Native, but not easy

When looking at a golf course, your eyes may be immediately drawn to the vibrant and perfectly manicured greens and fairways. But don’t forget about the out-of-play areas. Effectively using native grasses can improve your course’s aesthetic, appeal and overall playability more than you think.

Native grasses, by definition, are any species indigenous to the area they grow in. They are typically low maintenance but can have a negative impact on the course if they are not managed or located properly.

Knowing the characteristics of not only the native grasses but also your course can lead to the best results. As a superintendent, you must be able to manage your course and the expectations of those who play it. Traits such as the length, density and appeal each native grass provides will allow you to achieve the desired look and function.

The most obvious benefit of native grasses on golf courses is their low-maintenance tendencies. This leads to many overall benefits, including reduced water usage, financial savings and combating slow pace of play.

“One of the three reasons for using (native) grasses is because they’re perceived as being less maintenance,” Florida-based golf course architect Jan Bel Jan says. “So, they’re less maintenance than irrigating maintained turf, but that doesn’t mean that they still aren’t managed.”

Before planting native grasses, superintendents should invest time into the research. “They need to do their homework, because any plant that’s in the wrong place is a weed,” Ohio-based golf course architect Dr. Michael Hurdzan says.

Next, evaluate how many acres of irrigated turf you are working with. Native grasses can help lower that number and offset some maintenance and water costs.

“Just because you have access to water doesn’t mean that it’s good quality water to irrigate with and so you may also have the ability to irrigate on a day-by-day basis,” says Jason Straka of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design. “But then you go into drought situations, and then there’s controls that get put on, whether it’s by state or local government, and it starts to limit again the amount of turf that you can irrigate.”

Water consideration is just the beginning.

“That’s where I think a lot of people don’t understand … that even though it’s a native grass, it’s that there’s still a cost to maintain that per square foot,” Straka says. “Likely, most times it isn’t as much as irrigated turf, but it’s still something and so it’s not just about the water conservation piece to it, it’s also about the overall cost as well.”

Planting the right and wrong native grasses can have drastic effects on your course and its finances. In every part of the country — or even your state — you could get something different in terms of soil and climate. “The key is just because it’s a native plant, doesn’t mean it’s going to go everywhere,” Bel Jan says.

“The pH, that’s my first driver of plant selection,” she adds. “The next thing, of course, is exposure, whether it’s sun or shade, or whether it’s going to be typically wet or dry. There are some plants that will take both inundation as well as drought, but there are not that many. So it’s understanding the site analysis; it changes everywhere across the country.”

Bel Jan explains that if you attempt to use native grasses with really high or low pH levels, you will have a more limited palette. When the pH is 6 or 7 — or what is considered “neutral” — the palette you can work with is much broader.

Mistakes happen, although when you place a native grass in a location on the course or climate it’s not made for, it impacts your team’s work and it hurts the golfer experience.

“The benefit of using the right grass in the right place is it continues to make play easy, but you still get that look, that native look,” says Dr. Danesha Seth Carley, associate professor in the department of horticulture science at NC State University. “Whereas if you’re using the wrong grass in the wrong place, you’re going to lose your golf ball more often and you’re going to upset people because you know they’re having to play out from this sponge grass, and they have to go straight sideways instead of up and over. You’ll also slow down play.”

Knowing all of this, superintendents and grasses must be adaptable.

“A lot of times in the Midwest, people will go out and they’ll try and put fine fescue grasses, and those aren’t always native, but they’re naturalized areas,” Straka says. “But if you’re planting them in heavier soils, then those grasses tend to get really thick, really lush and if you hit a ball into it, it’s really, really hard to find, so development is exceedingly difficult and many times unplayable. Not very fun. And it’s caused slow play. Those are all considerations that have to be thought through.”

Once you’ve done your homework on your course and clientele and planted the native grasses in the correct area, the final step is patience.

“I can’t emphasize enough to manage the expectations of the clientele,” Bel Jan says. “If you’re going to be taking irrigated, maintained turf out of an area, and you’re going to plant it with something that’s native, just set the expectations of, ‘It might take a year or so for it to mature to become what we know it can be,’ because we live in a world of instant isn’t fast enough.”

While many superintendents are typically confident managing the fairways and greens, that confidence may not carry over to maintaining out-of-play areas — and that’s OK. In this case, knowledge is power, so researching and contacting the right sources before planting native grasses will prove to be valuable.

“Don’t be afraid, but also don’t be afraid to try new things,” Seth Carley says. “You plant stuff in out-of-play areas, then you can watch that over the couple of seasons and get a sense of, ‘Well, that is going to work for us and that is not going to work for us.’”

For superintendents looking to add native grasses, or branch out and try a new palette, there are a variety of resources available. Your local golf course architect and nursery are a good place to start.

“There are plenty of native nurseries that are in every state,” Straka says. “They propagate those plants, they help sell those plants. They also will help you identify for your particular site what will grow and do well.”

Other state agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service and Extension Office, can help determine what native grasses will be best for your course. “There are USDA agricultural centers that are spread throughout all the different states, so a lot of times we’ll work with them as well to help identify plants and where to get them,” Straka says.

Like in the game, when it comes to maintenance, practice makes perfect.

“The more you use them, the smarter you get,” Hurdzan says, “and the more outstanding they become.”

Cassidy Gladieux is a Northeast Ohio-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.