There were two potential stumbling blocks when course superintendent Steve Glossinger was first approached five years ago about coming to work at Caves Valley Golf Club.

He had never heard of the Baltimore club.

He was working at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., considered by some among the top 10 courses in the country.

Yet he listened to what Dennis Satyshur, Caves Valley's director of golf, as well as club chairman Les Disharoon and president Reg Murphy had to offer: a chance to put the then- 6-year-old club on the map.

Glossinger, whose status had gone to near guru-level among his peers after the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, took his leap of faith, leaving behind his Michigan roots and putting his reputation on the line.

Could he transform Caves Valley into the jewel it was intended to be when it opened in 1991?

The answer might come this week, when the club will play host to its first national professional championship - the U.S. Senior Open - beginning today.

The process has taken the better part of four years, and it has involved everything from moving tee boxes to narrowing fairways to making the course more walkable for players as well as for the 100,000-plus fans expected to attend.

Much of how the course plays - from the heavy rough to the speed of the greens - is not only up to the U.S. Golf Association, but also to a higher authority. Just call it the Giant Greenskeeper in the Sky.

"I just want to make sure we don't peak too soon," Glossinger, 47, said last month.

Glossinger is hoping he doesn't find the challenge that ultimately enhanced his reputation during the Open six years ago. It came in the form of a torrential rainstorm that battered Oakland Hills the day before play was to begin.

"We had five inches of rain, starting at noon Wednesday," Glossinger said. "We had waste-high water on about five fairways, all the bunkers had been washed out and one on 18 was virtually eliminated."

With the help of other local superintendents and their crews, Glossinger organized teams to get the course back to its championship level. Though it rained steadily for three hours, Glossinger told USGA officials he would have the course playable by the next morning.

"We had balls in the air by 7:30 a.m. [Thursday]," said Glossinger.

Glossinger's confidence came from his years working at Point O Woods, a prestigious club in Benton Harbor, Mich., that annually held the Western Amateur and, nearly annually, had issues with the weather.

Rainy experience

"We had some deluges a couple of years and we had to get the golf course ready," said Glossinger. "I didn't have the resources or manpower at Point O Woods, but somehow we did it there. In the Open, I was equipped to do it. So that experience allowed me to get this thing accomplished."

Depending on the weather this week, Glossinger will have those experiences to draw upon.

"I'm going to take all my Western Amateur experience and all my experience I received at Oakland Hills and use that knowledge here, and use it to the best of my abilities," said Glossinger. "Experience is a wonderful thing. If you'd had thrown me this job when I was in my 20s, I probably couldn't have handled it."

Then again, Glossinger had been preparing for a long time.

After working at a local course during high school in Buchanan, Mich., Glossinger studied turf management at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich. After graduation, Glossinger became a greenskeeper at Signal Point, a 75-member club in Niles, Mich. He was 21 years old.

One of Glossinger's favorite memories involves being out cutting grass in a tractor.

"I got socked in the back of the neck," he said. "The gentleman had already teed off, and he drove up and said, 'Son, you all right?' "

Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian was inquiring on Glossinger's condition.

"He treated me like a football player," said Glossinger, who had captained the football, baseball and basketball teams at nearby Buchanan High School. "He said, 'You're all right,' and he drove off. In other words, 'Get back on the tractor and keep going.' "

Glossinger did, reaching the highest rank in his profession - certified by the Golf Course Superintendents of America at age 26, the youngest ever to achieve that status. He would work at three of the top four clubs in Michigan before coming to Caves Valley in 1997.

"I knew the club wanted to pursue major championships, but I moved because I thought there were good people here running the club, and I thought it would be good to raise my family here," said Glossinger, who ran into problems at Oakland Hills partly because of union issues. "I have not seen anything to lessen what I thought."

Nor have those who hired him.

"For us to get a U.S. Open course superintendent was considered a major coup," said Satyshur. "He's a very good golfer [a 5-handicap], and it shows. We couldn't be happier."

Glossinger lives on the property in a three-bedroom bungalow with his wife, Cheri, and their two young daughters. He is often on the course by 5 a.m. and not home until 8 p.m., but the proximity to his family allows Glossinger to have lunch and do some other activities with the kids.

"It's a job you cannot go home and put your feet up in the air and relax and read the newspaper," he said. "It's an occupation that requires a lot of attention and hours."

Playing the course

Just to make sure that the course was developing at the pace he wants, Glossinger tried to get out to play about once a week over the past few months. He recently shot a 2-over-par 74 playing from the tips.

Glossinger compares being a course superintendent to being a coach.

"You move around a lot, instead of having a bad team, we have a bad golf course," he said. "If you get into a tailspin and you can't turn it around ... you just move on.

"That's just the nature of our industry. You keep that in the back of your mind, but I want to anchor down for a few years and raise my family."

Not to mention the reputation of Caves Valley.