Turf intrigue near the Capitol

In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields or Elysium is a paradise, a final resting place for the souls of heroes. If Elysium were a golf course, it might well resemble Columbia Country Club.

Tucked into a 126-acre plot in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a few miles from the Washington, D.C., border, Columbia Country Club has a rich golfing lineage. Founded in 1898, it’s been at its present location since 1911. The golf course the members play today was delivered by Walter Travis in 1915; it is one of the first clubs in America to have an artificial irrigation system.

In 1921, the club hosted the U.S. Open as “Long” Jim Barnes scored a nine-shot victory over Walter Hagen and Fred McLeod. Nineteen-year-old Bobby Jones was the low amateur in the field; he tied for fifth place.

Brian Harman followed in Barnes’s footsteps to win the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur at Columbia and Rose Zhang claimed the U.S. Girls’ Junior crown there in 2021.

But over time, the D.C. area’s summer heat and humidity took a toll on the club’s ryegrass fairways. Three years ago, the decision was made to regrass the fairways with Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, a strain developed at Oklahoma State University that had been introduced at several other clubs and sports facilities in the area, as well as the U.S. Capitol lawn.

The conversion was part of a seven-year master plan that included bunker, drainage and irrigation upgrades. Tree removal was also part of the project.

Longtime club member Marty West led the committee that decided to regrass the fairways with Tahoma 31. He notes the weather in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area was a significant factor in the committee’s decision.

“We looked at temperatures over the last 15-plus years,” West says, “and it was pretty obvious temperatures were going higher in the summer. We’re having more significant rainfall and we wondered whether we would be able to maintain rye or bent fairways in those conditions.

“We also had to be aware of winterkill and (the possibility of) losing the Bermuda in the December-February timeframe. We liked what we read and heard about Tahoma 31 in that setting.”

The decision to go with Tahoma 31 was made in the fall of 2020. The transition process began the following July, immediately following the conclusion of the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Green chair Rick Holland says the junior event reinforced the idea that the conversion was needed.

“I think it was a big impetus,” he adds. “We consider ourselves a championship golf course and I think we got behind. The course we presented for the girls I don’t think was to the level we wanted. We have sort of a culture of keeping our golf course up to the standard of being a championship golf course. That means a lot to a lot of people that we want to maintain the height that we had reached.”

Matt Sumpter arrived as Columbia’s superintendent in June 2021, just a few weeks prior to the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Before coming to Columbia, Sumpter, a Purdue University graduate, spent three years at Congressional Country Club, where he led the maintenance of the famed Blue Course. Prior to that, he spent a little over four years at nearby Woodmont Country Club. At Columbia, he oversees a crew of 26, seven of whom work in horticulture.

Sumpter assumed his post at Columbia with a working knowledge of Tahoma 31 and why it was the best option for regrassing the club’s fairways.

“With our topography, bentgrass was too fast,” he says. “Zoysiagrass was almost too slow and was cost prohibitive. The committee evaluated those factors and landed on Tahoma because of the longer season of it. It stayed greener longer, it greened up earlier.”

Golf carts were another issue. The club doesn’t have continuous cart paths and it was imperative that whatever strain of turf was installed be able to withstand cart traffic.

“If you don’t have cart paths, you’re going to have to put that wear somewhere,” Sumpter says. “And using bentgrass and not changing the amount of carts — or the amount of play — won’t give the members the return on their investment that they all wanted.”

The U.S. Girls’ Junior concluded on July 17, 2021. The conversion commenced immediately afterward. The first step involved removing the common Bermudagrass in the fairways.

“We went out and GPS-ed every single spot of common Bermuda in the fairways,” Sumpter says. “We started with killing all the areas around the bunkers (that were being renovated). The next week, we loaded up the sprayers with 10 to 12 applications of non-selective herbicide.”

The course remained open for member play during the early stages of the conversion.

“We had to be able to play golf and do our work at the same time” Sumpter says. “So, (utilizing) GPS sprayers gave us the opportunity to have a golf course. We still had green grass on the course instead of going through and killing all the fairways. When we finished up, we still had areas that were playable.”

