SUMMING IT UP • Properties across the country are finding the need to review turf-variety decisions that once seemed final and irreversible. • Lines that were once clearly drawn to show which grasses can, and can’t, grow where are becoming increasingly blurred, as species that could once be expected to only live within well-defined borders are now creeping into new and unfamiliar territories. • As water shortages continue to be problematic for some courses, newly developed salt-tolerant varieties are gaining in popularity. Get reacquainted with turf varieties, including Bentgrass, Kentucky |
Growing, and keeping, great grass is not so clear-cut anymore, thanks to an ever-spreading variety of issues.
When the topic has been turfgrass, it has long been common practice to divide the country pretty cleanly into three distinct sections:
– one for cool-season grasses (bentgrass, tall and fine fescue, Kentucky blue and perennial rye) that thrive in Northern latitudes and can survive winter’s snow and freezing temperatures, but wilt under too much prolonged heat and humidity;
– one for warm-season grasses (Bermuda, zoysia, paspalum, kikuyu and carpetgrass) that can’t survive too far north, because they go dormant and turn brown as the temperature plummets;
– and the “Transition Zone,” defined as running more or less through the nation’s midsection and taking in 16 states between Pennsylvania and California. Here is where the need for a year-round focus to maintain healthy, high-quality turfgrass has been greatest, because of how temperature and precipitation vary greatly from season to season, and where both warm and cool-season grasses can be accommodated, but no one variety can be expected to thrive year-round.
If only it could all still be that black-and-white (or brown-and-green).
Changing the Transition Game
Today, due in part to new climactic cycles—but even more so because of increasingly sophisticated genetic research and
modification, and the increased precision of available technology for planting, aerating, cutting and irrigating—the lines drawn to distinguish which grasses can, and can’t, grow where have become increasingly blurred. New reports keep surfacing of how various grass species that could once only survive within very well-defined regional borders are now creeping into new and unfamiliar territories. As a result, the “Transition Zone” now seems to apply to just about anywhere in the Lower 48.
For example, some fine-leafed, densely-growing Bermudagrasses that are proving to be more tolerant of the cold than their predecessors have recently been developed and are working their way north. At the same time, a “cool climate” strain like bentgrass has been marching, General Sherman-like, through the South, in step with the crusade to satisfy the almost universal demand of golfers for “Augusta National-like” greens (smoother, quicker putting surfaces with little or no grain).
“Bentgrass greens are now not uncommon in the Atlanta area,” says Dr. Jack Fry, Professor of Turfgrass Science at Kansas State University. “And its use is on the rise in Northern Florida, too.”
Much of the change now being seen is the payoff from research into more drought- and salt-tolerant turf that the United States Golf Association has been funding, Fry notes. “Other varieties able to survive on relatively little water are coming to the marketplace with increasing regularity,” he adds.
These trends also mean that those involved with the development of new courses aren’t able to make snap, clear-cut turf decisions, either. “I worked on my first course as a Pete Dye associate in 1984,” notes one architect. “We had a few choices for turf, but everyone was using Penncross bent or Tif-Dwarf Bermuda back then.
“Today, you might have 100 Bentgrass cultivars to choose from, or 200 Kentucky bluegrass varieties—and no architect has the name of all them on the tip of his tongue. So the architect has to work more closely with the superintendent, seed company and others involved with the property to pick the turf that will work out best.”
The new complexities now tied to turfgrass are doing more than requiring superintendents to bone up on the changes and expand their personal knowledge base. They’re also prompting them to review, along with the golf professionals and general managers, turf-variety decisions for their properties that once seemed final and irreversible.
In some cases, this is being done because newfound concerns about water shortages or the need to reduce operating costs have made it imperative to explore different approaches to turf care. In others, it’s because the changing world of turf has opened up new possibilities that could bring distinctive new character or playability to a course.
Surprising New Matches
It’s still important to match turf decisions to the usage profile of a course. But here, too, while it still might not be in the best interests of a new public course to seed its tees, fairways and greens with species that do not perform well under heavier traffic, notable exceptions are becoming more prevalent.
And these exceptions aren’t just high-profile examples like Oregon’s Bandon Dunes (C&RB, September 2005) or Washington’s Chambers Bay (C&RB, November 2008), which have successfully used fine fescue to recreate links-style settings not normally found outside the British Isles.
One particular course in the Pacific Northwest that is helping to rewrite some of the time-honored turfgrass “dos and don’ts”—in this case, that bentgrass greens are too high-maintenance for public settings where costs and water use need to be kept to a minimum—is Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Wash., which opened this past August. Owned by Washington State University, Palouse Ridge’s tees, fairways and rough are a combination of Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass. However, its greens are seeded with T-1 bentgrass.
T-1 was developed with the mid-priced public course in mind, to require less-intensive management than other bentgrass varieties. Palouse Ridge lessened the maintenance burden even further by installing a sophisticated irrigation system that allows Superintendent Todd Lupkes to monitor the output of 2,000 carefully positioned sprinkler heads around the course. The system has led to a 90% watering efficiency level and the freedom for Palouse Ridge to opt for bentgrass, rather than the native fescue.
“We wanted the course to look like it had been here 50 years,” says Lupkes. “But our main priority is the environment and conservation. With the irrigation system, we use only the water we need.”
Daring to Be Different
Another key consideration when choosing turf is soil type—but here, too, conclusions and choices that once seemed obvious are now proving to be less so.
For example, when The Club at Tetherow in Bend, Ore., was brought onstream in the summer of 2007, course designer David McLay Kidd and Superintendent Chris Condon took a calculated risk and rejected what had worked at other central Oregon courses in favor of seeding the entire layout—tees, fairways, greens and rough—with a mix of fine fescue and Colonial bentgrass.
