PGA Championship director: Expect the unexpected in Haven, Wis.
A veteran of running big-time golf tournaments from the Western Open to the PGA Championship at Medinah, Barry Deach has pretty much seen it all as he heads into his second tour of duty with the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits this week.
But it wouldn't surprise him one bit if a few unexpected twists popped up at the course designed by Pete Dye in Haven, Wis., north of Milwaukee.
Such is the life of a tournament director.
And Deach is living the life.
Since being named to the gig at Kohler in July of 2009, Deach, an Evans Scholar who grew up in Minnesota and now lives in Chicago, has been a road warrior, commuting back and forth from his home in Chicago to Whistling Straits.
When he's in Chicago he gets to spend quiet time with his wife and young daughter.
When he's in Wisconsin it's a whole different story as he has to deal with everything from a pair of large organizations on-site, government agencies, his staff and a slew of volunteers numbering in the thousands.
On the cusp of the 2010 PGA Championship, Deach took some time to speak to the Daily Herald about his life and golf career and how to enjoy the PGA Championship.
Q. Let's get the tough one out of the way: you grew up in Minnesota, have spent a lot of time lately in Wisconsin, and you currently live in Chicago ... Bears, Vikings or Packers?A. (Laughs) How about this? It's none of them. It's the Gophers.Q. You've spent a lot of time commuting to Kohler from your home in Chicago and back. What has that been like?A. It's the best of both worlds, to be honest. In 2004 it was just my wife and I, but now my daughter is 2-years-old, so it's been a little harder. But I get to work freely and work 100 percent on this in a very short period of time and then I get to decompress and get back to Chicago because we absolutely love Chicago. My wife works at the Lincoln Park Zoo and we live in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. We love everything about it.Q. Is it organized chaos or how do you describe your job to people?A. I heard a good analogy one time -- and I've never been on a movie set -- but it's like that. You have a very set time to do something. You have a very set budget to do something.The biggest challenge is getting two big organizations (Kohler Co. and PGA of America) aligned to do something, to remember what the ultimate goal is. Then it's navigating staff, which is generally temporary, and the 62 committees and then the government relations. What has been advantageous for me here is that all those relationships still exist (from 2004).Q. For those who attended the event in 2004. will the place look a little different?A. Yeah, there are some elements there but it will look and feel different. The town center is a much more consumer activated place, much more of a gathering place. When you leave the championship, that's the place to rest and enjoy. Even if you can't afford tickets you can still come out and enjoy it, go to the merchandising tent, the PGA Performance center, you can get a golf lesson ... and last minute, if you want a ticket, you can do that.Q. Weather-wise and layout-wise, what should people expect?A. We're encouraging people to wear golf shoes or shoes with good treads. Really good footwear, we're not talking flip-flops or flat souled shoes - we're talking good hiking shoes with a good tread.There's not a lot of shade out there so people will want to bring an umbrella so they'll be covered in shade and from rain. Sometimes it can be cooler in the village of Kohler, which is about 12 miles away , and hotter out here. We're looking at pretty hot numbers for the week. But the cool part is late in the afternoon you can get a reverse wind off Lake Michigan.Q. If you were a fan coming up for a day at Whistling Straits, how would you spend that day?A. One, you want to spend some time in the PGA shop. Two, find a place to perch yourself. There are great vistas here. The prized spots are at the top of the bleachers. The 12th hole, you can stand up and watch the action on No. 10. The sixth hole is fantastic. You can see the sixth, the third and the second holes.Q. Having made that trip up from Chicago, what would be the one piece of advice you would give fans on the trip itself?A. Plan for I-94 traffic. I would plan to give myself an extra hour. North of downtown Milwaukee, we've been working with the Department of Transportation from Wisconsin and those lanes are all free the entire week. They should be fine outside of accidents.Q. Are tickets still available?A. Absolutely. We expect walk-ups throughout the week. Because of high demand of daily tickets, we actually broke up and released some of our week-long tickets to keep more inventory. We've released 5,000 more daily tickets for Thursday through Sunday.Q. On a totally different topic, you are an Evans Scholar - what has that meant to you?A. That's hard to sum up because I get very emotional about it. They provided me a college education.They provided my first entree into national tournament golf as an associate director back in the early 1990s. I'm forever indebted and have a great affinity for it.Q. What do you think the story line will be this week?A. I think that one of the things that's startling to me from a players standpoint is the number of international players that are in the starting field. Of the top 100, I think 73 or so are international.I find that interesting as a story and how that may parlay into the Ryder Cup.On the webFor more details on the tournament, tickets and the course, visit pga.com/pgachampionship/2010False640976Barry Deach False