DETROIT >> Sam Moynihan was running late for an interview Sunday. He’s forgiven. Things pop up, a lot, especially this week. This is the start of his busiest stretch of the year, as director of agronomy at Detroit Golf Club, which, starting Thursday, will host the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic for the seventh time.

And Moynihan and his staff of about three dozen, plus another 40 volunteers from across the region and the country, will be put to the test again with extreme weather conditions in the forecast the entire week.

The weather starts with extreme heat Monday and Tuesday, and then possibly rain Wednesday through Sunday.

The grounds crew is no stranger to this. Weather often has been extreme at the Rocket. And the staff will be ready for whatever’s thrown their way throughout the week, especially the competition rounds, Thursday through next Sunday.

“We have some incredibly talented people. We have staff members with over 40 years of experience here at this property,” said Moynihan, who is set for his third Rocket. “Incredibly knowledgeable, incredible equipment operators, incredible attention to detail. Most of them are born and raised in Detroit, and they take a lot of pride in preparing this golf course, especially for, you know, national television (CBS broadcasts six hours, total, next weekend). So it’s not difficult to get them motivated to put this event on.

“Having that local knowledge and having that experience on your team is an incredible benefit.”

Moynihan and his staff are spending the early part of this week drying out the golf course, which was hit by some rain over the last few days. The scorching temperatures, in the mid-90s Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, will help on that front. He believes they might need to add some water come Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

Wednesday is when rain is supposed to come. There’s rain in the forecast the rest of tournament week, though the forecast looks a little better on that front now. It might just be some isolated showers.

That would be the best-case scenario for Moynihan, who wants to get Detroit Golf Club playing firm and fast. That’s how the PGA Tour players like it. And DGC is happy to oblige, especially since in the days after this tournament is completed, the $16.1 million renovation project, which includes all new greens, will begin.

“(Normally), I need to have 18 greens for the membership to play for the rest of the season,” Moynihan, 34, said Sunday at DGC, as the final round of the John Shippen Men’s Invitational, which awards an exemption into the Rocket, was just getting under way. “So we push them as far as we think we can push them without compromising them for the rest of the season for the membership. Knowing that we have this construction project, we can find that edge and maybe go a little further, knowing that if they get really banged up, I don’t need them in July. I don’t need them in August. So it allows you to push the needle a little bit further than you typically would.

“We’re going to try to push this golf course as far as we can with what the weather gives us. Now, if it rains, all that goes out the window. But we’re definitely trying to get these greens as dry and firm as we possible can before we renovate them in two weeks.”

As dry and firm as we’ve ever seen at the Rocket?

“That would be the hope,” Moynihan said. “If we have four or five days of dry weather here, I think we’ll get here.”

The Rocket uses most of DGC’s North Course for its tournament route, playing it at more than 7,300 yards, but at a par 72 with four very scorable par 5s. Four ties in six previous Rockets, the winning score has been 23 under or better on the Donald Ross gem, where the sloping greens are the main defense. If they dry out, scoring will be tougher.

The PGA Tour ultimately dictates just how fast they get rolling. The biggest concern for the PGA Tour is that they firm up so much that it limits where hole locations can be set up.

If the rains come, meanwhile, DGC is amply prepared. There have been more Rockets that have been hit hard by heavy rains than haven’t, and the grounds crew finds a way to get the flattest course on the PGA Tour playable. It might be even easier this year, as, last fall in preparation for the upcoming renovations, the staff installed a new storm drainage system, and got about 95% of its irrigation main lines installed. They also bult two new pumping stations, as DGC works to upgrade an outdated drainage system.

That also, of course, includes new drainage covers ? so we won’t see the silliness that we saw at last year’s Rocket, when, on the par-5 17th, Akshay Bhatia hit a drive smack down the fairway only for his ball, a Callaway which he somehow was able to identify, to fall through a hole in the grate.

“The balls can’t get through,” Moynihan, whose works days will start before 4 a.m. this week, said with a smile.