The Aquatrols Company is proud to have joined forces with Tom Irwin, Inc., Envu and The Toro Company to provide financial and logistical support for the turf team and volunteers at the upcoming U.S. Senior Open at the storied Newport Country Club. It’s one more element of our commitment to the industry and our customers. And it’s all part of our philosophy of #TurfAtHeart.
Chris Coen’s time at Newport CC has spanned five decades. Now he’s ready to show the world how his small team and committed membership have combined to present a great site for the 2024 U.S. Senior Open.
By Pat Jones
There are few courses in America more “senior” than Newport Country Club. Founded in 1893, it’s one of the famed “First Five” clubs that brought the United States Golf Association to life.
And, perhaps more than any notable club, it’s stayed true to much of the original look and feel it had back in 1895 when it quite literally hosted the first amateur championship (won by no less than C.B Macdonald). But the course really came into its own in 1921 when additional land was acquired and A.W. Tillinghast was retained to design seven new holes and create the layout we see now.
Today, Newport CC sits on a fabulous piece of land that’s always windswept and salt-sprayed, features 125 bunkers and virtually no trees. And, by the way, they don’t have fairway irrigation, and everyone loves it that way.
As the club prepares to host the U.S. Senior Open, the fifth national championship to come to Newport, their longtime superintendent Chris Coen steps into the spotlight (something he’s not crazy about) as the quirky but wonderful club prepares for the world’s attention. Coen is a local who certainly never dreamed of hosting major championships when he was a young Newporter growing up in the “less affluent” part of the community. Yet he’s calm and ready as the countdown to the event proceeds.
We caught up with him recently to get to know him, learn about the fabulous course he maintains, and find out how he and his small crew will prepare for the world’s best senior players.
How did you end up at Newport?
I’ve been here about 35 years. I wasn’t really a turfie to begin with. I was working here in the summer and going to tech school. The super at the time had an opening for a full-time job with health benefits. I loved the idea that I could go home and tell my mother I had a job with health benefits!
It just evolved from there. I was on the staff full-time, year-round. They saw some promise in me and sent me to the University of Massachusetts winter school. After that I became the assistant for 10 years. Then when (his predecessor) Bob Reynolds retired they hired me as the superintendent.
Tell us about your team.
We have a very small staff. I have one assistant – Jeff Morris – and I recently promoted two of my best Guatemalan crew members to second assistants. Other than my first assistant and mechanic, everybody else on our team is Guatemalan. They are remarkable people who work incredibly hard. So, we’re a staff of 15, but that’s actually fine for what we need.
Pretty amazing that you’ve been here since the late 1980s…
I’m a born and bred Newporter. I’ve lived here my whole life so that makes it special. To tell you the truth, it’s mostly the people. The membership has been incredible, and they care about the employees and their families.
What makes the property so special?
Obviously, the location on the ocean, but the bunkering is just unbelievable. That plus the fact that there’s still no irrigation on the fairways really makes it what it is. They’ve stuck with not having irrigated fairways forever and the USGA has supported that.
The greatest part about it is how well the fairways usually hang in there. If it starts to get really droughty, we’ll play with the mowing heights on the fairways. If it’s a really hot summer, I may raise the HOC to ¾-inch. A few players will jokingly complain that they get flyers out of the fairways.
Unirrigated fairways seem impossible by today’s standards. How do you pull it off?
The root system is unbelievable, and the grass is so used to it that it will eventually go heat dormant. As soon as we get some rain, it’ll creep right back. I’ve had other supers come to me and say, ‘Oh my god I love your fairways I’m going to turn the water off on mine’ and I’ll say ‘No, no, no…yours will die.’ It’s taken decades to evolve to the point where we can get away with this.
The course also handles the salt spray so well. It’s become used to it. I do soil samples and flushes but there’s really not a lot you can do about it except try to push it below the rootzone.
Where’s your favorite spot on the golf course to just go think?
The holes on the other side of the street – holes 2 through 8 have incredible views of the ocean. Sometimes they’ll be a regatta out there. It’s a really special place.
How is the golf course viewed around the Newport community?
Some people don’t even know it’s here. I grew up on the poor side of town and it’s surprising how many folks don’t know a lot about the club.
How big is this for the area?
Newport and Rhode Island cherish this event and this place. I’ve heard they expect 20,000 people a day. It’s a big event for the state and there’s a huge boat show the week beforehand. It’s going to be packed.
How has the course been changed or renovated over the time you’ve been there?
Ron Forse came in years ago and redid a few bunkers to take them back to Tillinghast. They’ve also had Gil Hanse do a few things. They tweaked about five bunkers so see if we could get more balls to roll into them.
Other than that, we’ve built a few bunkers recently and I’ve built those myself.
Cool! Tell us about that.
I basically have the crew go out and cut all the sod away from a big area. Then I go out there with the excavator and I just start moving some dirt around. I look at the hole and I shape it by eye. It helps that I’ve been here so long, I think I know what fits in to this golf course. A few years ago they bought me a mid-sized excavator with a knuckle bucket and it’s so rewarding being out there trying different things and creating something new.
Sounds like heaven.
