Putting Green Regrassing

This is no doubt a hot topic of conversation at a lot of old golf clubs seeking a way to modernize their putting surfaces without costly reconstruction and golf downtime.

Some clubs will prefer the existing poa annua species(annual bluegrass), that dominates the landscape at major championship events across the US, while others may choose to regrass to the modern bentgrass varieties or a combination witches brew of new bents.

In the photo here at Toronto GC, http://www.torontogolfclub.com/ , the club chose to strip existing greens sod and keep alive on plastic sheets in the shade, while TDIGolf/XGD Systems http://www.tdigolf.com/ , embarked on relocating the green, and then rebuilding it by hand in the old pushup style of construction, with the modern addition of a subsurface greens drainage system. This unique XGD installation also reaped the benefit of native soil backfill for the XGD drainage laterals, the XGD drainage pipes were not backfilled with our usual dirty greensmix, as the club is on very sandy subsoils to begin with. Compaction tests on our XGD laterals revealed by our usual hand compaction methods we were able to get the native backfill back to the original compaction level.

Other clubs who have benefited from XGD and a regrassing include Saucon Valley CC http://www.sauconvalleycc.org/ , in NE PA. Several years before last years US Women’s Open the club regrassed with XGD to help combat anthracnose, among a host of other problems with wet green subsoils. In the Midwest, Westmoor CC http://www.westmoor.org/ , also completed the XGD/regrassing combo becoming the first club in Wisconsin to regrass. TDIGolf completed the restoration at Westmoor along with Lohmann Design http://www.lohmann.com/ , to rave reviews in the Milwaukee area.

Several of our clients are considering at least beginning the journey down the regrassing road by installing XGD in to their greens as that all important first step. Clubs can then see if an improvement is noticeable, and then determine if the regrassing effort is still feasible or even necessary. Many clubs find the impact on their putting greens with XGD alone is remarkable enough, however in warmer climates, having XGD and new bentgrass would give you a fighter’s chance to keep the turf sward thriving throughout mother nature’s challenges. So please contact us if we can begin the dialogue to get your club’s greens back to their original design intent.

Bye for now, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer