Around Town

The Wells Fargo Championship: The viewpoints you overlook

By Katie Toussaint
Todd Sumlin tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com

Perhaps you will spend your Wells Fargo Championship days lounging in the Green Mile Club. You will sip your Bloody Mary as you gaze through the wraparound windows and across the 16th and 17th greens.

Or perhaps you will be a more humble ticket holder, lazing in the sun near the tent version of the All American Pub farther down the course as you examine your beer.

You may not realize that one person out there sees the view very differently from you: Tony Schuster, operations director of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Schuster’s six surprising viewpoints:

1. Quail Hollow is meant to be transformed. Schuster spends 10 weeks setting up the course with vendors and staff. He gives the cue and the Overlook Suites on the 17th tee rise, the Media Center on tennis courts #1 and #2 goes up, and TV screens, phones and air conditioning are installed in various structures. “I’m like the conductor of an orchestra,” he said.

2. Golf is not actually the focus. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I bet I’ve watched six golf shots,” he said. “And the only reason I watch a golf shot is because I’m trying to get by the guys in my cart.”

3. The goal of the game isn’t to win. “This is an event that this community is proud of,” Schuster said. “I want to maintain it.” And he does—with the backing of seven staff members who work year-round, plus the added manpower of 2,300 volunteers closer to tournament time.

4. Everything is built to be torn down. On the last night of the tournament, May 17, Schuster and his team will pull an all-nighter to hasten the three-week teardown process.

5. The end of the tournament is just a start. Once the course is cleaned up, Schuster launches into work for Tiger Woods Foundation events in Washington D.C. in July, and in Boston in August. Then he’s off to Sea Island to run all of the operations behind The McGladrey Classic for three months in the fall. The year will finally race to the end after he runs the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

6. What goes on behind the scenes is a career. “This is what I’m passionate about doing and I’ve been able to create a career out of it,” Schuster said. “And as long as you can do that, do what you’re passionate about, the money is not important. You’re going to be happy every day at work.”

Photo: Todd Sumlin/Charlotte Observer

@katietoussaint

This story was originally published May 10, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "The Wells Fargo Championship: The viewpoints you overlook."

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