Blue Hills Country Club Superintendent Logan Spurlock, right, with assistants Miles Jumps at his side and Ryan Bowman as they hosted the AdventHealth Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour last week in Kansas City. Spurlock’s dog Moose is on the scene too. Photo by Howard Richman
In late August, the Kansas City Chiefs are on plenty of minds in Kansas City, Mo. But for one week in Logan Spurlock’s corner of the world in mid-America, his golf course ruled the kingdom that is Blue Hills Country Club.
For the first time, the AdventHealth Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour was televised nationally by Golf Channel, Aug. 20-23, at Blue Hills CC in Kansas City. “This is great, especially for our membership,” says Spurlock, the GCSAA Class A golf course superintendent at Blue Hills and 23-year association member.
TV golf isn’t anything new for Spurlock. Previously, he hosted the PGA Tour’s Tiger Woods-hosted World Challenge from 2006-13 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and then the PGA Tour’s OHL Mayakoba Classic at El Camaleón Golf Course at Mayakoba in Mexico before moving to Blue Hills CC in 2021.
The event at Blue Hills CC had a different look to it than the Korn Ferry Tour stop there in the past. The TV broadcast meant lights, camera, action unlike anything seen before on the premises. A key reason for the elevated appearance had to do with timing. This final event on the Korn Ferry Tour was a last-chance opportunity for golfers until the playoffs start.
This was the first time Blue Hills CC hosted a Korn Ferry event in August; typically, the tournament was on the calendar in May. That change resulted in an agronomical advantage for Spurlock and his team, which includes assistant and six-year GCSAA member Miles Jumps and assistant Ryan Boman, a three-year association member.
“The lead-up this year gave us more time, and the (Meyer) zoysia were right where we wanted them to be,” Spurlock says of the turfgrass on approaches, tees and fairways, “and the (Penn A1/A4) bentgrass greens are really good in August. We had three-quarters of an inch of rain Wednesday, but golfers were playing the ball down (Thursday).”
One announcer on the telecast mentioned the bentgrass greens at Blue Hills CC were among the best on tour.
Spurlock had a familiar name and face come to visit Blue Hills CC this year — a famous figure who knows the facility well. Kansas City native Tom Watson, who served as tournament ambassador for the AdventHealth Championship, has played at the club for decades. From 1980 to 2004, Watson hosted the Children’s Mercy Classic, which featured guest players from Jack Nicklaus to Annika Sorenstam. That gathering ultimately raised more than $12 million through the years for the hospital.
“He has been around a few times this year, has a lot of friends at the club,” Spurlock says of Watson, who was there Sunday to congratulate champion Yuta Sugiura. “I walked around with him a little. He always has good things to say about us.”
Howard Richman is GCM's associate editor.