When the world's best golfers line up at Torrey Pines for the US Open next week, they will be playing on a course that has been partly prepared by the very best that Bermuda has to offer.

For the first time in tournament's 108-year history, the Island will be represented at the biggest occasion on the US golfing calendar.

But it won't be on the playing side, it will be one of the game's unsung heroes who is making the trip to California.

Dennis Pilgrim, the superintendent at Tucker's Point Club, has been chosen from thousands of applicants worldwide to help groundstaff prepare the course just outside of San Diego for the tournament. He has been building up to this moment for some time.

"I went to a seminar in Las Vegas in November and we were given the chance to volunteer, but I wasn't sure if I was going to get selected or not," said Pilgrim.

"You needed to have three or four years experience of working on a golf course, and I have been here for 22.

"I started here as a golf cart attendant when I was 12, and steadily worked my way up.

"Then in 1990 when I graduated from high school I transferred to the grounds department, they saw how interested I was, and they sent me on different courses.

"I went to Mississippi and I have been across to the US several times to learn about grasses and course preparation."

He was eventually put in charge of the club's course management four years ago and now runs a staff of 22, concentrating on keeping the course up to the high standards for which it is known.

It is not an easy job. Unlike many courses in America where water is used in liberal amounts all over the course on a daily basis, Bermuda's lack of fresh water means that Pilgrim is limited to just watering the greens.

The first Bermudian to be asked to go to the US Open, Pilgrim intends to make the most of the opportunity that he has been given, learning everything that he can in the time available.

He will also have the chance to get away from the day-to-day management of staff, and get back to the thing that he loves, working on the course.

"They asked me if I wanted to cut greens, cut fairways, cut tees, fill divots," he said.

"I said that I would do greens, tees and fairways, but whatever I do it doesn't matter. I'm just excited to go and be a part of the US Open.

"I wanted to see if we do anything different to them when it comes to cutting greens.

"The attention to detail is really what I will be focusing on, and then while I'm there I will speak to the other superintendents to pick their brains and see what I can learn."