It’s really fun. I just sit out there for a few days by myself shaping and moving dirt around. Finally, when I get it pretty much where I want it, I’ll have the president and a couple of members come out and take a look. They’ll give me some feedback and maybe we’ll make some small tweaks. Then we bring staff back in to do the hand work. We always use the same sod we removed originally to fill it back in so the new work blends right in.
What other modifications have been made over the years?
The biggest changes happened about the time I took over and we cut down nearly all of the wood lines, so we’ve had very few trees. One of the last trees on the golf course came down last winter when a mini tornado hit and ripped it out of the ground.
Was the tree removal controversial?
A lot of members were against it back then. But once it was done and we seeded in fescue and blue stem in those areas, they saw it and said, “This was the right thing to do. We love it.” Taking out the trees got us back to the way it was originally done by Tillinghast. Those trees were planted later and just didn’t belong.
Moisture management has to be top of mind for you every day.
This golf course is the most fun to play when it dries out and the wind it blowing and the fairways are firm as can be. I basically hand-feed the water to greens. I usually go out personally and water every green myself and watch them. I have my radio and when the heads make one pass across the green, I turn them off. Then we go out in the afternoons and hand-water. We try to keep them as firm and fast as possible.
During the season, we’ll go out at noontime and pull hoses around and make sure they’ll make it to the evening. When I’m driving around, I’ll see stuff that looks a little wilty but by six or seven at night when the sun’s going down, you can see them bouncing back.
I live on the 13th hole and there’s a beach club nearby. When my kids were little we could be down there at the beach and I could run up and check the greens and then come right back to the beach to play with them.
Not too many supers hosting USGA championships would be doing tons of hand-watering stuff like that by themselves.
That’s my favorite part. I enjoy being a working super.
What are you focused on agronomically as the event gets closer?
We’re not going to change much of anything. We keep it pretty much championship conditions all the time once it fully wakes up. Once we get it there, the membership expects greens rolling 12 or above every day once the season kicks in. The only thing the USGA wants to change is to flip the nines to accommodate the bleachers and the crowds and showcase the ocean views and sailboats and such. Also #9 is actually really good as a finishing hole.
What’s your spray program leading up to the event?
I’ll be going out with Cascade plus Banol or Segway and probably Densicor. Once I get into season I spray greens, approaches and collars weekly at low rates. We’ll do tees and fairways every two weeks. I spoon-feed Primo on greens and Anuew on fairways.
What’s your wetting agent of choice?
Right now, I go with Cascade every 30 days on greens. I use it with Heritage and a root feeder sometime. Also some Exchange to push sodium. We treat for nematodes too. We had problems in the past achieve the green speeds we wanted but the nematodes were an issue. Now we have solutions.
Why is Cascade a go-to solution for you?
It gets the moisture off the top. Others I’d tried kept the surface too mucky up top and there were too many ballmarks and such. I tried another product and it dried everything out too much and we were running around with hoses in May. But with the Cascade, it gets the moisture off the top and we don’t have all sorts of ballmarks. I’m getting 25-28 days of efficacy with no problem.
I’m excited about using Cascade Tre this season. The Tre will be fantastic. We won’t have to worry about watering in right behind my assistant when he’s making applications. I’m looking forward to it.
How about other areas?
I use Vivax 0-0-20 granular on tees. It’s great because we don’t have to run around with hoses worrying about tees.
One of my favorite products is Border 2.0. Being here by the ocean, I can’t decide to wait a day for the wind to calm down to spray. We might have 10 days in a row of 20 mph winds. With the Border 2.0, I don’t have to worry about that.
And I use Sync, especially with Quicksilver in the tank. We have a couple of very old greens where moss can be a problem and the Sync really helps get it in.
I even use Precise Pond in my one pond. I love it because it’s a tidal pond and I can drop a couple of packets in the water upstream and the tide takes it where it needs to go.
How important is it to have partners like The Aquatrols Company, Tom Irwin & Sons, Envu and the Toro Company to prepare this really unique property for a championship?
They’ve come in a really taken a lot of weight off my shoulders. It’s allowed me to really concentrate on the golf course.
How many volunteers will you have for the championship?
We’ll have about 70. We tried to keep it local from around here and the Cape. Everyone is experienced. Superintendents, assistants and second assistants.
What do you want your colleagues to know about Newport and why it’s so special?
It’s very special because of the history, obviously, the location and no fairway irrigation. But also how the wind and the rough are such big factors in how the course plays. For our membership, I cut rough at 3.5” normally. Even in a hot summer when the fairways are firm the rough still stays thick. By Sunday during the event the rough will be 4+ inches. The fairways are generous enough to hit. Most are 20-25 yards wide. And the bunkering – there’s 125 of them out there and they are tough.
What comes to mind when you think about the summer ahead?
Without my guys liking their jobs so much, we couldn’t do it. They bust their tails out there and the membership genuinely appreciates it. It’s fantastic. I can’t say enough about my team and my members.
Final thoughts about hosting NCC’s fifth USGA championship?
It’s an honor, without a doubt. It’s such a prestigious event. And it’s a great place and a really special golf course. I’m excited that the world will get to see it.
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