Comparing the conditioning of U.S. Open courses is like comparing paintings at The Louvre. They're all superb; it's just a matter of greatness.

The maintenance crew responsible for Congressional's two courses normally numbers 50, but for the Open, superintendent Paul R. Latshaw had an extra 75 bodies -- volunteers all -- to help groom the Blue Course's 7,213 undulating yards. They came from Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California and Alabama, even Australia and Thailand, but Latshaw had special appreciation for a 12-person crew from nearby Caves Valley in Baltimore. It made the trip daily just to rake the Blue's 140 bunkers.

"Nobody does bunkers better," boasted Latshaw. "I owe a lot to them. Before they came, the course was looking great, but it lacked what I'd call finesse. Having them here was just like putting color in a picture; it made all the difference."

When Congressional hosted Media Day in May, F. Morgan Taylor Jr., the chairman of the USGA's Championship Committee, toured the course with Latshaw. At one hole, Taylor looked at the closely mown area in front of the green and remarked, "That's the best-looking fairway I've ever seen."

That got Latshaw to thinking: We cut that area by hand; could we hand mow all the fairways just like that? That's a little like foregoing the computer and writing a novel in longhand, but the next morning Latshaw sent to the 17th fairway a solitary member of his grounds crew with a greens mower and one simple instruction: hand mow the whole thing. "It took him four hours to do it," Latshaw recalled, "which told me we could do it."

Starting at 5 a.m., a battalion of hand mowers and walkers -- eight crews of four -- covered every inch of Congressional's fairways. The walkers made 440 separate passes just to complete the fairway at No. 1. "For this level of professional, it makes for a much tighter lie," explained USGA championship agronomist Tim Moraghan, "but it is not a practice we would recommend. It is very labor intensive."

Clippings from the fairways were not only placed on plastic tarpaulins and hauled off for deposit, but the practice helped present a more pristine look to fans and television viewers. "During the (1995) Senior Open our triplex mowers had trouble turning," Latshaw said, "and after you make those turns that often the rough collapses and doesn't want to stand up."

The greens that spiked up and caused such ado during the '95 Senior Open were trouble-free for the Open.

"I think it's the biggest accomplishment we've made," said Latshaw. "It was a question of pride. I was nervous, to be honest with you, and it wasn't until about three weeks ago that I knew we'd make it. In fact, I think they're as strong as any set of greens I've ever seen."

Considering Latshaw has worked at such greens-rich clubs as Oakmont and Augusta National, that's a powerful statement. But he had the crew to back him up. -- Rich Skyzinski