Former Medinah golf director Scully now has Masters on his mind

Mike Scully knows all about big golf events. As director of golf at Medinah Country Club for more than a decade he played a lead role in staging the 2012 Ryder Cup matches.

Two weeks after that devastating American loss to the Europeans Scully was in Arizona starting a job as director of golf at Desert Mountain, a resort with five courses. Desert Mountain was to host the Charles Schwab Cup, a climax to the PGA Tour Champions season, three weeks later.

"As soon as I got there I was in a meeting with our board of directors and they were freaking out about putting four tents behind the 18th green," Scully said. "To me that was like a member-guest at Medinah. We had 87 tents for the Ryder Cup, so I told them we could figure it out."

Figure it out they did, and Scully stayed on at Desert Mountain another six years. This week he's got the Masters to figure out.

Scully, a football star at Prospect High School and member of Illinois' 1984 Rose Bowl team, left Arizona earlier this year to become general manager at Reynolds Lake Oconee. It's a beautiful multicourse resort in Greensboro, Ga. Especially noteworthy is that it's 70 miles from Augusta National, where the Masters tournament tees off Thursday.

Reynolds Lake Oconee is a big golf destination that has 3,700 members and a Ritz Carlton Hotel in the middle of the property. Last year there were 140,000 rounds of golf played there and Masters week is a highlight of the year.

"We do almost 15 percent of our annual business in the 10-day stretch around the Masters," Scully said, "so it's a natural. Everything we do here is tailored to Augusta."

Reynolds has taken on some ambitious projects since Scully's arrival. A dinner was planned to replicate the Masters dinner, in which defending champion Patrick Reed determined the menu.

The entire teaching staff was changed at the TaylorMade Kingdom facility. TaylorMade had exclusive rights with Reynolds' members and guests until its contract expired recently. The facility remains but Scully opened the pro shop to other equipment companies. To kick off that big change a Masters event was held with 60 vendors.

And the biggest change may be yet to come. Jack Nicklaus has been on property during the renovation of the Reynolds' championship course, Great Waters. It'll reopen in the fall, and Nicklaus has already promised the new look will be "spectacular."

During the renovation the course was opened to permit more views of the water and it was lengthened to 7,800 yards. That means it could be a major tournament site eventually. Georgia already has the Masters and The Tour Championship in Atlanta.

"Great Waters would be great for the Charles Schwab Cup, given its field size and hotel requirements, or a women's event," said Scully, who has found happiness in a hurry in the South.

"Medinah, on the private side, was the best of the best," he said. "My time in the desert was training time to do this job and get into the GM side. This is home. The two things I love here is Southern hospitality and that it comes with a strong Midwest feel. I didn't have that in Arizona. That West Coast vibe wasn't me."

The Medinah connection hasn't been forgotten, though. Curtis Tyrrell, the club's superintendent during Ryder Cup preparation, is visiting Reynolds this week.

"He pulled off a miracle (getting Medinah No. 3 ready for that big event), and he's family," said Scully. He said Tyrrell is visiting on a consulting basis.

Streelman's charge: Wheaton's Kevin Streelman won't play in the Masters but he made a great last minute run at it Sunday at the Valero Texas Open. Streelman, who had missed the cut in seven of his previous 14 PGA Tour events, shot a final round 64 - the low round of the tournament - with four straight birdies from holes 14 to 17.

He had a long birdie putt to tie for the lead on the 18th but missed it and made bogey. Streelman needed to win to play again at Augusta National and wound up in sixth place.

Still, the showing was encouraging. He visited his first coach, Jim Suttie, after missing the cut at the Valspar Championship in March. Streelman started working with Suttie when he was 12.

"He just gave me a few things to work on, and he's awesome," Streelman said. "I feel things are getting on the right track."