Nick Bisanz has TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn., ready to go for this month’s FedEx St. Jude Championship on the PGA Tour. Photos by Patrick Lantrip
Nick Bisanz is a central figure in all things TPC Southwind, which has more than a marquee PGA Tour event on the horizon.
Take a good look at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn.
The home to this month’s FedEx St. Jude Championship on the PGA Tour will soon change its appearance agronomically compared to one year from now. The man who looks out for the place, however, remains a constant.
Director of Golf Course Maintenance Operations Nick Bisanz and his team are about to embark on a one-year transformation of their golf course. This fall — and for the first time in 20 years — TPC Southwind is scheduled to start a major renovation.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship that begins Aug. 15 will be the last of its kind in its current turfgrass description. In November, the renovation will change green and tee complexes to Zeon zoysiagrass and alter greens surfaces to TifEagle bermudagrass.
Bisanz, a GCSAA Class A superintendent and 21-year association member and native to Marietta, Ga., says there was a time that the renovation was planned for 2028 or 2029. But the timeline is now to enhance greens and surrounds and create additional
pin locations.
No sweat for Bisanz, in his second go-around at TPC Southwind. He returned in 2017, two months before the tournament that ultimately went off without a hitch in a city that has hosted a PGA Tour event every year since 1958. What else do you expect from
a husband and father of two who this year participated in a BBQ contest on a team with the way-cool nickname the Meatles?
“We’ll start construction Nov. 1. Will plant greens next spring. Do some winter sodding around greens to hold things in place. Sprig greens around the first week in May. The big thing is how much progress we see in the month of May. Good luck,
right? No, it’ll be good,” Bisanz says.
Bisanz with his wife, Kristen, and their daughters, June (in his arms) and Josie.
Man and wife
For the record, Bisanz wasn’t the first Bisanz to land a job in Memphis.
Nick’s wife, Kristen, was hired in 2005. As senior research associate at St. Jude, she worked in cancer research. Previously, she was employed in Atlanta at Emory University, while her husband was an assistant superintendent for three years at Atlanta
Country Club.
Nick doesn’t hesitate when discussing who’s the more intelligent one in this couple. “She has a master’s degree in molecular biology. I can’t even spell molecular,” he says with a laugh.
In Memphis, he joined TPC Southwind for the first time. Becoming part of the TPC Network quickly paid off. A year later, Bisanz was named a senior assistant at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona, where he remained until 2012. He exited the TPC family to become
a superintendent for the first time at The Heritage Club in Wake Forest, N.C. When the TPC Network asked if he’d be interested in returning to TPC Southwind seven years ago to run the facility, the Bisanzes were on the move again.
Much has changed since returning to Memphis. The family has grown. Daughters Josie and June were born. June was less than a year old when she attended the tourney in 2023. “The whole family is invested in golf. The girls have gone to see the construction,
the buildup, the stands going up on the course. We want them to see all it took to get things ready,” Kristen says. “His (Nick) work is on display. Nobody sees my job; his job is flashier. I think he loves what he does. And I think it
was what he was meant to do.”
Bisanz (third from the left) and his senior crew leaders, from left, Eddie Chittom, Shane Seymour and Grady Nabors.
A fan of the man
As he watches the daily golf course doings — whether it’s PGA Tour time or not — Will Heirtzler likes the views.
As PGA Head Golf Professional, his relationship with the golf course superintendent is solid. Heirtzler says as much. “He (Bisanz) is awesome. His communication with us (in Heirtzler’s department) is top tier. He overcommunicates, makes sure
our members are happy. I know Nick’s staff has a lot of respect for him. They do all they can to make a great product,” he says.
Bisanz was schooled in turfgrass and golf course management at Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro, Ga. That’s the town where he credits superintendent Steve Collins from Forest Heights Country Club for guiding him in the early portion of his
journey. “He was as good as gold, gave me a great intro to the business,” Bisanz says.
Bisanz and his staff — which includes senior assistant superintendent and 19-year GCSAA member Eddie Chittom, as well as assistant superintendents Grady Nabors (one-year GCSAA member) and Shane Seymour (eight-year member) — certainly do their
stuff in interesting surrounds. FedEx, which became the title sponsor in 1986 and has been a key part of helping raise more than $38 million for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, has a notable presence at TPC Southwind. FedEx world
headquarters borders holes No. 4 through 6. “Planes are flying 24/7. It looks like streetlights in the sky,” says Bisanz. “They’re a first-class organization across the board, and everybody around here rallies around St. Jude’s.”
Bisanz, with his faithful dog Millie, chats with Mark Heinz.
Millie and more
Without a doubt, Millie is the real star of the show at TPC Southwind, right?
The border collie course dog (they also have Honey, a yellow lab) has been by Bisanz’s side since The Heritage Club years. The four-legged friends have witnessed plenty of action at TPC Southwind, and there’s more to come. Five years ago,
the regrassing of fairways was launched, and at the same time a bunker renovation began. Regrassing was completed last year. That set the stage for 2024 and beyond. From June 25 to July 1, it was aerification time. The course was closed for play a
week before the championship this month and will be open post-championship until November.
As for the upcoming renovations, Bisanz says bring it on. “It’s (course) become harder and harder to manage. It’s older, more mature, and those mutations on the greens are hard to predict,” he says. “Between verticutting,
topdressing, cultural practices to make it more playable, we’ll be even more at a championship level.”
Bisanz encountered a champion three years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. In late August 2021, Olympic gold medal champion Xander Schauffele showed up, fresh off his triumph in Tokyo. Bisanz remembers it like it was yesterday. It sure made for a neat
memory. “When he got here, he came over and played a couple of holes. I asked him where his gold medal was, said congrats on his win. He said, ‘You wanna see it?’ He pulled it out of his bag. He picked it up, said, ‘Check it
out.’ I did. It was pretty heavy. That was cool.”
Bisanz, left, joined the team named the Meatles this past spring for the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis. Photo courtesy of Jay Willis
BBQ and on to 2025
When James “Jay” Willis needed another body for the BBQ squad with the catchy name, he went straight to one of his favorite people. The Meatles, a play on words alluding to the legendary group the Beatles, didn’t win in May at the World
Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. Just having Bisanz there on the team was a success to Willis, director of agronomy at Chickasaw Country Club in Memphis. “He’s really good. We (at Chickasaw) have our tournament, the member-guest.
That’s baby stuff next to him being on the national stage. What he puts out there as a product will contend with anyone,” says Willis, a GCSAA Class A superintendent and 29-year association member. “He’s aggressive, not scared
to make changes or stuck in his ways. He doesn’t hold back, shares what he’s doing. He means business. He treats his crew very well and expects a lot out of them. His event is our time to shine for Memphis superintendents.”
As the first event this year in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and what is on the docket to have the course ready a year later for the next championship, Bisanz, hired for the TPC Network 19 years ago by current TPC Sawgrass Director of Golf Course Operations
Jeff Plotts, says he’ll approach it like anything else he does. “Just keep rolling,” Bisanz says.
Howard Richman (hrichman@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s associate editor.