Greens for the front nine at the Columbus, Miss., facility are being converted to Ultradwarf TifEagle, after the back nine was replanted last year. Students from the Golf/Recreational Turf Management program at East Mississippi Community College are helping with the project.
Lion Hills Center and Golf Club in Columbus, Miss. has started the final phase of its conversion to Ultradwarf TifEagle bermudagrass, The Dispatch of Columbus reported.
The course has suspended play on holes 1 through 9 while the greens are converted to the grass, The Dispatch reported. The work started in late June and is expected to take about eight weeks, with the course hoping to reopen those holes in late August.
“We will be the only public golf course that offers daily-fee play in our area with this kind of grass,” Lion Hills’ Director of Golf, Will Arnett, told The Dispatch. “There are some public golf courses in Tuscaloosa [Alabama] that have it, but we will be the only one locally.”
The greens on holes 10-18 at Lion Hills were converted last year to TifEagle, which is among three new Ultradwarf bermudagrasses touted for offering improved ball speed, putting consistency and overall playability, The Dispatch reported.
The grass is the same type that most country clubs are now selecting, Arnett told The Dispatch.
“It is a faster green and the grass is smoother, thicker and denser,” he said. “As another benefit, it is a twelve-month grass that maintains its playability in cooler months. The old generation of grass was only smooth and consistent for about nine months of the year.”
Students in the Golf/Recreational Turf Management program at East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) are helping out with the labor-intensive process to install championship-quality putting greens, The Dispatch reported.
After the old grass was killed, The Dispatch reported, Lion Hills’ greens were sprigged with Tif-Eagle on July 2nd, and then watered every other hour during the next 10 days. After that, they have been watered five times a day, and ultimately crews will top dress the grass to finish off the project.
Benji Williams, Lion Hills’ Head Golf Professional who is also the head men’s golf coach at EMCC, told The Dispatch that feedback from golfers has been positive since the greens on holes 10-18 were converted.
“When you stand over a putt, you actually think you stand a chance of making it now, with the type of greens we are putting in,” Williams said.
The greens will only improve with time as the TifEagle grass matures, Arnett told The Dispatch.
“This is just a far superior quality of grass than what we had,” Arnett added. “We had some doubters while we were doing the back nine holes. This spring they said, ‘OK, I get it. These greens are really, really good.’ “
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