W
henever you are managing
turfgrass in a transition
zone, you are going to have
pain at some time of the year,” says
Ken Mangum, director of golf courses
and grounds at Atlanta Athletic Club.
“The decision you have to make is
where and when to take that pain.”
More and more, clubs across the
centre of the US—and in other
transition zones around the world—
have concluded that the answer to
that question is ‘in winter’. Rather
than fight to keep bentgrass greens
alive in the heat of summer, when
people want to play golf, they are
opting to regrass their courses
with new strains of ultradwarf
bermudagrass, accepting that in
the dead of winter, they may have
to cover the greens to protect the
bermuda against the cold. And the
dividing line between ‘bent best’
and ‘bermuda best’ is moving north
every month.
Only a couple of years ago, central
Virginia would have been perceived
by most as much too far north to
plant bermuda greens. But two recent
projects have proved that wrong.
In Portsmouth, Va., Lester George,
ASGCA, has recently completed a
greens renovation at the Suffolk
Golf Course, whose first nine holes
were built in 1952 by Dick Wilson.
At Suffolk, summer heat was
wreaking havoc on the bentgrass
greens. “Inevitably, we would
have two or three greens die every
summer, and we were forced to
put up temporary greens, which
weren’t very good for business,”
says head professional Eddie Luke.
So the club, led by superintendent
Joseph Riddick, decided to switch
to Champion ultradwarf bermuda,
and hired George to oversee the
switch, while returning the greens
to Wilson’s original designs. “I am a
big fan of Dick Wilson’s work,” says
the architect. “We made sure the
greens conformed to their original
size, shape and contour—and this
allowed for the restoration of the
internal contour to the greens.
These new bermuda grasses are
turning out to be just as good as
bent in warmer climates. They
are much more disease resistant
and heat tolerant. We will likely
see more golf courses converting
to bermuda grass greens. This
is a trend-setting move for golf
courses to consider as they look
to the future of environmental
sustainability.”
Further north still, The Dan Maples-
designed Blue Heron course at Ford’s
Colony CC in Virginia has reopened
after a nine week shutdown to
convert its greens to Champion. Ford
Colony believes it is among the most
northerly courses in the US to move
to bermuda.
It isn’t just the US, though. In Japan,
where golf courses have traditionally
dealt with the seasonality problem by
maintaining two separate greens—
one warm season, one cool—for each
course, an obviously expensive and
environmentally damaging solution,
Turfgrass in transition zones
|
ASGCA
Turf choices
FOCUS
12
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By Design
Converting to bermuda is a
trend-setting
move
for golf courses to consider as they
look to the
future
of environmental sustainability
“
The trend towards bermuda greens on transition
zone courses is accelerating.
By Design
asks why.
Lester George, ASGCA
