If the U.S. Ryder Cup team can claim home-course advantage this week at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Chris Tritabaugh is the guy actually making it happen.

As Hazeltine’s superintendent, Tritabaugh has directed his greenskeepers to widen fairways in a few places, extend the first cut of rough on many holes and mow down the thickest rough throughout the course. All with one goal: Give the Americans the edge.

“That’s true, but I don’t really make any of the decisions. That all comes from Davis,” Tritabaugh clarified, referring to Team USA captain Davis Love III, whose strategy to wrest the Ryder Cup from the Europeans includes a level of customizing the course to play to the American players’ strengths.

For example, the American team is less accurate off the tee than the Europeans, so Tritabaugh has widened the first cut of rough (1.5-inch high Kentucky bluegrass) from five feet on each side of the fairway to 15.

In the Ryder Cup rivalry, this is not considered unsportsmanlike. In fact, it’s expected.

“No, (European captain) Darren Clarke hasn’t made any requests,” Tritabaugh said on a recent afternoon as he looked over the first fairway. “He knows that the course is something the home team has complete authority over.”

On this recent afternoon, a couple in an SUV begin to drive down the cart path near the first tee. Tritabaugh jumps in front of the vehicle, bringing it to a halt. The couple has no connection to the private club or the Ryder Cup, just curious to see the transformation of the golf course into a minor metropolis in advance of the biennial competition, which takes place Friday through Sunday.

“You’re way, way outside of anywhere you’re supposed to be,” he said, guiding their three-point turn to avoid tire tracks on the grass. He turned away. “That’s the kind of thing I don’t have a lot of patience for right now.”

As with any golf course superintendent, if something goes wrong on the course, it’s Tritabaugh’s headache.

PRESSURE MOUNTING

Tritabaugh focuses on the playing surfaces: the various grasses of the tees, fairways, rough and greens, as well as the sand traps, water hazards and invisible infrastructure of drainage and irrigation that can make grass green regardless of the weather.

The biggest summer enemy of any golf course is too much rain.

“I feel the pressure sometimes,” said Tritabaugh, 39, a native of Albany, Minn., who has worked at Hazeltine for four years. Previously, he was superintendent at Northland Country Club in Duluth. “All that rain (in August) wasn’t good.”

In 2002, when Hazeltine was host to the PGA Championship, heavy rains led to flooding on the course, prompting the Chaska Fire Department to save the day by pumping out several low-lying areas. While fire officials will be on standby if needed this year, Tritabaugh said he’s confident the course can handle much more water than in years past.

Much of the course’s drainage was reworked after the 2002 tournament, and two years ago, the bunkers were relined with new drainage properties. Still, greenskeepers have brought out squeegees a few times this summer to clear water from a few low-lying places.

During the week of the Ryder Cup, Tritabaugh will have a small army at his disposal: 40 to 50 Hazeltine employees and roughly 100 volunteers — professional greenskeepers from as close as the metro and as far away as Sweden — ready to rescue the course from whatever might come its way.

RECURRING DREAM

Tritabaugh he’s confident the course will be ready, and so will he.

But he does have a recurring dream. More like a nightmare.

“All of a sudden, the event is here. It’s happening. And we’re not ready. I’ve had that one a few times. My wife says I’ve been babbling in my sleep lately.”