Key Takeaways

• There are many excellent grasses available for golf courses today, but there are always tradeoffs involved when choosing between them.
• Advancements in turfgrass breeding have led to grasses with many improved characteristics. Improved drought tolerance, cold tolerance and disease resistance are just some of the benefits new grasses have.
• Improved cold tolerance and better playing characteristics have made warm-season grasses an option in many areas where they would not have been considered in the past.
• The newest grass is not always best. There are many characteristics that should be considered when choosing a grass.
• Be sure to consider patterns of play at your course when choosing a grass. Knowing when your course is busiest and when expectations are highest can help guide your choices.
   

Individual grass characteristics

There are many considerations involved in selecting which grass is best for your situation. Fortunately, turfgrass research and breeding programs have developed grasses for virtually any situation, budget, climate and maintenance program. An excellent resource to help narrow down grass types by characteristic is the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP). Here you can search grasses by criteria and get a list of the best-performing options. The following is some information about the key distinguishing factors among grasses on the market today:

• One commonality amongst new grasses is many are bred to use less water. This is a good thing for the industry as water use and consumption are under scrutiny. Using grasses that require less water is also important if your course has poor irrigation, lacks natural rainfall or you are trying to maintain firmer conditions.
• Rate of establishment is another important quality. Selecting a grass that checks most of your boxes but is slow to establish can lead to problems if expectations aren’t aligned with reality. If quick establishment is a principal concern, then sod might be a better solution. If you have a particular variety in mind, contract-growing sod is an option many courses have used with good results.
• Recovery rate is also an important consideration. This characteristic is especially important on fairways and tees for divot recovery, as well as on putting greens because of ball marks. It’s important to note that recovery time isn’t always the best in the newest bentgrasses. If quick recovery is a priority, an older bentgrass might be a better choice.
• Both cool- and warm-season grasses are being bred for greater disease resistance. This is extremely important when selecting a grass for large areas like fairways and roughs because of the potential costs for disease treatment in these areas. Disease resistance is also important for tees and greens even though they make up a smaller total acreage.
  
  

While resources like NTEP are a good starting point, the value of observing how the grasses being considered perform in real life at your location cannot be overstated. Visiting other facilities where the potential new grasses have been established and setting up test plots on your site is in the best interests of decision-makers so the project is positioned for success. Playing on the grasses being considered will provide decision-makers with an opportunity to determine if the grass will meet expectations.

Is newer always better?

It’s common in life and in golf course maintenance to always want what’s new. Conventional wisdom suggests that the newest iteration of anything must be an improvement on older versions. While that can be true for grasses, there are some instances where selecting an older grass variety might be the better choice.

For example, newer bentgrasses are bred for fine texture, narrow leaves and exceptional density. These qualities are what make the newest bentgrasses ideally suited to produce good ball roll and smooth surfaces on putting greens. However, density improvements are made by shortening internode length – i.e., the growing point between leaves – to produce more leaves per square inch (Jones and Christians, 2012). This can have implications for turf recovery.

The differences in newer and older varieties also plays out in fungicide applications. Over the past several decades, breeding cool-season turfgrasses for improved disease resistance has been the focus of many turfgrass breeding programs (Bonos et al., 2006). While this is a worthy pursuit for the industry, newer grasses are also bred for density. The tradeoff of fewer fungicide applications with a newer grass is often slower recovery from divots or ball marks because of high-density traits and short internode length.

In most cases, the traits found with newer varieties that have improved genetics and superior disease resistance outweigh the factors mentioned above. However, it’s important to consider these factors since every course is different and faces unique challenges.

Real-world examples

With the many recent advancements in turfgrass breeding, superintendents and golf facility decision-makers have many more choices for grasses. Interestingly, some of the options are grasses commonly thought to grow in another climatic region. For example, golf courses in the transition zone are faced with the choice between cool-and warm-season grasses. With summer performance being a critical consideration at many courses, some areas that traditionally grow cool-season grasses are now planting warm-season grasses to capitalize on quick recovery and heat tolerance.

It might not seem intuitive to choose a warm-season grass in a traditionally cool-season environment, but when one considers the tradeoffs and the alternative of dead or underperforming cool-season grasses during summer, the choice of warm-season grass can make sense. This might take a change of mindset for golfers and superintendents who just a few years ago wouldn’t have considered warm-season grasses, but now might be the right time for that shift. Because of the advancements in turfgrass breeding, course decision-makers and superintendents can determine when the course needs to be at peak performance each year and select grasses that are better suited for that time. For many courses, summer is peak season, which means a warm-season grass might be a better solution if the risk of winter injury isn’t excessive.

Another misconception is that courses should select one grass type for tees and fairways, and possibly greens. While this would simplify the decision-making process, it is important to consider each playing surface individually. For example, one might prioritize divot recovery on tees more than fairways, where density and ball lie are perhaps more important. In this case, one might choose a grass superior in lateral growth and recovery for the tees and one with exceptional density and upright growth for good ball lie for the fairways. If your course is in the transition zone, you might even consider a warm-season grass for the tees and a cool-season grass for the fairways.

One last example dealing with fairway grasses – while it seems intuitive to select the newest grasses, there are some budgetary and management considerations that should be factored in. Namely, can you afford to maintain the grass you’re choosing? Again, it’s been said in this article and elsewhere that the newest grasses are being bred for density. While that is an excellent quality on putting greens, it’s debatable whether it is right for everyone on fairways or tees. Remember, increasing density means increasing leaves per square inch. Greater density means more leaves, shoots, stolons and rhizomes – all of which contribute to organic matter accumulation. Before selecting one of these newer, ultra-dense grasses, you must first be prepared to manage them. For some, continuing your current cultivation program is fine. For many others, you might need new equipment, more cultivation treatments, more staff or an increased budget for sand topdressing. Are those adjustments possible at your course?

Conclusion

Deciding which grass is best for different parts of your course is not always as simple as saying, “Give me the newest.” Depending on the situation, an older grass or an entirely different species might be the better solution. This doesn’t mean you should look toward older varieties first, it means do your homework and really consider the areas you are regrassing and their requirements. Hopefully your facility starts the planning process well in advance of the project start date to give plenty of time for research into the different grasses available so you can prioritize grass traits that are most important for your unique situation.

A good resource is your local USGA agronomist. We see grasses of all types grown under various management systems. We can help your facility choose the right grass for the situation based on our own field observations and with the help of our network of agronomists and turfgrass researchers around the United States.

It is always preferable to establish a few test plots on-site using different grasses that are being considered. Growing grasses on your soils, in your environment, with the same management strategies that you plan to use will give you real-world, real-time data to help inform your decision. Just because a grass is performing well down the street doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for your course.

References:

Bonos, S., B. Clark, and W. Meyer. 2006. Breeding for disease resistance in the major cool-season turfgrasses. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 44:213-34.

Foy, John. 2006. Selecting the right grass. USGA Green Section Record. Nov/Dec. 44(6):1-8.

Jones, M. A., and N. Christians. 2012. Lateral spread and dry matter partitioning of creeping bentgrass cultivars. Crop Sci. 52:393-399.