Practice Facility Update

As many of you may have noticed from putting on the practice green (P.G) recently, the playability is much different than the putting greens on the golf course. On average, the P.G. is putting one to two feet slower than the regular greens on the golf course. Although this is not ideal for putting on similar playing surfaces to the golf course, it is the only way to keep the turfgrass healthy in the current growing environment.

The decline of the turfgrass on the putting green (Figure 1) is due to the limited amount of sunlight it is receiving on a daily basis.  Daily sunlight required for healthy “Champion” bermudagrass is eight to ten hours.

Dave Otis from the USGA said it best, “Trees can make it physically impossible to grow healthy turf that plays well. Light is the fuel source that runs the photosynthesis engine and trees block sunlight. Insufficient light prevents the engine from running at or near optimum efficiency and this produces a weaker, less wear tolerant turf.” The trees on the south side of the putting green create a huge challenge in producing a dense, healthy and consistent turfgrass on the putting green.

Several short term steps have been taken to increase the overall health of the practice putting green:

1) Over the winter, the trees around the P.G. were limbed up to 35%.

2)  The putting green is receiving daily hand watering on weak areas. 

3) We are mowing the P.G. 40% higher than the height of cut on the regular putting greens as well as mowing them less frequently.

4) The implementation of growth regulators that decrease vertical leaf blade growth and improve the plant’s shade tolerance have also been implemented.

5) The green is receiving fertilizer applications to help grow in the weak areas.

All of these things are helping to make a healthier turfgrass, however, this does not make for similar playing conditions to the golf course.

The long term action plan is to sod the weak areas on the south side of the putting green and evaluate the trees and the location of the putting green. Figure 2 demonstrates, using the Sunseeker App on the iPhone, that the current location of the putting green does not allow for even 50% of the desired amount of sunlight that is necessary to maintain a good playing surface. All options will be looked at over the coming months.

The other areas of the practice facility are improving with the warmer days of spring coming. We have fertilized the practice tee and the chipping approach two times in the last few weeks. The color and health of the ryegrass has improved with these timely applications. Soon we will be transitioning from ryegrass to bermudagrass.

When summer finally arrives, the goal is to mow the practice tee very low and topdress it heavily 1-2 times to help smooth the playing surface. With new programs in place the practice tee should begin to improve.