The Controlled Chaos of Mapletøn's Construction

At first light, a black Silverado truck slows to a stop on Slip Up Road.

Johnny Christiansen turns into the 210-acre dirt playground that will soon transform into one of America's best new golf courses. By 6 a.m., with the birds chirping overhead, the 62-year-old shaper fires up his D3 bulldozer, igniting another construction day at Mapletøn Golf Club.

Christiansen is usually the spark, but won't be alone for long. By 7:30 a.m., these hills north of Sioux Falls are buzzing with as many as 70 crew members.

"We're everywhere," said Anthony Coursen, Mapletøn project superintendent.

What stands out isn't the number of people, it's the volume of machinery. Every day on site, there's 15 UTVs, 12 excavators, five dozers, five scrapers, five tractor trailers, four skid loaders, two dump trucks, one water truck. And that doesn't count all the stuff without a steering wheel. Like the jumping jacks that compact dirt. Or the one-ton trench roller that resembles a Star Wars droid.

A year from now, this old farm will be one of the most tranquil spots in the Sioux Falls area. But now? Controlled chaos.

Who's making sure it runs smoothly? A 28-year-old project superintendent named Anthony Coursen who knows exactly who's doing what every moment in his crew's 55-hour work week. Just as important, he knows what every day costs, both in labor and equipment.

Ask Coursen and he'll roll through the must-do list on a random June day:

• Tiling and graveling No. 2 and 3 green for drainage.
• Installing drainage on No. 16.
• Installing drainage on greenside bunker on No. 10
• Installing barrier liner on 5 green
• Shaping 7 green
• Shaping waste bunkers on No. 9
• Installing irrigation pipe with swing joints on No. 2
• Excavating the irrigation pond
• Cutting dirt from No. 11 fairway and hauling it to No. 8
• Removing trees on 13 tees and preparing to burn them
• Maintaining silt fence

During a 10-hour workday, Coursen's team communicates plans, ideas and instructions — sometimes in English, often in Spanish — via What's App. It's amazing how much they get done. "It's the craziest thing, you blink at lunch and you blink when it's time to go home."

And when it rains? Well, that's the maddening thing. Mother Nature has her own schedule. And she calls the shots.

"Ever since Easter," Coursen said, "we've been getting rain one or two days a week."

And that was BEFORE last week's torrential rains. Coursen's team has spent weeks constructing the irrigation lake for Mapletøn. Last Friday, they received an unwanted preview of what it will look like full of water.

Coursen, 28, grew up in Painesville, Ohio, and broke into the business by working in golf course maintenance. He's spent 6 1/2 years at Landscapes Unlimited, but Mapletøn is the biggest job he's led.

Much of Coursen's duty is problem-solving. Trying to get ahead of potential problems. What equipment isn't working right. Who's running low on fittings. How do you make a proven construction model work a little bit more efficiently?

"One of my favorite things about what we do is you're learning things all the time," Coursen said. "There's new processes, new equipment, the guys pick up an easier way that might be a little bit faster. It's an ever-evolving thing. You're learning constantly."

That's one big theme of golf course construction. No site, no job, no golf hole is exactly the same. It's true for a 28-year-old project superintendent. It's also true for a 62-year-old dozer operator who loves to see the sunrise.

Johnny Christiansen is a shaping specialist. The kind of guy who can take a golf course architect's vision and make it real. The Omaha native, who owns his own business, jumps from course to course building fairways and greens, just as he's done for 41 years.

Christiansen used to swing his own sticks, but he recently gave up.

"The reason I quit golfing is because my daughter beat me," he said. "I said I'm done. She whipped my butt."

Unlike most of the crew, Christiansen goes home on weekends. But he's up at 4:15 a.m. on Monday morning stretching his back. (Dozer life isn't easy on the body). By 6, he's shoving dirt on another hole, sculpting a green or bunker.

"I couldn't wait to do No. 8 green by the silo," Christiansen said. "I was pumped for that one. There's going to be a lot of pictures of that."

Christiansen has worked hundreds of jobs, from Myrtle Beach to San Francisco. In South Dakota, he helped shape Sutton Bay's second course.

"I've never advertised," he said. "All I have is hats and that's it. It's all word of mouth. If you do a good job, a well-respected superintendent will just say, 'Get him.'"

At 62, Christiansen doesn't answer every phone call. But he wanted to work on Mapletøn because of golf course architect Scott Hoffman. "If it wasn't for Scott, I wouldn't be here," Christiansen said. "The way he talks and explains stuff, I just get it. I kinda see what he sees."

When Hoffman describes a concept for a green, for instance, Christiansen jumps in the dozer and brings the idea to life. Sometimes it takes a week, sometimes just a few hours.

"The reason I like 8 so much is it just came together like that. I wasn't over there but a day."

Sometimes Hoffman comes back to him and scraps an idea for something else. Christiansen rarely complains. He's seen enough to know that tweaks only make it better. Take No. 7. Recently Hoffman wanted to shift the 7th fairway east and place the green next to Slip Up Creek.

"7 is going to be one of the best holes out there now," Christiansen said.

By 6 p.m., Christiansen's D3 is parked for the night. Most of the crew works another hour. Who's last to go home? Well, it's usually Anthony Coursen. He spends the dinner hour going over the next day's schedule, doing paperwork, communicating and getting organized.

A project superintendent's biggest enemy is uncertainty and Coursen tries to eliminate it. He can't stop the rain, but he can make sure Mapletøn is running full-speed when the mud turns back to dirt. At 28, running the biggest job of his career, Coursen can visualize the end product. Mapletøn is building toward something special.

One long day at a time.