than simply observing, Holbrook immersed himself in every aspect of tournament preparation.
“I was mowing fairways one day, the next day I was following the PGA TOUR agronomist, I was blowing fairways another day, so I got to see how many people it takes and what goes on behind the scenes,” Holbrook said.
“The turf part was maybe the easier part, because that’s what we do every day,” Sain said. “Trying to figure out the logistics— where people park, where the TV compound goes, where vendors stage their equipment, where volunteers gather— that’s the biggest challenge the first year.”
Tournament week is as much an exercise in organization as agronomy. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Sain said. “You come in before daylight, prepare the golf course, then you’re on call throughout the day before heading back out after play. You have to pace yourself. You have to take care of your people.”
Many of the lessons Holbrook carried home had little to do with mowing heights or green speeds. Instead, he watched crews navigate the course in darkness, saw how managers coordinated dozens of volunteers, and realized how seemingly minor details like strategic lighting, organized staging areas, and adequate break space could make a demanding week run more smoothly.
As Sain put it, “Ryan can’t do it himself. It takes an army.”
Those experiences became a blueprint not just for preparing a golf course, but for leading a team through tournament week. Combined with a management team that already includes several employees who have volunteered at professional tournaments, Holbrook will lead his first tour event with the benefit of lessons learned from those who have done it before.
BUILDING A CHAMPIONSHIP OPERATION
Armed with firsthand experience shadowing Sain, Holbrook entered the planning process with a clearer understanding of what championship week would require. Over the past year, he has worked closely with Korn Ferry Tour officials and PGA TOUR agronomy staff to evaluate every aspect of The Federal Club’s maintenance operation.
Together, they reviewed irrigation practices, aerification schedules, mowing heights, and equipment to ensure the golf course could consistently deliver the firm, fair conditions expected of a season-ending championship. Only a handful of physical improvements were needed. During the winter, Holbrook’s crew rebuilt and re-leveled several tee boxes, stripping the turf before laser-grading each surface and reestablishing the grass well ahead of the growing season.
Throughout the process, Holbrook has relied on those with more tournament experience, including PGA TOUR Competitions Agronomist Tim Connolly. The two have remained in regular contact since first meeting at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic last fall, discussing everything from summer turf health to the details that will ultimately define championship week.
“I don’t feel like I’m going after this by myself, which is nice,” Holbrook said. “I feel like I have the support if I need it from them. They’re willing to help us out.”
Although many details of the final setup will depend on conditions leading into October, the overall framework is already in place. Players should expect rough that’s more penal than members typically encounter, firm fairways and greens, and putting surfaces rolling near 12 on the Stimpmeter.
THE TOUGHEST HAZARD ISN’T WATER
For all the planning involved in preparing a championship venue, one feature has caused Holbrook and his staff more concern than any other: the bunkers. “I think you can go to any golf course, I feel like bunkers are always going to be an issue,” Holbrook said.
Creating consistency has proven especially difficult in Virginia’s climate. Heavy rain compacts the bunker floors, making them play firm while leaving the steep bunker faces soft and dry. The result is two completely different playing conditions within the same bunker—exactly the kind of inconsistency Holbrook hopes to eliminate before the Korn Ferry Tour arrives.
The amount of sand isn’t the problem. Instead, the maintenance staff plans to hand-water bunker faces while carefully limiting moisture in the bunker floors—a balancing act that requires constant attention as weather conditions change. Holbrook hopes to have the bunkers dialed in by the end of August while the maintenance staff is at full strength, giving the team several weeks to refine those conditions.
One thing that may ease Holbrook’s mind, however, is that the TOUR understands bunkers can’t always be controlled. They are, after all, hazards. “The whole idea behind a bunker is that a player misjudged a shot,” Connolly said. “They need to figure it out.”
DEVELOPING PEOPLE, NOT JUST TURF
Around the time The Federal Club was selected to host the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, Holbrook restructured the agronomy department to create a clearer path for advancement, adding leadership positions that give employees opportunities to grow.
“I wanted to create a workplace where if you felt like you could come here, there would be positions for you to advance your career,” Holbrook said. “You wouldn’t come here and feel stuck.”
That philosophy extends beyond job titles. Rather than keeping management responsibilities to himself, Holbrook rotates leadership duties among his team. Superintendent Robert Starcher and the lead assistant superintendent alternate weeks running the operation—creating schedules, overseeing quality control, and making day-to-day decisions that many assistant superintendents don’t experience until they lead a department of their own.
For Starcher, those opportunities have accelerated his professional growth. “The other course I was at, I never did any scheduling or quality control or crew leadership,” Starcher said. “Now, having that opportunity, I feel much more aware of what’s going on, what needs to get done, and the timing of everything.”
Learning to delegate was one of the most important lessons of Holbrook’s own career. Today, he encourages his managers to make decisions, and occasionally make mistakes, because that’s how future superintendents are developed.
“Ryan does a phenomenal job of making us feel like he has our backs,” Starcher said. “He creates a welcoming environment, but he also makes sure we’re doing what needs to be done the right way.”
Beyond The Federal Club, Holbrook regularly encourages assistants, mechanics, and other members of his staff to attend industry meetings and educational seminars throughout Virginia, exposing them to ideas and relationships that will benefit them throughout their careers.
By tournament week, Holbrook knows he can’t oversee every task himself. While hosting the Korn Ferry Tour Championship marks a milestone for The Federal Club, it also showcases the leadership structure he’s built. Trusting his managers to handle their responsibilities allows him to focus on the unexpected—all while his staff gets hands-on experience at a professional championship to prepare them as the next generation of golf course superintendents.
