As turf changes at golf course properties across the country, so are the mowing inputs required to keep new grasses in top condition.
With advances in agronomic products and practices, along with shifting weather patterns across the country, more and more golf course properties are converting to turf varieties that better suit their local climates. Installation of new grasses may also be part of a larger renovation project to restore a course to its original design, or prompted by a desire to create a more environmentally sustainable layout.
Regardless of the reasoning behind the transition, however, there’s been a resurgence of regrassing activity at clubs and resorts throughout the U.S.—and that has prompted many golf course superintendents to adjust the mowing practices on their properties as well.
Summing It Up • Changing seasons, along with shifting weather patterns, can affect mowing practices at golf courses. • Properties that have installed new turf on their golf courses sometimes need to adjust the height and frequency of cut on the new grasses. • When golf course properties install new turf, they frequently find that it makes sense to invest in new maintenance equipment at the same time. |
Grass Roots
In 2015, Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, Fla., installed new Celebration Bermudagrass on its entire golf course, except for the putting surfaces. The TifEagle greens, which were about 10 years old, were resurfaced with new TifEagle. In addition, a collar of TifGrand Bermuda was installed around the new greens, as a buffer to keep the Celebration Bermuda from encroaching on the putting surfaces.
Previously, the approaches were TifSport Bermuda, the tees were SeaIsle 1 paspalum, and the fairways and rough were 419 Bermuda.
A master plan for the renovation was in the works for a number of years, reports Director of Agronomy PJ Salter, who was not on Riviera’s staff during the renovation, but has overseen a conversion to Celebration Bermuda at another Florida property.
Birmingham (Mich.) Country Club also regrassed its entire golf course last fall, closing August 1, 2015 and reopening May 27, 2016. The property installed creeping bentgrass on the greens, tees, and fairways, which previously had a mix of bentgrass and poa annua. The staff sprayed herbicide in the rough to wipe out the hodgepodge of bentgrass, poa, bluegrass, rye grass, and fescue before overseeding the out-of-play areas with Kentucky bluegrass.
The regrassing project became part of a golf course renovation plan, which included rebuilding two holes and converting an existing pond into an irrigation reservoir, after winterkill took out more than half of Birmingham’s greens in 2014. “We didn’t have 18 greens open in 2014 until the Fourth of July,” reports Golf Course Superintendent Dan Dingman.
Another golf course in town had regrassed in 2012-13, he continues, and it was the only one in the area that did not have severe damage to its greens in 2014.
“We knew bentgrass was the way to go,” Dingman says. “Bentgrass is a more sustainable grass. Poa is a fair-weather grass. It dies in the summer and winter, and it takes a lot of labor to keep it alive. Bentgrass is a deep-rooted plant that requires less inputs.”
Fraze: The Next Mowing Craze?
As golf course properties install new turf varieties on their layouts with grasses that are better suited for their climates, superintendents are also beginning to take a look at new maintenance practices such as fraze mowing. Introduced in Europe, fraze mowing allows for the complete removal of all thatch without removing the entire stand of grass. The technique is used most frequently on Bermudagrass and Kentucky bluegrass. The process helps to promote new growth and eliminates thatch and organic buildup on the surface. In addition, it helps to rid properties of undesirable grasses that are not as deeply rooted. Fraze mowing equipment, which includes rotary spindles with specialized tines or blades, can be attached to a tractor. The clippings that are removed can be run up a conveyor belt into the bed of a vehicle that travels alongside the mowing equipment. The debris is collected for disposal, composting, or other uses. Recovery time for the turf typically takes longer after fraze mowing than it does after other cultural practices such as verticutting, grooming, or topdressing. While Bermudagrass can be ready for play about two weeks later, cool-season grasses take longer to recover. PJ Salter, Director of Agronomy at Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, Fla., says his club plans to start fraze mowing next summer. The property installed new Celebration Bermudagrass on its entire golf course, except for the putting surfaces, last year. Riviera also replaced the TifEagle on its greens with new TifEagle turf. “[Fraze mowing] is more aggressive in terms of thatch and organic matter removal than verticutting is,” Salter says. “I will let my turf mature for an entire growing season first.” |
In August 2015, Centennial Valley Country Club in Conway, Ark., closed its golf course to convert the greens on its 18-hole layout—as well as its nursery, putting, and chipping greens—from bentgrass to Champion Bermudagrass. However, the transition was several years in the making.
According to Director of Golf Mike Smith, the bentgrass did not fare well in the summer about six years ago. Because it was too late to convert the greens to Champion Bermudagrass by the time the problems developed, management personnel decided to regrass the greens the next time the putting surfaces suffered.
When struggles with Pythium and the summer heat arose again last year, the property had a plan in place. Rather than building temporary greens, Centennial Valley remained closed throughout the process and reopened in mid-October.
“That was the quickest way to do it to get the best product,” says Smith. “Otherwise, we would spend a lot of time on other stuff.”
