Superintendent Sullivan Murphy’s journey to hosting the Dick’s Sporting Goods Championship

En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y. is more than just a golf course for Superintendent Sullivan Murphy. Now in his second year in the head position, Murphy and the club go way back.

“I started working here in the summer of 2011 on the crew and I fell in love with it and decided to come back the following summer,” he says. “It’s kind of funny how it’s worked out … it’s come full circle in a way. I started working here in high school, raking bunkers and mowing greens and stuff. And now I’m here sitting in the lead chair.”

Murphy got his turf degree from SUNY Delhi and picked up several internships — including one at En-Joie — before taking his first assistant job at PGA Golf Club’s Wannamaker Course. After a year as a second assistant at PGA GC in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he moved an hour south to Quail Ridge CC in Boynton Beach — a course where he interned in college.

“In 2016 I moved to Florida once I got done with school and worked (at Quail Ridge) for the last six years. Then I moved back up here in the spring of 2022 to accept this position at En-Joie.”

Plenty of experience

En-Joie has a long history of hosting PGA Tour events, dating back to 1971 and the B.C. Open. The course hosted the B.C. Open annually — except for the 2005 tournament which was relocated due to a severe flood of the Susquehanna River — until 2006.

In 2007, the course hosted the first Dick’s Sporting Goods Open — a Champions Tour event — and has been the tournament’s home ever since. Knowing that there’s always a tournament coming every year plays heavily into the strategy of Murphy and his crew.

“Everything we do is based on the timing of the event and what we want to see,” he says. “Being in the floodplain that we are, we do have some type of flooding every year. (In 2023) we had minor flooding on several holes and that took about three days to recede. So, we kind of expect that at some point in the year, every year.”

To combat the inevitable flooding, En-Joie has several pumps the crew can place throughout the property to help move water. Murphy says that, depending on the severity of the flooding, within a few days the area dries out, so his team can mow it, blow it and make it look brand new.

Party time

During tournament week, golfers aren’t the only ones using En-Joie’s 18th fairway. As part of the event, the club puts on a Friday night concert that draws a large turnout.

In 2023, Kenny Chesney performed for the crowd that sat scattered across several of Murphy’s fairways.

“(The concert) is directly outside my shop and the stage itself is between the two large grandstands,” he says. “You have a few thousand people scattered across the 18th fairway back into the ninth fairway adjacent to it. It’s just nuts, to be honest.”

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