Golf courses in southern Nevada, southern Arizona, central California and in the desert of southern California have historically overseeded bermudagrass fairways to provide green, actively growing turf during the winter and spring months. The striped, eye-popping appearance of overseeded fairways is certainly one reason why golfers from cold climates flock to the Southwest during the winter months. But low water levels on the Colorado River have spurred the need to consider strategies to significantly reduce water use for golf courses. Recently, the federal government has ramped up rhetoric on reducing allocations from the Colorado River. “We are taking immediate steps now to revise the operating guidelines to protect the Colorado River System and stabilize rapidly declining reservoir elevations,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton in a written statement. One strategy that has proven to lower water use on golf courses is to eliminate overseeding. Here are the top five reasons to overseed and top five reasons to eliminate overseeding.
Top Five Reasons To Overseed
- By far the biggest benefit to overseeding is appearance. The green ryegrass with sharply defined stripes provides a “wow factor” that can’t be reproduced with warm-season turf, even with colorants.
- Overseeded ryegrass absorbs golf cart and maintenance traffic – helping to maintain turf cover during winter months.
- Overseeded ryegrass recovers from play. When temperatures are conducive for ryegrass growth, fairways will see divot recovery with overseeded ryegrass that would not occur with dormant bermudagrass.
- Ryegrass performs better than bermudagrass in shaded areas.
- Low areas perform better and are drier with overseeded ryegrass compared to dormant bermudagrass.
Top Five Reasons Not To Overseed
- The top reason for not overseeding is a tough call because there are many, but I’m going to go with increasing the consistency of playing conditions. Not overseeding means no multiweek disruption to golf in the fall and no bare ground and awkward transition in the early summer. A non-overseeded golf course provides more good playing days per year than an overseeded golf course.
- Not overseeding saves money! Many courses are spending over $100,000 for seed alone, not to mention other inputs to germinate and mature the ryegrass.
- Not overseeding saves water! Eliminating overseeding can save from 1.5 to 2 acre feet of water per acre per year depending on the course location.
- With no ryegrass, labor for mowing and fertilizing can be redistributed to other tasks.
- Not overseeding allows for more weed control options, especially for Poa annua control.
With regulators ramping up water restrictions and the federal government about to step in with more restrictions on access to Colorado River water, there will be more pressure on golf courses to reduce water inputs. Depending on the location, some courses will not have enough water to overseed and at some point, probably sooner rather than later, the tide will shift in the Southwest to not overseeding. While colorants can’t replicate the look of an overseeded fairway, eliminating ryegrass from the equation simplifies golf course maintenance and I would argue ensures more days where the golf course provides good playing conditions compared to overseeding.
West Region Agronomists:
Brian Whitlark, senior consulting agronomist – bwhitlark@usga.org
Cory Isom, agronomist – cisom@usga.org