It's not dead, it's Bermuda grass!

The mens tee at the 9th hole and the back two tees at the 14th tee are now Bermuda grass.  We used a new variety called Latitude 36 for its finer leaf texture and early and late color.  These teeing areas were a combination of cool season grasses, which always were beaten up by the time mid summer arrives.  The problem is a lot of play coupled with some of the smallest tees on the course.  Par 3 tees in general are always the toughest to keep in good playing condition.  Trying to accelerate the growth of cool season grasses in the heat of summer leads to many issues; diseases, overseeding, and heavy watering all in the hopes to survive

Bermuda grass is very aggresive in the heat of summer and is less prone to disease and insects.  We can continue to push these tees with fertilizer no matter the temperature, which we hope allows us to provide a better teeing surface all summer long.  The grass goes dormant after the first frosts of winter, thus the tan color.

In my opinion, we needed to try another approach since we always struggled with the surface that was there and then spent most of the fall trying to regrow the tees before winter sets.  If this fails we can always revert back to cool season grasses at the end of summer like we usually do, but I think this is a better approach to solving a problem that has no easy answers.