THE THROATY growl of chainsaws competes with the gunned engines of innumerable buggies as an audio backdrop to the manicuring of Valhalla Golf Club ahead of the start of the 37th Ryder Cup on Friday.
The storms of Sunday night have abated but the laborious process of addressing the damage began in earnest at first light yesterday.
Louisville is in a state of emergency - 300,000 homes, business and hotels are without power - and while Valhalla Golf Club isn't similarly encumbered, the damage to trees and television gantries has provided an ill-timed complication for an already overworked green-keeping staff.
Included in their number - 35 staff, 80 volunteers - is 22-year-old Irishman Paul O'Donoghue from Enfield in Co Meath, currently studying Turfgrass Science and golf course design at Ohio State University. Having previously been a greenkeeper at Rathcore Golf and Country club (2003 to '07), while studying horticulture at Warrenstown College, he decided to further his education at the Ohio institution.
He enjoyed a nine-month placement from March to November at Muirfield Village Golf Club last year before taking up another internship at Valhalla while completing his studies. He's just one of several here this week with a similar vocation and when not broaching the topics that young men traditionally do, O'Donoghue confirmed that conversation is dominated by grass.
"There's way too much conversation about grass. We probably analyse it too much. Fertilisers, sprays and chemicals, just stuff nobody else knows about."
While O'Donoghue is part of an extensive team, the man charged with guaranteeing a pristine arena for the Ryder Cup is Valhalla golf course superintendent Mark Wilson.
His priority yesterday was to repair the damage to the 12th green caused by the high winds that toppled a television tower and brought it crashing down onto the putting surface.
Wilson, a 37-year veteran with 20 years at the Kentucky venue, refuses to overplay the climactic setback.
He ventured to one local reporter: "Remember: no problems, just solutions. We got tree limbs, but we'll take care of it. This is what a golf course superintendent does, tournament or not. We'll wait for the wind storm to get over and take care of business. I'm pretty confident that by today you won't know anything about it.
"My guys are ready for it. This is what they've been working for. The trees and limbs that are down, we'll saw them up, clean them up and go down the road."
Wilson doesn't pander to the traditional American tendency to artificially enhance nature. "She's (the course) a little rough, because we have so many wide-open areas, native areas. She's not one you'd put a lot of make-up on, not real frizzle.
"It's a golf club, not a swimming pool, not a tennis court. I try to do some aesthetics. But we really try not to have flowers out here (on the actual course). We're not putting hair spray on."
He's working to the direction of US Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger in terms of the course set-up but it's a process that's really about fine tuning. The hard graft came in the previous four years.
Wilson explained: "My crew and I got a chance to redo everything. We absolutely redid every green on this golf course, regrassed them, built four new greens, nine new tees. We worked on every bunker. We had 43; now we have 65. Every blade of grass got something done."
Over 5,000 trees were removed to provide for a more spectator friendly layout. He's told his staff not to read too much into any praise or criticism that the course may receive during the tournament. "We have our own judgment. Every one of these guys wants to look back and say, 'Hey, we put our best foot forward.' I'm pretty confident we're going to get pretty good reviews because we really have made this a big-time golf course."
The judging panel arrives in town today.
