#15 green expansion

There are a lot of changes happening on the golf course right now. Many of those changes have occurred on the 15^th hole. While most of the work has been handled by an outside contractor, one small change was done by our staff. As you play in the next few weeks you will notice that we have slightly expanded the 15^th green.

Rather than sod or seed this new section of green, we decided to use aerification plugs. There are several benefits to using plugs versus seeding or sodding. First, we would not be able to use seed that would match the current turf on the 15^th green. We would have to seed with bent grass, and although bent grass is a good greens’ turf grass and there is some currently in the greens, it would not blend well with the existing green and would look and play different for a long time. Sodding would have been the fastest way to add putting surface area. However, similar to seeding, we would not have been able to match the existing green. It is also very hard to avoid creating layers of different soil types when sodding, especially on a green. These layers can lead to many long term problems that were not worth the risk.

This was not a decision based solely on the fact that the other options were not the best. Using plugs actually eliminates some of the issues that would result from seeding or sodding. First, we used the plugs directly off of the rest of #15 green, ensuring that the new part of the green will be as closely matched to the rest of the green as is possible. Also, the soil beneath the turf will match perfectly as well, which will help to eliminate any layering issues.

The goal was to add some square footage to the front right of the green. This was done for a couple of reasons. First, gaining putting surface area in that corner will allow for more pin locations in that lower area. By expanding the green by the little that we did we have added about two more pin locations. This is positive because more pin locations mean we can allow more time for old plugs to heal before we have to rotate back to the same place. Also, adding pin locations means that there is increased variety of setup options. Now there will be some variety of location when the pin is placed in the lower right bowl of the green.

The second reason we expanded the green was to help accentuate the new design of the steep face of rough that will guard the green. By bringing the green forward where we did, the bunker in the front now looks like it pushes further into the green. Also, the corner of rough that wraps around the front right corner of the green will have a much nicer, round look to it based on the new shape of the green. Prior to this minor change, the rough would have had a very angular, sharp edge that would have looked fabricated. Now, the turn will be smooth and natural looking.

This section of expanded green will take some time to mature. It is not an immediate surface like sod. However, once mature, the result will be better than sod and will play more like the rest of the green.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org