Lapp, Cog Hill crew come to the rescue

One hour into the second round of the BMW Championship Friday morning it began to rain.

And rain.

And rain.

By the time the deluge had stopped about 45 minutes later, Mother Nature had deposited nearly an inch of the wet stuff on Dubsdread at Cog Hill, causing play to be suspended at 9:11 a.m. and leaving about 50 little lakes in her wake.

Enter Ken Lapp.

While players and fans scrambled for cover, the course superintendent and his crew went to work. And they brought along their tools because they knew before the players would be able to lift, clean and replace, they first had to squeegee, pump and rake.

And that's just what they did.

"We went out and cleaned up any of the loose brush, shoveled back the sand traps, pumped the water out of them, and most importantly squeegeed the greens," Lapp said. "I'm fortunate enough to have a big crew out here. At any one time I could have up to 80 men out on the course."

While there wasn't any severe damage to the course, the storm did deposit a lot of water in the bunkers, on the greens and in the fairways begging the question: What exactly is the strategy for cleaning up over 7,000 yards of prime golf real estate?

A lot of teamwork and a lot of equipment.

"Our main objective is to get the course playable," Lapp said. "We want to get everything done so the players and fans can get back out there."

And less than three hours later, that's just where they were, as if nothing had ever happened.

Just the way Lapp wanted it.