ut to me , grasses are like computers . As soon as you buy one , a better one comes on the market .”
Independence Golf Club in Midlothian features Bermuda greens that need only to be covered when temperatures dip to 25 degrees or below .
ut to me , grasses are like computers . As soon as you buy one , a better one comes on the market .”
— Dan Taylor , Superintendent , Independence Golf Club a decision made when the course was renovated in 2009 .
“ Our old greens were also Bermuda ,” he said . “ On your putting surfaces , you want them firm , with a true roll and with the least amount of work to get a great surface . There was a lot of debate between bent and Bermuda when we re-did the course , but we feel like this is the best way for us to go .”
“ We ’ re very happy with the Bermuda fairways . You want them to be more robust because of the cart traffic . You can ’ t pay quite as much attention to the fairways as you do the greens , and you need their roots to recover quickly . They have to tolerate shorter mowing and disease . Bermuda has definitely been a good choice for us .”
At Independence Golf Club in Midlothian , just west of Richmond , superintendent Dan Taylor is also a huge proponent of Bermuda grasses all around , including his greens .
“ In our mind , we feel like we have better greens with it more days of the year ,” he said . “ Living in the transition zone , I ’ ve seen people convert to bentgrass greens all the way to Florida . But to me , grasses are like computers . As soon as you buy one , a better one comes on the market .”
He ’ s not a bentgrass green cheerleader , for several reasons .
“ With bent , you have to aerate once in the spring and once in the fall and it takes weeks for the holes to close up ,” he said . “ In July and August it gets so hot , it struggles . With Bermuda , we don ’ t have the disruption of holes healing up . In the winter , we only have to cover them up ( with a tarp ) no more than 30 days when the temperatures are 25 degrees or lower . That ’ s not a peak time for play anyway , so it ’ s not that big a deal . And when you take the tarp off , they ’ re still very playable .”
GOLF GRASS VS . CLIMATE At Independence and elsewhere , the Bermuda does go dormant and turn brown in the colder weather , nothing that a paint job can ’ t solve quite easily .
“ We do use turf paint and we experiment with that ,” Taylor said . “ The whole industry is going in that direction as opposed to over-seeding . Its use is purely aesthetic . You might get a little green scuff on the ball right after we paint it , but it goes away pretty quickly . We paint just after Thanksgiving and right after it ’ s done , it looks like Arizona . By April , the grass is turning green on its own .”
Taylor has been at Independence for 23 years . Before that , he worked at The Virginian Golf Club in Bristol , where it was a whole different dimpled ball game .
“ It stayed cooler longer ,” he said . “ We had zoysia fairways and bluegrass and fescue rough , with bentgrass greens . But up here it ’ s all Bermuda , all the time and it works well for us .”
It ’ s pretty much the same at Tuscarora Golf Club in Danville , where superintendent Wes Ailport has been working at the course for about four years . Previously he had mostly experienced taking care of bentgrass greens . In the hot summer months , that can often be labor intensive .
“ As soon as it got to 80 degrees or higher on bentgrass , myself and the other guys were out there constantly watering . Bermuda loves 80 to 90 . Give them sunlight and water and punch them and they even love 90-degrees plus . You may have to hand water them a little bit more , but nothing like bent .”
Ailport also knows that the condition of any golf course reflects how much money and manpower is being used to take care of it .
“ To me that ’ s just a simple fact of life ,” he said . “ The more money you have , the more people you have working on it , the better it ’ s going to be . If you have a good chemical budget and good , hard-working people , it really makes a difference . You need lots of hands and bodies , and then with the grass , you just hope for the best .”
GIANNA GRACE PHOTOGRAPHY
20 V IRGINIA G OLFER | M AY / J UNE 2023 vsga . org