Four targeted applications plus two additional ones encompassing all 24 acres of fairways cleaned things up. With the common Bermudagrass eradicated, the membership at Columbia found their golf course playing a bit differently. But Sumpter and Holland made sure to keep the membership in the loop. “There was a lot of communication, letting them know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it when we’re doing it, how we’re doing it,” Holland says.

The pace of the project accelerated following the Fourth of July holiday in 2022 when the crew began doing sod-preparation work. In mid-July, the golf course was shut down while sod was installed on the fairways. The decision was made to lay sod as opposed to sprigging the fairways, with the goal of shortening the window before the regrassed fairways would be ready for play.

“(Sprigging) is easy on a flat golf course, but with our slopes and steep hills, it was a concern during the summer with thunderstorms,” Sumpter says. “Bermuda sod has enough rooting after three days to hold it in place during a rainstorm. Sprigs are more prone to washing away.”

In addition to the new sod, strips of tall fescue were added adjacent to the fairways to create a natural barrier between the common Bermudagrass in the rough and the Tahoma 31 in the regrassed fairways. “The common Bermuda was going to contaminate our new investments in the fairways,” Sumpter adds. “And our investment is only going to be as good as our prep work.”

To keep the common Bermudagrass at bay, Sumpter and his team established a spraying regimen; an application of Acclaim Extra once or twice per month at 14 to 16 ounces per acre.

Throughout the process, Sumpter continued to prioritize communication with his members, who were curious or perhaps uneasy about the conversion effort — specifically, why the freshly laid Tahoma 31 often appeared brown rather than green. To that end, Sumpter conducted a series of four Sip N’ Sod events, meeting with groups of up to 15 members at time, of all ages and ability levels, to answer their questions, address concerns and impart information about Tahoma 31. The gatherings were held adjacent to the 18th green.

“We set up coffee, we set up doughnuts and pastries,” Sumpter says. “And we would walk out to 18 and I would show everyone, ‘This is what it is.’”

Sumpter was especially cautious when it came to estimating how long the sodding process would take.

“Originally, four weeks was the timeline,” he says. “I told everyone, ‘Yes,’ it could be four weeks. But it’s not going to be what you think after four weeks. The last truck of sod will go down the last day of the four weeks, and that’s if everything goes smooth. The last thing you want is to give everyone something that isn’t what they were told. So, through the entire process, we talked about six to eight weeks.”

Over the course of the month and a half the golf course was closed, Tahoma 31 more or less sold itself to Columbia’s membership.

“The best part was, as the process went on and (the turf) started to come around, we got down the heights and it started to look better,” Sumpter says. “It looked like a fairway and I could take the members out through all the different stages of the process, how we were doing this, and it just calmed everyone down.”

The golf course reopened on Labor Day 2022. Members soon realized the conversion effort had given them a revitalized golf course.

“Going into the Tahoma 31 checks a lot of boxes,” Sumpter says. “It makes the golf course bigger without making it bigger; the cart traffic isn’t really an issue in the summertime. The playability in the wintertime, I think, is great. The fairways speed up. It’s winter golf, it’s supposed to be fun. If the ball rolls an extra 50 yards, that’s great.

“The Bermuda gives you more options in the summer. If we want to speed up the fairways for a ladies’ event or we want to grow them up a little bit for a low-handicap event, we can do that. The options that the Tahoma presented early on were monumental. The membership and the fairway committee landed on the right answer.”

Architect Joel Weiman created and oversaw the club’s master plan.

“These improvements were a bold change for such a tradition-based club,” he says. “I was fortunate to partner with a dedicated group of passionate members and staff that vetted, advised and supported our property enhancements.

“While the club is benefiting from the reallocation of freed resources due to the new bunkering and Bermudagrass fairways, that was never the driving force behind the changes. The primary objective was always on providing more consistent and improved playing conditions throughout the year.”

What lies ahead for Columbia Country Club? The par-70 course plays as long as 6,880 yards and the possibilities are intriguing.

West envisions the club hosting championship events in the future.

“The membership seemed to enjoy hosting the (U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior),” he says. “So, I think they would be receptive to hosting other USGA-type events in the future, as well as continuing to host regional events, whether the Middle Atlantic Amateur or the Maryland Amateur. Things like that.”

Rick Woelfel is a Philadelphia-based writer and senior Golf Course Industry contributor.