By Design – Issue 53, Summer 2021

Photo: Eric David Lawrence and two golf course superintendents who have Tahoma 31 in use at their facilities. They highlighted a number of attributes. Early spring green-up “One of the advantages of Tahoma 31 is the shoulder season color,” says Lawrence. “In the spring, in the fall, you’re going to have better color, better contrast, which is great to have on that shoulder season. Obviously, during the peak season, the high season, it's going to have pristine conditions.” In NTEP tests from 2014-17, Tahoma 31 ranked at the top spot for early spring green-up among all vegetative bermudagrass cultivars tested in 16 states. At the William Flynn-designed Naval Academy Golf Club in Annapolis, Maryland, all fairways and tees were renovated in May 2020 with Tahoma 31. Eric David, golf course superintendent, says because Tahoma 31 only goes dormant for about three months in the winter, versus the six months of dormancy the course previously experienced with common bermuda fairways, he no longer overseeds his fairways. “We basically stopped mowing it in October…and it was green until the middle of December,” says David. “The members are extraordinarily happy with the decision” to plant Tahoma 31. Winter survivability The winter of 2013-14 swept a polar vortex into the Midwest that created record low temperatures. Dr Cale Bigelow, a professor of turf science and ecology at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, participated in the NTEP study that winter. In a December 2019 article in Golf Course Management magazine, Dr Bigelow was quoted as saying only nine of 42 bermudagrasses tested survived with at least 50 percent ground cover by spring. Some 14 of the grasses completely died. By the end of the NTEP study, Tahoma 31 was rated with by far the greatest winter survivability in Indiana at only 4 percent winter kill. Mean scores in two states where winter survivability was measured, Indiana and Kentucky, confirmed Tahoma 31’s top status. Tahoma 31’s cold hardiness allows the grass to be planted further north in the transition zone than previously seen with other bermudagrass varieties. The grass After renovating fairways and tees with Tahoma 31, Naval Academy GC in Maryland no longer needs to overseed 29