Lynch has overseen an aggressive restoration in recent years, a spirited effort that has won praise and breathed life into a stale layout. Now, much of that progress has been washed away by winter's fury. The sun was shining over the weekend, but Lynch looked out at an empty golf course. ''I could have cried. If I don't bite the bullet now, I'd be a fool. Time will tell The suffering will end eventually.
Many superintendents can reflect on past disasters and point to a full recovery.
It was like steamed vegetables.'' Dozens of greens in the area were killed. It was rotten. The grass looked like cooked spinach. I lost almost everything.'' Still others, like Bert Fredericks, the legendary superintendent at Vesper CC in Tyngsborough, compare this past winter with that of 1963, which was also very cold and very icy. But what they also need is time, something they are short on, given the fact many of them opened as much as two months later than they did a year ago.