It's 2:45 a.m. and an alarm sounds, rousing Bob Boyer from his sleep.
His coffee, prepared the night before, is already brewing and will make his 45-minute drive from Arnold to Mount Pleasant golf course in Northeast Baltimore bearable.
Though the early hours seem daunting to face morning after morning, Boyer, the course's superintendent, knows it's the only way to ensure that the historic course is ready for the first tee time of the day, which comes at 5:25 a.m., just before sunrise.
"We want to have the product out for the golfers," he said. "They have expectations for the course, and we want to deliver it to them, and we can't do that while they're out there, so we want to be as far ahead of them as we can."
Boyer's mornings are just a sample of the dedication needed to sustain the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corp., which is celebrating its 25th year of existence this summer.
Before the formation of BMGC, the conditions of the Classic Five golf courses -- Carroll Park, Clifton Park, Forest Park, Mount Pleasant and Pine Ridge -- were not up to par.
"The city was having some issues with the golf courses," said Jon Ladd, BMGC's executive director. "Money was tight, and they weren't able to do what they wanted to do. The money they were collecting from the green fees was going into the general fund and not going back into the golf courses, and the courses were suffering as a result."
The venues had a rich history, with Sam Snead taking first place at the Eastern Open at Mount Pleasant in 1952, Arnold Palmer earning his third career victory at the same course in 1956, and Nancy Lopez winning her second professional tournament at Pine Ridge in 1978.
Knowing something needed to change to maintain the courses' prestige, then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer formed a committee to restructure the way the courses were run. Russell Bateman, the director of operations for the BMGC, was a member of the committee.
They needed to form a governing body that could "make quick decisions when they were needed," Bateman said. "It wasn't felt that it was just a change in management needed. They needed a change in style."
After almost a year of meetings and discussions, the committee decided to form a nonprofit to run the courses, thus creating the first public courses in the nation not run by government.
As a nonprofit, the corporation could put the revenue the courses generated directly back into them, allowing them to maintain the quality their golfers expect. Vera Strong, who is in her 60s, has golfed at Mount Pleasant for about 30 years. She has seen the changes and returns for the speed of play and quality of the courses.
"You can usually get through this course in four hours, and that's super," she said. "It's a friendly course, and it's a nice course to play. Especially for a public course, we've got the best."
The idea of working as a nonprofit has gained national recognition, with cities across the country mimicking BMGC's model. Golf courses in cities as far away as Seattle have called asking for advice on how to run their courses, and the BMGC gives whatever help it can.
"It can be a challenge for a municipality to manage [the courses] through the government system and the government model, and I think that's why we've been approached by many people and many cities and jurisdictions," said Tom Pierce, director of marketing for BMGC. "They're finding that in some of the jurisdictions, it's more efficient to have a nonprofit, like ourselves, run the golf courses than have the city's recreation and parks [department] do it. While the recreation and parks take care of what you would think -- parks and things of that nature -- taking care of a golf course is a little different."
When Boyer and his staff arrive at Mount Pleasant at 4 a.m., there is plenty to be done.
The greens are mowed daily and rolled two to three times a week. The holes on each green are also repositioned each day. The fairways and the rough need to be mowed and trimmed, and plant protectors need to be applied. And completing these tasks without sunlight can be a challenge.
But that's what it takes to supply the best product to the golfers, who keep coming back year after year.
"I thought the greens here were great," said Rob Liupaeter, 56, after playing 18 holes at Mount Pleasant.
Liupaeter, of Stevensville, has played Classic Five courses since around 1985, and most frequently plays at Carroll Park and Pine Ridge. But there is more to his experiences with the Classic Five than what takes place on the holes.
During his drive to Mount Pleasant earlier this month, Liupaeter got lost and an employee in the clubhouse stayed on the phone with him to make sure he found his way. He also raved about the food, saying the egg and bacon sandwich he had had earlier in the day was the "best one I've had in a long time."
With golfers in the Baltimore area making BMGC sites their choice on playing days, the corporation feels no need to stop trying to bring in more. Company employees travel to festivals in the area with a large net and launch monitor to allow golfers to see how far they can hit. Each course also offers a golf academy, specially designed to introduce beginners to the game.
Pierce is constantly trying to find new ways to attract customers and eliminate any fear they have of playing. But more important, he wants to maintain the feeling of belonging present at the courses.
"You go to any of our courses and you see the community," he said. "Young, old, different races, different nationalities. I mean, that's the best thing -- that this game can bring people together, and we can actually offer that and be something that hopefully is very good for the community."