The newest course in the GCSAA Golf Championship lineup, Canyon Springs GC opened in early 1998 to rave reviews from, among others, Golf Digest.

Six shooters Steven Dennis

Pecan Valley's wall-to-wall renovation aside, Canyon Springs is the newest golf course in the GCSAA tournament rotation and is also rapidly becoming one of the most popular venues in the San Antonio area.

The picturesque 7,077-yard layout in the midst of an affluent section of the high Hill Country a few miles due north of the city was designed by architect Tom Walker. It opened in early 1998 and promptly was rated as one of the country's best new venues by Golf Digest.

Last December, ClubCorp purchased the Canyon Springs facility. The property comprises 1,000 acres in all and is part of the old J.W. Classan ranch, where the last stagecoach stop out of San Antonio was located.

Home off the range
The spectacular site has also seen the emergence of a 46-year-old rookie superintendent, Steve Dennis, who joined on as a crew member during construction and grow-in three years ago and quickly rose through the ranks. Six months after arriving, he was Tim Long's assistant and less than a year later took over the top spot when Long moved on to become a special projects manager for ClubCorp.

Dennis' only other experience in the profession were short stints in Arizona as a crew member at the TPC of Scottsdale and Stonecreek Golf Club in Phoenix while he was attending a golf course management school. The jobs did give him valuable exposure to major tournament preparation for such events as the PGA Tour's Phoenix Open and Senior Tour and Texas Open qualifiers.

Furthermore, Dennis does have an extensive background in turf -- pastureland turf, that is. He earned a degree in range sciences at Texas Tech and was in ranching for nearly a dozen years near Laredo on the Mexican border.

"Many of the basics in range science aren't all that different from turf management. Grass is grass . . . in golf we just keep it mowed a little shorter," Dennis says with tongue not entirely in cheek.

Dennis, who also has a four-year tour in the Navy to his credit, says that by the mid-1990s he was both weary of the rigors of ranching and attracted by the ongoing golf boom. After that, things just seemed to fall into place.

"You could say circumstances just worked out perfectly for me," he says. "Almost daily I have to stop and realize how fortunate I am."

The greens at Canyon Springs average nearly 7,000 square feet -- the largest of any course hosting the 2001 Championship -- and feature severe undulations.

Communing with nature
Walker's philosophy of not letting his golf course design interfere with the wild, natural beauty of the Canyon Springs property appeals to Dennis. The layout's fairways wind among natural rock features, native grass and, of course, the Hill Country live oaks, mesquite and cedars.

"We do concentrate on maintaining the rustic look," Dennis says. "Much of the golf course is still isolated from the development going on up here, although the real estate is creeping closer."

Water has not been an issue for Canyon Springs the past few summers because its irrigation source comes from the facility's own wells, although Dennis says usage remains on the conservative side to protect the local aquifer.

Although the course demands that players hit it straight, that's only the half of it. GCSAA participants will be confronted with the largest (averaging 7,000 square feet) and probably most undulating greens among the tournament courses.

Dennis agrees that greens management is truly the key to playing Canyon Springs. The FloraDwarf putting surfaces were shaped according to the existing terrain and can be treacherous, he says, because of the combination of size and speed.

"It's very tolerant of low mowing," Dennis of the ultradwarf bermudagrass cultivar. "But it doesn't develop a very deep root system. It's not thatchy, but it's thin. We have to coax it along, especially coming out of overseed in the transition."

Dennis adds that when mowed under ¹/8 inch, the greens are extremely fast. Since the overseed will slow them down a bit, he figures the Stimpmeter will read 9½ to 10 for the GCSAA event.

"The golf course will be a great challenge for GCSAA and GCSAA will be a great challenge for Canyon Springs," Dennis says.