TPC Twin Cities superintendent preps for 3M Open as new baby arrives: "It's a crazy month"
BLAINE – The grandstands are up and the stage is nearly set for the 3M Open next week at TPC Twin Cities.
"Pretty much the biggest difference of tournament week compared to an average week: we mow a lot more, and we mow every day," said Joe Rolstad, the golf course superintendent. "We mow everything every day."
Rolstad was an assistant superintendent at TPC Twin Cities in 2016 and 2017. He grew up just down the road, went to school at Spring Lake Park High School, and this spring, returned as the superintendent at the Blaine golf course.
"It's really a homecoming for me. It's a lot of work but I'm excited," he said.
There are not many changes to the course from last year, just a few tees leveled and expanded. For the tournament, they're thickening and growing the rough to 4 inches.
Sometimes everything happens at once. When Rolstad took his dream job in March of this year, he and his wife knew their second child would be born during the busiest month of his career.
"We're actually having a kid tomorrow," Rolstad said on Monday. "So that's our second daughter. So it's a crazy month."
The world is about to watch his course, but under the circumstances, that is somehow secondary.
"I'll be here in the morning and then I'll be back on Wednesday if everything goes well," said Rolstad. "Me and my wife talked about when I took this job, we knew we were having another kid and we looked at the dates of the tournament and said, 'Yup!'"
On tournament week, there will be about 70 volunteer greenskeepers to keep the course in top shape.
"Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates with us and we have a great tournament," said Rolstad. "We're set up for it."
