To assist in selecting the best suited and appropriate warm-season golf course turfgrass options, the following is a review of their general characteristics along with guidelines to use in the decision-making process. Yet, there are also complete course renovation and replanting projects being performed, and there are more than 100 courses being built across the country annually. Resurfacing of putting greens and conversion to an ultradwarf cultivar are the driving forces behind much of the project work being undertaken. In Florida alone, there were more than 50 renovation projects slated for 2006, and it is estimated that a similar amount of work will be undertaken annually for the next several years. There has been a big slowdown in new course construction in the United States however, there has also been a surge in course renovation projects. The increase in the number of entries in the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) from a total of 26 (16 seeded, 10 vegetative) in 1992 to 42 (29 seeded, 13 vegetative) in 2002 clearly illustrates that a lot of work has been put forth to develop additional bermudagrass options for fairways and roughs.įurthermore, while bermudagrass has long been the king of warm-season grasses, an increasing number of seashore paspalum and zoysiagrass cultivars or varieties are available today. Introduction of the ultradwarf bermudagrasses – Champion, Floradwarf, TifEagle and MiniVerde – started the revolution and raised the bar for quality and conditioning of warm-season putting greens. In less than a decade, the turfgrass selection equation has become much more complicated. However, golfer demands and expectations for fast putting speeds have also resulted in efforts to push bentgrass further south. Similarly, Tifdwarf bermuda was the standard for putting greens. Ten years ago, if you were building or renovating a golf course in the southern portion of the United States where warm-season turfgrasses have traditionally been used, grass selection was a simple proposition.īermudagrass, and primarily the hybrid cultivar Tifway (419), was the standard and was considered to have very good overall adaptation for tee, fairway, and rough areas. This article originally appeared in the November/December 2006 issue of the Green Section Record.
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