Golf Course Superintendent Jason Miller also joined the Centennial Valley staff when the regrassing project got underway. Three other courses in the area previously had switched to Bermudagrass, notes Smith, and Centennial Valley became the final golf course in the city to follow suit.
In 2014, Heritage Golf Club in Wake Forest, N.C., replaced the A1A4 bentgrass on its greens with Champion UltraDwarf Bermuda, to stand up to the traffic at the golf course that gets 4,000-plus rounds a month from May through September.
“We felt like it would give us a better surface during the summertime when we get more play,” says Golf Course Superintendent Nick Bisanz.
Grow and Mow
Of course, new turf varieties are only as good as the care they receive—and one of the most important things that superintendents can do to keep their “new” golf courses in top condition is to adjust their mowing practices.
“It’s given us the ability to have a tighter height of cut,” Salter says of the new grass at Riviera CC. “By changing from a few different stands of grass to a mono-stand, we can more easily adjust different areas.”
The Celebration Bermudagrass grows rapidly in the summer, Salter notes, so Riviera sprays higher rates of growth regulators on it than on previous grasses. This practice, he says, allows the staff to keep its three-day mowing schedule on the fairways, tees, and approaches.
“This time of year, if we weren’t applying growth regulators we would have to mow those areas every day just like a green,” he explains.
By transitioning from 419 to Celebration around the bunkers, the Riviera staff has to fly-mow and edge these areas every week to keep them looking good. While the crew members did not have to edge the 419 grass every week, Salter says, they did fly-mow it weekly.
The Riviera maintenance staff mows the fairways at .5 inches, the tees and approaches at .350 inches, the greens at .115 inches, and the rough at 1.5 inches. “Our membership tends to like more of a player’s-type course,” Salter explains.
The new turf has given golfers more roll on their fairway shots into the green, Salter reports, and they have more shot variety around the greens.
“We walk-mow the greens and tees, and by fall we plan to walk-mow the approaches,” says Salter. “Walk-mowing gives a nice look, and the quality of cut is better.”
Going to New (Lower) Heights
While the new grass at Birmingham CC has allowed the grounds crew to reduce its water, fertilizer, and pesticide usage, Dingman reports, it has had little effect on mowing practices.
However, the grounds crew has adjusted some of the mowing heights. The height of Birmingham’s greens has gone from .120 inches to .090 inches, and the fairways height has changed from .400 inches to .350 inches. The heights of the tees and the rough have remained at .350 inch and 2.5 inches, respectively.
“Bentgrass likes to be mowed low, and it can tolerate it because it has such a deep root system,” Dingman says.
Birmingham staff members now mow the greens every day, the tees and fairways four times week, and the rough Monday through Friday.
“We try to mow in different directions every time,” Dingman notes. “We’re still trying to establish [the turf], so we don’t want to get any grass laying over or get it used to being mowed in any direction.”
The property also converted 15 acres of rough into native fescue, so the maintenance staff can concentrate on in-play areas.
“The greens are in fantastic condition for as young as they are,” Dingman reports. “The ball roll is tremendous. It’s very smooth. We can keep it firm because bentgrass requires very little water.”
The Birmingham maintenance staff walk-mows the green, tees, collars, and approaches. “It gives it a better cut, and it has less impact on the turf,” Dingman explains. “We don’t have to worry about hydraulic leaks with the walk mowers.”
Waiting Game
At Centennial Valley CC, the new turf is not fully grown-in yet, and Smith expects the conversion to take about two years before the grounds crew can normalize maintenance practices on the greens. “Each individual green has certain needs sometimes,” he notes.
The Champion Bermudagrass will be firmer during the first year after the conversion, Smith adds, and “acceptable for members” by year three. Each hole has its own character, he notes, but the golf course is already playing three or four shots harder than it did with the bentgrass greens.
The Centennial Valley grounds crew walk-mowed the greens when the grass just started to grow. Depending on the events on the golf course, the Centennial Valley staff mows the Champion Bermuda greens at .100 to .110 inches. “They have been higher. We can mow them about any height we want,” Smith notes.
While the Bermudagrass, which grows aggressively during the summer, has not developed any grain, he adds, the staff has to watch its speed.
The Centennial Valley fairways, which have 419 Bermudagrass, are mowed at ½ to 3/8 inch, depending on the time of the year. In the winter, however, the fairways could be mowed at 5/8 inch. The staff typically mows the fairways three times a week. Centennial Valley CC has zoysia on its collars, and the rough, which is mowed at about 2 ½ inches, has Common Bermuda.
The new turf didn’t affect the height of cut at Heritage GC, reveals Bisanz, but it did affect the frequency of cut. “The UltraDwarf grows more aggressively than the bentgrass,” he says. The Heritage staff mows the greens six days a week, and the crew members top-dress the greens weekly in the spring and fall. They roll the greens the day after they top-dress, to work the sand into the surface and to protect the mowers.
