Safe AJGA golf in the desert means water, chilled fruit, early tee times

Larry Bohannan
Palm Springs Desert Sun
Each players takes on the heat of the desert in their own way at the AJGA event in the desert. Some use umbrellas, some chose not to during the week.

 

 

Charlie Reiter says he’s played golf and practiced in the desert heat so long that it doesn't seem to bother him much anymore.

“All these other players, they have umbrellas and other stuff, but I don’t,” said Reiter, who just completed his senior year at Palm Desert High School. “I just drink some water. I don’t really drink that much water. I just go play.”

Reiter will be in the minority when it comes to water this week when the American Junior Golf Association conducts its 37th ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior tournament at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Almost always played in June, the tournament that has featured winners like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Grace Park and others through the years nearly always produces temperatures over 100 degrees.

This year’s event will begin with the Coachella Valley under an excessive heat warning Wednesday for round one of the event. Forecasts of 110 to 112 degrees or warmer Wednesday is something that has the attention of AJGA tournament officials.

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From push carts to umbrellas to sitting when they can, AJGA golfers take various routes to combat the heat in the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior event.

“It’s always something we think about, as long as I have been associated with the tournament and even before,” said Nathan Nottrott, tournament director for the AJGA at Mission Hills this week. “We’ve always done things differently right off the bat to kind of confront it.”

The AJGA runs tournaments across the United States throughout the year, meaning it has tournaments in different seasons and different weather conditions. The Mission Hills tournament is generally played in hot temperatures, but without the humidity found at tournaments in the Midwest or Southeastern parts of the country.

Those hot temperatures, often over 110 degrees on most days of the Mission Hills event, mean the AJGA does concede some things to protect the 72 players in the tournament.

“We start here earlier than we do anywhere else,” Nottrott said. “It’s 6:30 a.m.  Everywhere else is 7, 7:30, 8 o’clock on the first tee time. We do nine-minute intervals (between tee times) as opposed to 10 minute intervals. Almost everywhere else we do 10-minute intervals. Those nine-minute intervals don’t save a lot of time, but it saves 12 minutes a side. That last group goes off now at 8:09, and they would go off at 8:20 a.m.”

All of that helps to get players off the golf course before the true heat of the afternoon arrives. That’s also true of the AJGA’s strict rules on pace of play, something that exists at every AJGA event.

Golfers tee off during a practice round in preparation of the AJGA tournament at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, June 13, 2017.

“Our last tee times go off at 8:09 a.m. Our average pace of play for this tournament is around four hours and 15 to four hours and 20 minutes,” Nottrott said. “So that has the last groups getting done before 1 o’clock, safely before 1 o’clock, hopefully before 12:30. We stay on them pretty hard about that.”

That still leaves the golfers on the course in the warm desert mornings for four hours or more walking the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, a regulation for all AJGA events. Most players in the field use push carts for their bags, something that doesn’t work well on hilly courses but does work well on the relatively flat Shore Course. Many players bring umbrellas with them to shade them from the direct sun when they aren’t in the shade of one of the course’s eucalyptus trees.

The AJGA also makes sure players have what they need on the course to survive the heat. More than 300 cases of water will be made available to players during the practice round and the three official rounds of the tournament.

“Also we provide ice towels on the first tee, the 10th tee,” Nottrott said. “There is a cooling station in the middle of the golf course, just behind the 13th green.”

That cooling station will have a misting fan for players to stand near as well as chairs to allow players to sit and rest, ice water and other drinks, more iced towels to drape around a player’s neck as well as chilled fruit like apples and bananas. Water will be available at 16 different places on the course.

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Finally, the AJGA makes sure there is a trained emergency medical technician on the Mission Hills grounds in case a player does have a problem. So far, Nottrott said, knocking on a wooden table, the EMT has never been needed.

“We certainly know we have to take care when the temperatures are this high,” Nottrott said. “So we start earlier, we play faster and we make sure there is plenty of water available.”

ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior

When: Wednesday through Friday

Where: Dinah Shore Tournament Course, Mission Hills Country Club, Rancho Mirage

Tee times: 6:30 to 8:09 a.m., first and 10th tees

History: The tournament has been played 37 consecutive years at Mission Hills and has had winners like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Grace Park and EunJeong Seong.

Desert players: In the field this week are Charlie Reiter of Palm Desert, Derrick Liu of Palm Desert, Ray Navis of Palm Desert and Caroline Wales of La Quinta.

Admission: Free to the public