MORE THAN VOLUNTEERS
Preparing a golf course for a professional championship requires far more people than a club’s full-time staff can provide. To meet the Korn Ferry Tour’s expectations, Holbrook is assembling an additional crew of 20 to 30 volunteers, nearly doubling the size of the agronomy operation for tournament week.
He recruited through the Virginia chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, reached out to vendors and industry contacts, and even drew volunteers from neighboring states eager to experience championship golf course preparation from the inside.
It’s an opportunity to learn from fellow superintendents, exchange ideas, and strengthen relationships within one of golf’s most collaborative professions. By the time the first group tees off, dozens of turf professionals from across the Mid-Atlantic will have come together for one purpose: delivering the fair and demanding test the Korn Ferry Tour expects.
THE FINAL BLUEPRINT
While planning for the championship began more than a year ago, the golf course itself won’t truly begin taking shape until late summer.
Throughout July and August, the focus is survival. Holbrook and his staff work to guide cool-season turf through Virginia’s most stressful weather, protecting bentgrass from prolonged heat while preserving the health of the course.
By September, the mission changes. As bentgrass recovers, Holbrook shifts from simply maintaining the golf course to preparing it for championship conditions. Every irrigation cycle, mowing pattern, and moisture reading becomes part of a carefully executed plan designed to produce firm, fair playing conditions in October.
Beginning the week before the championship, carts will be restricted to paths to help firm the fairways and approaches. Hand watering will become even more deliberate, particularly around greens and bunkers.
Although the Korn Ferry Tour’s target of roughly 12 feet on the Stimpmeter is well within the capabilities of The Federal Club’s greens, Holbrook believes speed alone doesn’t define a championship test.
“The firmness is what’s going to make this a great and challenging golf course,” Holbrook said. “When our greens get firm, it really shows who the best players are.”
That is how the PGA TOUR sees it as well, according to Connolly. “For us, the most important thing for any golf course really is firmness of the greens,” he said. “If we can have firm greens, then we can have a decent defense of the golf course.”
That philosophy has changed the way his team prepares the course. Rather than relying solely on experience and instinct, Holbrook and his staff have embraced a more data-driven approach throughout the season.
“I’d say there’s been a much higher level of attention to detail, forecasting, and recordkeeping,” Starcher said. “We’ve been a lot more thorough with everything we’ve been doing—not only how it worked, but how long it took to recover and when we needed to do it again.”
One of the team’s most valuable tools has been the GS3™ Ball, developed by the USGA. The device captures more than 15,000 data points during each evaluation, measuring green speed, smoothness, trueness, and firmness while eliminating operator bias. Those measurements, paired with moisture readings, weather forecasts, and years of local knowledge, give Holbrook the confidence to make small adjustments before they become larger problems.
If conditions cooperate, players can expect a championship that rewards strategy as much as execution. Holbrook believes the opening five holes form the most demanding stretch on the golf course, asking players to be precise from the opening tee shot before yielding to a more forgiving stretch.
The championship’s defining moments, however, may come over the closing three holes. The reachable par-5 16th presents a classic risk-reward opportunity. The uphill, wind-exposed par-3 17th demands complete commitment. Then comes the finishing hole—a downhill par 4 with a green guarded by water on three sides— which leaves zero room for error with PGA TOUR cards on the line.
TOURNAMENT WEEK
When championship week arrives, the routine Holbrook and his staff have followed all season won’t change—it will simply accelerate.
Crews will already be spread across The Federal Club under the glow of headlamps at 4 a.m., racing to complete an entire morning’s worth of maintenance before the first tee time. Greens will be mowed, bunkers raked, and hole locations cut before the course is turned over to the players.
With nearly twice as many people working as usual, communication becomes vital. As Sain knows from experience: “You’re relying on volunteers who are very skilled individuals, but sometimes they might not be that familiar with your golf course.”
Simple mistakes, like a mower in the wrong area or a bunker overlooked during setup, can disrupt an otherwise flawless morning. But those are exactly the situations Holbrook prepared for during his week shadowing Sain’s operation.
To keep operations running efficiently, Holbrook will divide the maintenance team into two shifts. There will be a morning prep crew and an evening recovery crew to repair divots, restore bunkers, and prepare the course for the following day.
Throughout the tournament, Holbrook and his management team will remain on call to handle unexpected weather or immediate issues. Despite the demanding schedule, Holbrook hopes his staff will have a chance to enjoy the moment.
“I want them to watch this tournament so they can really see it with their own eyes,” he said. “Get the whole staff together, build that bond and good camaraderie.”
For many of his employees, it will be the first time they’ve experienced a professional tournament from inside the ropes. And for Holbrook, that’s every bit as rewarding as preparing the golf course itself.
WHEN IT’S OVER
By the time the trophy is presented on the 18th green, the championship will have produced unforgettable shots, heartbreaking misses, and 20 new PGA TOUR members. Fans will remember dramatic finishes and winning moments. Few will remember the thousands of decisions made long before sunrise, the volunteers who gave up a week to help, or the months of preparation that made those moments possible.
That’s exactly how Holbrook hopes it ends. “The tournament week’s about the event itself,” Sain said. “It shouldn’t be about golf course maintenance.” Holbrook knows there will be surprises— weather has a way of rewriting even the best-laid plans. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.
In a few weeks, The Federal Club will host the biggest event in its history, and Holbrook will discover those lessons for himself. If the golf course quietly fades into the background—challenging every player fairly while never becoming the story—Holbrook and his team will know they’ve accomplished exactly what they set out to do.
Just as importantly, the people who helped prepare it will leave better prepared for the next championship, carrying forward the tradition of passing knowledge from one generation of superintendents to the next.