They also verticut each time they top-dress. “A lot more verticutting goes into this surface,” Bisanz says. “It’s a top grower, and the grain can get severe. Frequent verticutting helps to reduce the grain.”
Getting in Gear
The tools of the trade play a major role in creating an outstanding putting surface, and superintendents have found that it makes sense to upgrade their equipment when their properties install new turf varieties.
While the Riviera golf course maintenance staff invests in new equipment every year, the grounds crew also got additional equipment when it installed the new turf. The property purchased two new fairway mowers and one new greens mower as part of its normal replacement cycle, and the property also bought four new walking tee mowers this year.
“We look for a good, reliable, proven line of equipment that can get the job done,” says Salter. “We don’t want equipment with too many gadgets or that is complicated to train on.”
To maintain its equipment, Riviera has its own reel grinder and its own bedknife grinder. Grinding the reels and bedknives based on the hours of usage, the equipment technician sharpens reels more frequently in the summer, because the staff mows more often then.
While Birmingham CC previously had fixed-head mowers, the property purchased flexible-head greens mowers at the time of its turf conversion. The mowers also include brush kits, to brush the greens three times a week.
During the renovation project, Birmingham, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, also expanded the greens back to their original dimensions.
“We added 22,000 sq. ft. of putting surface to the greens,” Dingman says. “We brought a lot of contour back into the greens, which really requires the flexible head.”
The mounted flexible head gives the best possible cut on the heavily contoured, undulating greens, he adds. “We can mow them much lower by using a flexible-head mower on the greens,” he says.
Centennial Valley also bought two new riding greens mowers in the spring. When it purchased the new mowers, the Centennial Valley staff knew it needed attachments for Bermudagrass, so one of the new mowers has a groomer.
Smith says it has been beneficial that both mowers are the same age and have been worked the same number of hours. Previously, the staff had two greens mowers by two different manufacturers. “We would just send out one at a time. The other was a backup,” he explains.
Now, by having two identical mowers, it is easier for the equipment technician to make adjustments such as setting the mowing heights on the units. “It’s already set and ready to go. It’s not just a backup,” says Smith.
Heritage GC also got new greens mowers when the property installed the new turf. Bisanz says he looked for mowers that were user-friendly and easy to maintain. He also wanted mowers that had groomers and could provide a good quality of cut. “When you make an investment in new greens, you want to be sure you can maintain them,” he says. “We wanted to make an investment in our equipment as well.”
Seasonal Orders
The changing seasons – and accompanying weather – influence superintendents’ mowing inputs as well.
Weather has more effect on mowing practices during the summer at Riviera CC, according to Salter. In the summer, the Riviera maintenance staff members have to closely monitor the amount of growth regulators they apply.
“With the other Bermudagrasses and paspalum, we had to be more aggressive with our cultural practices during the summer, to be ready for the golf season,” Salter says.
In the winter, the property can get ½ inch to 1 inch of rain four days in a row, so it needs a few days to dry out before the grounds crew can mow.
“We’ll have four or five days when it’s difficult to mow. We won’t mow when it’s too wet,” Salter says.
The Riviera crew members generally mow the golf course three times a week in the winter now, and they mow the rough once a week or every other week.
At Birmingham CC, Dingman says weather hasn’t had much effect on mowing. “When it’s wet, we can’t mow,” he adds. However, he says that typically isn’t a problem in Michigan.
The crew at Centennial Valley CC rolls the greens once a week during the summer to give them a rest from mowing the rest of the week. “Our summer practices may change with the maturity of the greens,” notes Smith.
When the club’s newly installed Bermudagrass goes dormant during the winter, Smith anticipates that the staff will only roll the greens every two or three days.
“Early on in the grow-in and in the spring, we can run into problems with Bermuda if it’s extremely wet and not fully established,” says Smith. “We didn’t mow it in extremely wet conditions, because you can move the turf on the greens. We get a lot of water from big rains in the spring.”
At Heritage GC, the staff mows the UltraDwarf greens at .110 inch. Depending on the weather, however, the grounds crew will raise the height to .140 – .150 inch in the fall. The staff mowed the bentgrass at 1/10 inch in the spring, but the height was raised in the summer. The property mows fairways at ½ inch, and the tees and approaches are just under ½ inch. Depending on the weather, the rough stands at 1-1/2 to 2 inches.
The Heritage grounds crew ride-mows the greens and walk mows them two or three times a week. “When I want to brush and groom at the same time during the summer, I’ll walk-mow,” explains Bisanz.
Weather also dictates when the Heritage crew members start top dressing in the spring. The warmer it is, the earlier they start.
Bisanz says there is not much difference between UltraDwarf and bentgrass in the winter. The crew will mow the greens once a week in the winter and roll them two or three times a week. However, because Bermudagrass is more tolerant of heat and mechanical stresses, superintendents can concentrate less on survival and more on playability.
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