“It was a bit of a gamble as we’re located on the high desert, and not the coast, where fescue traditionally thrives,” says Condon. “But we thought fescue would still be well-suited to the design of the course. Tetherow has a sort of heathland/linksy feel to it, so the odd brown spot and the firm-and-fast conditions you get with fescue were appropriate.”
Martin Chuck, Director of Golf at The Club at Tetherow, admits he was skeptical at first. “No other courses in central Oregon use fescue, and the grow-in period was longer than it would have been had we used ryegrass, for example,” says Chuck. “Fescue also has a reputation for producing relatively slow putting surfaces. I feared that seven to eight feet on the Stimpmeter would be the best we could do—but actually, thanks to some good weather and Chris’ expertise, we had them rolling at 10 to 11 feet this summer.”
The Club at Tetherow represents Condon’s first experience with fescue, despite being in the industry for over 10 years and working at numerous courses managed by OB Sports around the country. Fortunately he had some great resources at his disposal to help him quickly get up to speed—David’s father, Jimmy Kidd, the long-time head greenkeeper at Gleneagles in Scotland, and Ken Nice, Superintendent at Bandon Dunes. “Their expertise proved extremely beneficial,” says Condon.
“Getting used to the fescue really wasn’t a problem for Chris,” adds Chuck. “He may not have dealt with it much in the past, but it is among the easiest varieties to maintain, so it didn’t take him long to figure it out.”
Weed ‘Em and Reap
Taking a “new view” of turfgrass in all of its forms has spawned changed attitudes about a variety that was once met with universal disdain. Whether a property is located in the North, South or Transition Zone, or has bentgrass or Bermuda fairways and greens, the chances are good that at some point it’s been counted among the 90% or more courses in the U.S. to experience an infestation of annual bluegrass—known in superintendent circles as Poa annua or in its most common, “dirty word” form, Poa.
Most superintendents have always seen Poa as a weed that detracts from the quality of putting surfaces. Even well-managed, closely mown Poa forms unsightly seed heads that spoil the look of the course; it also forms a weak sod that provides poor footing for golfers.
Poa thrives in closely mown areas in moist soil and fairly cool temperatures, making bentgrass putting surfaces in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest particularly vulnerable. Bermudagrass in the South is also at risk, specifically in late summer and early fall, when night temperatures drop to the 60s and the air is full of moisture.
Clubs that start life with flawless bentgrass greens are naturally disappointed when the first sign of Poa appears. But without a labor-intensive and potentially costly maintenance program using numerous harsh chemicals, it’s highly unlikely a Poa infestation can be completely avoided.
As a result, many clubs have decided to take a different approach and learn to not only live with Poa, but turn it into an advantage. Indeed, Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club, home to eight U.S. Open Championships during its 105-year history, possesses Poa annua greens that are considered some of the quickest and most challenging in the world.
Pole Creek Golf Club, in Winter Park, Colo., is another club now making the best of a situation that others might consider a minor crisis. At this course, greens that were originally all-bent are now 75% Poa, according to Golf Course Superintendent Craig Cahalane.
“We have some [Poa] on the fairways, too,” he reports. “I don’t really care for it, but it would be extremely expensive to remove. And Poa greens are fine, as long as you know how to manage them.”
In an ideal world, adds Larry Burks, Pole Creek’s General Manager, the club would also like to be rid of Poa. But both he and Cahalane know they would only be fighting a losing battle if they became obsessed with its eradication.
“We would definitely consider changing if we could,” says Burks. “The Poa does not survive the winter nearly as well as the Kentucky bluegrass in the fairways or what’s left of the creeping bentgrass on the greens. Poa also takes much longer to green up and start going in the spring.
“The financial implications make it almost impossible to change, though,” he adds. “We survive by overseeding the greens with more creeping bentgrass, and the fairways and tees with Kentucky blue and rye.”
A Greener Route to Green
In addition to prompting more research to increase the salt tolerance and reduce the care needed for popular existing varieties like Bermudagrass, critical and chronic water shortages in many regions have joined with the “green” movement to lend momentum to the “hottest” new grass variety, paspalum. Currently making a big name for itself in warmer regions such as Florida, the Caribbean and Hawaii, paspalum has been displaying remarkable salt tolerance and an ability to thrive even after continued irrigation with recycled water (something that Bermudagrass, to date, has not been able to take in large doses).
In cooler regions, meanwhile, fescue is also emerging as a turf of choice because of how it can help the golf industry appear more environmentally friendly—and at the same time provide golfers with firm and fast conditions, and please superintendents with its resistance to disease, need for much less water than bent or Bermudagrass, and reduced requirements for fertilizer.
The next step to continue fescue’s evolution and spread across the land is to find ways to make it stand up to heavier traffic. “Next year, we’ll add a little ryegrass to the turf on the range, to ensure that we have green and well-grassed tees all summer,” says The Club at Tetherow’s Chris Condon. “And I’ll be top-dressing the really busy areas with a mixture of sand and crushed tires. The turf grows up through the gaps, and the rubber provides a sort of cushion that helps protect the ground.”
Which proves that while the mix of which grass varieties can work best where may be seeing some dramatic shifts, superintendents’ ingenuity will always keep pace with the changes.
Grass Index
Bentgrass |
Bermudagrass |
Carpetgrass |
Fine Fescue |
Kentucky Bluegrass |
Kikuyugrass |
Paspalum |
Perennial Ryegrass |
Zoysiagrass
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.