The Fifth Green What...Why...When

The green staff is preparing to do a change in grass types on the 5th left green starting in two weeks.   This work serves two purposes.  The first is to improve the putting surface by converting it from poa annua to bentgrass in one swift action.    The second is to document the speed as to which this change could occur and be playable.  This provides a benchmarked timetable, if in the future, the club chose to improve the putting surfaces using this method.

The problems of growing poa annua putting greens have been well documented, and we can see some of the issues this year on this green.  The opportunity to do a "switch" between the two grass types,  will help determine if this newer grass is well suited to our membership and its goals for better greens.  We are fortunate to have a hole that has two greens so this process can take place without disruption to play.  The process will not change or alter the playing surface in any way except for the grass itself.  

The operation will consist of our staff removing the current grass and a few passes around the edge of the green beginning on Monday September 9th.  The base soil will be raked and smoothed in preparation for the new sod which will be installed  Wednesday and Thursday.  By Friday the 13th,  the green and the surround would be completely sodded and finished in appearance.  The sod farm grows the bentgrass at putting green height so the transition is not as time consuming as seeding 

Our hope is that the green will be ready for full time play spring of next year.  During the fall, we will monitor the strength of the turf and most likely open it to play from time to time.  This will provide us insight as the health, maturity and recovery potential as it grows.   We view this as a great opportunity to try a new approach to renovation without creating any downtime to member play.

5 Tee: Changing the grass type

You will see us doing work on the tees at hole 5 this week.  We are stripping the current sod and changing these tees over to Bermuda grass.  Ever since we installed these tees we have struggled to maintain quality turf especially on the primary middle tee.  The issues are a combination of foot traffic and environment.

Although divoting does take place, the twisting motion of golf spikes is taking its toll on the surface.  The turf struggles as people swing a little harder to coax their ball up the hill.  This coupled with the extremly hot and airless location makes keeping grass  aggressive enough to maintain it's condition very difficult.  If you haven't noticed the grass in the rough has transitioned almost entirely to Bermuda grass. This indicates that the envoironment favors it's development over cool season grasses in this location.

The switch will occur with us removing and sodding about 2/3 of the teeing surfaces, which allows the tees to be kept in play.  In two weeks we will move play onto the Bermuda tees (the same varieties now on the 9th and 14th tees) and then replace the remaining sod.

The goal is to always find methods that allow us to have the best playing surfaces possible no matter the location.  Later this year we will complete the grassing of both 14 and 9 to Bermuda grass.  We hope you like the improvement.