Keep it green ... or not

Golf course location, golfers’ expectations determine seasonal overseeding programs.

Many golf facilities in the transition zone and South are faced with overseeding. For those in the transition zone and in northern Florida, it’s almost a certainty every year. But the further south a course is located, the less likely it is overseeded because the warm-season turfgrass (most likely a Bermudagrass variety) doesn’t go dormant or does so for only a short time.

Olde Florida Golf Club in Naples, Fla., isn't overseeded because the turf's dormancy doesn't last more than a week.

Ultimately, at private clubs, it’s the members’ decision to overseed or not. For resort and public courses, they almost have to because golfers who travel south to play golf during the winter want to play on green grass. However, superintendents say it’s better for the health of the turf not to overseed … so goes the business of golf.

Some areas green
Glen Klauk, golf course superintendent at the private 18-hole Pablo Creek Golf Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., grew-in the course at the club nine years ago and has been there since. The course features Bermudagrass wall to wall – 419 in the fairways and Tifdwarf on the greens, and it’s been that way since the grow-in.

Klauk says the members determine what they want and he follows through with their request.

“I do what they want,” he says. “We overseed all playing areas – tees, greens, fairways and approaches. We have about 30 acres of fairways, five or six acres of tees and 3.5 acres of greens.”

Because Pablo Creek is a smaller, high-end golf club, Klauk says the members didn’t want to have dormant turfgrass on the golf course when they bring guests and important people to play on the course. He says the Bermudagrass usually goes dormant by Christmas and stays dormant until late February.

“The members made the right choice not overseeding the rough,” he says. “The members like the look of the dormant rough, where it goes off color. If we overseeded the rough, it would be a lot of work just mowing it, and we would have transition problems. We would have to sod some areas.”

Klauk, who overseeds the course every year, uses a blend of perennial ryegrass and Poa trivialis when overseeding. He buys 14 tons of ryegrass and 3,000 pounds of Poa trivialis, which costs about $28,000.

Olde Florida Golf Club has TifEagle Bermudagrass on the greens and Tifway419 everywhere else.

Klauk says the overseeding process takes about two weeks. The club closes for that length of time so Klauk and his staff can scalp the turf, prepare the surface and then seed it. He uses a 10-foot-wide drop spreader to apply the seed. If the weather cooperates, the seed is laid down in three days, and it takes about seven days for grass to come up.

“Once the grass is up, you need to keep it from drying out,” he says. “You don’t need much water once the grass has germinated. It’s a misnomer that it requires a lot more water.”

After the grass comes up, Klauk says he and his staff fight to get two or three mowings in before play begins. He says some places, such as in Arizona, have a month to overseed before play starts.

“It’s like a brand new golf course, and the members get excited,” he says.

Drawbacks
Even though Klauk overseeds, he says there are drawbacks. One is that the seed tends to get tracked into the dormant areas, and he says nothing looks worse than when spotty green areas can be seen in a larger area that is supposed to be dormant.

Other negatives of overseeding are a sticky surface and the transition periods, according to Darren Davis, director of golf course operations at Olde Florida Golf Club in Naples.

And if one overseeds, that person will have to do it constantly, according to Gary Chensoff, founder and principle of Calusa Pines Golf Club in Naples, Fla. Chensoff says it’s a tough two-week period in the spring and fall during the transitions. Additionally, he says overseeding isn’t healthy for Bermudagrass, and it will be harmed throughout time, but it depends on the rate of overseeding.

Yet another drawback is tending to the different needs of the two types of turfgrass when overseeding, according to Greg Pheneger, golf course manager at John’s Island Club, a 54-hole facility in Vero Beach, Fla.

With the exception of an occasional frost, the weather doesn't get cold enough, long enough in Naples to overseed, according to Olde Florida director of golf course operations Darren Davis.

“When you overseed, you have two different types of plants that need different inputs, and you tend to focus on what the ryegrass needs because your trying to get that established as quickly as possible,” he says.

Agronomically, Pheneger says overseeding isn’t healthy for turfgrass, but it’s mainly done for aesthetics.

Brown is healthier
Despite Klauk’s practice, he says there’s a trend for some golf courses, especially ones in South Florida, to not overseed if they have ultradwarf Bermudagrass greens because the variety is clean and has good texture, and when it goes off color, the greens are still presentable. Another reason why overseeding isn’t done is because golfers don’t want the interruption that comes with the process.

