The 18th hole at Canyon Springs GC, one of six San Antonio-area courses playing host to the 2001 GCSAA Golf Championship, Feb. 9-13.

Internet help desk One: The Quarry Golf Club Two: SilverHorn Golf Club of Texas Three: Pecan Valley Golf Club Four: Tapatio Springs Resort Five: Canyon Springs Golf Club Six: Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club

Golf San Antonio!

It may not have quite the ring to it as that city's signature rallying cry, "Remember the Alamo!" But the powers that be in the crown jewel of burgeoning south-central Texas are hoping that golf will leave visitors with a lasting impression nearly equal to that of 19th-century heroism.

To be sure, the proverbial red carpet will be rolled out for the more than 700 participants who will gather in San Antonio next February for the 2001 GCSAA Golf Championship. This city of more than a million folks with its renowned tourist-friendly downtown is dearly striving to become America's next best golf destination.

Circle the dot
With more than three dozen golf facilities in and around the metroplex and several more in various stages of development, San Antonio is indeed making a serious bid to become a big dot on the nation's golfing map.

The city already has a nice chunk of the game's history to its credit, having hosted a number of big-time professional and amateur events over the years. Now, behind a robust growth in golf properties, San Antonio is increasingly drawing the average and recreational player to its appetizing slice of the popular Texas Hill Country.

The flavor of San Antonio golf won't be lost on GCSAA when it comes to town Feb. 9-13 for its 51st championship.

Presented for the seventh consecutive year in partnership with The Toro Co., the 2001 edition features six courses that offer something for everyone, from the uniqueness of The Quarry Golf Club, to the demanding Hill Country layouts of Canyon Springs Golf Club, Tapatio Springs Resort and Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club, to an ample taste of the traditional in SilverHorn Golf Club and historic Pecan Valley Golf Club.

Of the half-dozen hosting superintendents, four of them are Texans, born and bred: Bruce Burger, CGCS at The Quarry; Fair Oaks' Mitch Kiser; Canyon Springs' Steve Dennis; and Pecan Valley's Rob Throne. The other two -- SilverHorn's Neil Thrailkill and Tapatio Springs' Ted McClure -- are longtime transplants.

Most of the tournament superintendents have experience in managing golf course conditions for PGA Tour events on their résumés, and at least a couple owe a considerable professional debt to one of San Antonio's most noted golf visionaries, Jack Parker, owner of Tapatio Springs and the key developer and a part-owner of The Quarry.

Home-boy atmosphere
All six GCSAA members are also unbending ambassadors of the game's place in San Antonio and share the notion that they're doing what they want to do where they want to do it.

"I think the GCSAA tournament is a great way to open the members' eyes to our city," says Thrailkill, a golf blueblood from the Pinehurst, N.C., area who came to San Antonio in 1984 and has been there ever since. "This is the best location in Texas for accommodating climate in February. It seems like we're growing in leaps and bounds, but there's still a small-town, family-based atmosphere here."

GCSAA tournament participants can expect other common threads among the hosting venues. This is bermudagrass country, of course -- from tee to fairway to green. Save for a few notable variations in putting surface cultivars, the six courses will look, feel and play basically the same under foot. All are expected to be performing nicely by February under the influence of this month's overseeding because of the turf managers' collective savvy regarding such regimes as prep work and seeding rates.

Although daytime February temperatures in San Antonio can range between 60 and 70, early-morning frost will be a factor at all the courses in varying degrees.

Tough territory
Texas often is known as the land of adversity, in all sizes and shapes, for golf course management. In that regard, the turf conditions at the host courses will rely on adequate moisture between now and tournament time. The San Antonio area once again has suffered through a horrid, torrid summer. Plus, the region's ongoing phenomenal growth -- golf included -- puts a serious strain on its water resources.

The tournament courses were coping as well as could be expected when GCM visited them in mid-July. But all were beset by water curbs, city-mandated or otherwise. "Water is always a major factor -- it's the biggest challenge, probably, in this business in this part of the country," says McClure, who's been in the business almost 30 years, including the last decade at Tapatio Springs. "We all do the best we can until we get a rain. That's all we can do."

Thrailkill adds that managing a golf course for a hot, dry Texas summer must be done in the spring, and the timing is vital.

"We know it's coming every summer. I think it places an emphasis on cultural practices before the fact," says the 15-year GCSAA member, who irrigates less than 90 acres of SilverHorn's 230-acre property. "We hit it head-on with aerification scheduling, wetting agents -- practices like that -- and efficient water usage."

Fair Oaks Ranch G&CC was probably the most heat-stressed among the tournament venues this past summer. Kiser, a west Texas native and no stranger to drought conditions, says the one saving grace is that if traditional weather patterns follow form, growing conditions for the overseeding are usually good from November through March.

Tee time
Tournament activities begin on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-10, with registration and practice rounds. Five of the courses will host the popular four-ball competition on Sunday. The championship proper runs Monday and Tuesday at all six venues. The defending champion is Todd Barker, superintendent at Fore Lakes Golf Course in Murray, Utah, who won his second GCSAA title last year in Mobile, Ala., in a playoff against Paul Jett, CGCS at Pinehurst No. 2. The defending Chapter Team Gross champion is California No. 10, while GCSA of New England No. 2 took the 2000 Chapter Team Net crown.

Tourney participants, squired by host chapter Central Texas GCSA, will stay at two downtown hotels on the famed Riverwalk along the San Antonio River -- the Adams Mark (also tournament headquarters) and the Gunter.

Terry Ostmeyer is a contributing editor for GCM.