“Bermudagrass doesn’t go dormant that long in South Florida,” Klauk says. “But in Northern Florida, where, at night, the temperature can drop into the teens, the grass goes completely dormant, and then people complain about the consistency of the turfgrass. However, the fairways are denser when they are overseeded, and golfers end up getting summer-type fairway lies.”

Davis is one golf manager in South Florida who doesn’t overseed. Olde Florida is a golf-only club and is nonresidential. It’s 10 miles inland, and the turf – TifEagle Bermudagrass on the greens and Tifway 419 on everything else – experiences an occasional frost.

“The membership is more into playing conditions than color,” Davis says. “We get more positive comments when the grass goes off color.

“I see a need to overseed if the turf goes dormant for a while and you have 100 players a day, but we have a total of 275 members, and less than 12 call this home,” he adds. “The groups are in and out. We don’t have a lot of play.”

Davis says the turf’s dormancy in January or February won’t last more than a week because cold fronts come through quickly and then the temperature warms up.

“It doesn’t get cold enough long enough for the grass to go dormant,” he says. “There is not a lot of overseeding in Naples. Guys in the South overseed because of excessive wear on the course and to sell real estate.”

Davis says members bring guests to the course, but he has never heard of any negative feedback from members for not overseeding.

“We have no committees,” he says. “We’re a single membership club with no families.”

Not here either
Calusa Pines is another course that doesn’t get overseeded. It features Tifsport Bermudagrass on the fairway and tees and TifEagle Bermudagrass on the greens. Chensoff says TifEagle is a more cold-tolerant variety than Champion.

Many courses in Naples, Fla., such as Olde Florida Golf Club, don't overseed because members place more of a priority on turfgrass condition than color.

Chensoff says good courses with no infestation in their fairways don’t need to be overseeded. However, he says some courses have to overseed because there are so many types of grass in the fairways and overseeding covers that. He says overseeding is cheaper than ripping up a fairway and reseeding or resodding it.

“You need a great program to prevent infestation in the summer time,” Chensoff says. “Some courses aren’t closed in the summer time, so they can’t focus on fairway infestation.”

Calusa Pines, on the other hand, is closed during July, August and September.

However, Chensoff conceded that visually, the ryegrass is a brighter green than Bermudagrass, but the playing surface of Bermudagrass is better than ryegrass. But at Calusa Pines, the color of the turf isn’t as important as the playing condition of the turf, he says.

Chensoff says the turf doesn’t go dormant at all during some winters and other times it will go dormant for three days when the soil temperature dips below 40 degrees. He says the temperature is different if a course is right on the water compared with a course five miles inland.

“Dec. 28 through Jan. 14 is the time we’re concerned about a consistent playing surface,” he says.

Yes and no
At John’s Island, all three courses have 419 Bermudagrass on the fairways, roughs and tees, and TifEagle on the greens. Pheneger says he normally overseeds two of the three courses because two are surrounded by homes and have many trees on them. But this year, he’s overseeding only one course because he wants to give the other course a break from the overseeding. The other course that doesn’t get overseeded is a native course that members want to keep hard and fast, Pheneger says.

“Every five years, you need to give the turf a rest from the overseeding,” he says. “We’re trying to strengthen the Bermudagrass.”

Pheneger doesn’t suggest overseeding when the turfgrass looks beat down and worn.

Pheneger says the Bermudagrass on the John’s Island courses doesn’t go dormant during the winter because it only stays cold for a few days. The season at John’s Island starts Nov. 1, but the club doesn’t get really busy until after Thanksgiving, he says.

Pheneger doesn’t overseed the greens and says the majority of golf courses don’t overseed greens, but there are many that do. He overseeded the greens at John’s Island before the greens were TifEagle.

“Now we don’t because the TifEagle doesn’t go off color as quickly,” he says.
Pheneger says he spends about $30,000 on seed, which is about 65 percent of the total cost to overseed a course. The other costs are fertilizer, labor, water and the upkeep of equipment.

The bottom line is that the decision to overseed is based on where a course is located and what golfers want.

“We’re a business, and overseeding is a business decision for golf courses,” Pheneger says. GCN