Hassle-free Makeovers

There was a time when problem greens sooner or later meant full-on reconstruction, especially push-up putting surfaces built prior to the widespread advent of USGA-specified greens mixes. But the demise of methyl bromide, the emergence of slit-drainage and GPS technologies — along with an economic climate that increasingly views green reconstruction as a luxury — has changed the way superintendents, architects and contractors view green rehabilitation.

“The reality is, this combination of technology and thrift has made us all more creative in the way we problem solve today,” says Bob Lohmann, founder and principal of Illinois-based Lohmann Golf Designs and its sister construction division, Golf Creations. “The combination of GPS mapping capabilities and slit-drainage in particular has really expanded our capability to rehab older greens without total reconstruction while expanding them if need be, adjusting contour and still putting them back exactly as they were — or better than they were, if we’re doing proper slope analysis and adding square footage that can be pinned.”

Most superintendents deal with a handful of greens that aren’t performing the way they should. Sometimes it’s more pervasive. But even if it’s just one putting surface, these alternative approaches allow supers to address problems in a quick, cost-effective fashion — instead of waiting for a critical mass of agronomic or playability issues (and gathering the money to reconstruct them all, in the traditional sense).

“I would definitely say this is a trend,” says Brian Whitlark, USGA agronomist in the West Region. “In fact, I’ve done five course visits in the last three months where I’ve talked clubs out of rebuilding greens and saved them a great deal of money. In many cases they can just remove 3 inches of material, 4 at most, put some sand back, float it out and regrass.”

The American Southwest isn’t exactly ground zero for the regrassing movement; many greens here are newer, sand-based, and not so prone to drainage issues. Still, many courses here are contemplating transitions from Bermuda greens to those featuring Mini Verde or Champion Bermuda — equally prized in this part of the country for their bent-like texture and speed qualities.

This past summer, Golf Creations was hired to resurface 22 greens at Anthem (Ariz.) Country Club with Mini Verde. “The club asked us to map the existing greens on a 10-foot grid prior to renovation, because they wanted them put back exactly as they were,” Lohmann says. “Well, we did that and we shared that info with the original architect, Greg Nash. Together we used this GPS imagery to perform a much needed slope analysis. Mini Verde is a better-performing putting surface, in terms of speed, compared to the older Bermuda we replaced. So Greg’s input was really useful in creating more pins and subtling out several slopes that would’ve been really troublesome if we put them back exactly as they were, with the faster Mini Verde.

“In the end, the mapping we did [to enable complete replication] allowed us to make some really important adjustments to those greens — and make the case to the Anthem board that this was the right thing to do.”

[Sadly, this job was among the last ones performed by Mr. Nash, who passed away in August at the age of 66.]

At Anthem, three inches of Bermuda turf and soil profile were removed and replaced with new sand mix to allow for this recontouring and the ultimate hydro-sprigging of Mini Verde. The depth of soil mix on Anthem’s 22 greens was quite uniform overall — something Golf Creations was careful to preserve where possible when recontouring and regrassing.

On older courses, the depth and content of a soil mixture/profile can vary wildly from green to green, even within a single green. This is something superintendents have long known to be true, as certain greens and certain areas of a green dry out more quickly (too much profile), or fail to drain as well (too little). Even with this anecdotal knowledge, however, a major question exists: What to do about it, short of ripping them up and rebuilding?

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There was no drainage component to the Anthem work, and this is typical of regrassing efforts in the Southwest, Whitlark says. Further east, where retrofitting older, push-up greens with suitable drainage capability is a must, slit-drainage technology has proved a vital part of the rehabilitation equation.

“With slit drainage, what you’re really doing is lowering the water table beneath that putting surface,” Lohmann says, “and in terms of removing excess ground moisture, it’s incredibly effective — combined with the fact that you’re not even taking that green out of play for more than 24-48 hours. With that moisture removed, you get more oxygen in there and promote that really good root growth.

“But it’s not a perfect scenario, in every case, when it comes to green rehabilitation because so many factors impact performance. The depth of a soil profile has a huge impact on drainage capacity. Changing that depth, say, when you’re adjusting slope, can affect the way the finished green will drain or dry out. It’s a balancing act that requires a measure of science — surface and sub-surface analysis — and artful insight from the superintendent and architect, who understand the agronomic impacts of what you’re doing well before you put a shovel in the ground.”

Evolving mindsets

Lohmann and his design/construction teams were among the early advocates of greens analysis and alternative reconstruction. This mindset took hold a decade ago with a putting surface rehabilitation program at Westmoor Country Club in Brookfield, Wis. TDI Golf rebuilt four greens there using a heavy (4-inch) mix layer over native topsoil to replicate the other 14 push-up greens; all 18 greens were “precision drained” (a.k.a. slit-drained) by TDI sister company XGD Systems, then regrassed. This effort alone was noteworthy — but it was the work of Westmoor’s maintenance crew preparing those 14 push-up greens that got Lohmann’s attention.

Prior to re-grassing, the staff at Westmoor had made modifications to specific problem areas on these existing greens by carefully adding or removing top mix to eliminate sand dams and gain pin locations. The work was tedious, as current superintendent, Bryan Bergner, will attest — he was an assistant at the time and charged with overseeing the task.

By this time, GPS mapping capabilities were well established in the construction world, but few in the golf business made the connections between this precision technology and green resurfacing, where slope can require accuracy to a half-inch. Watching Bergner and the crew measure and re-measure by hand got Lohmann thinking there must be a better way. GPS mapping became an invaluable tool in Lohmann’s arsenal at that moment.

At Pine Valley Country Club in Fort Wayne, Ind., LGD recently performed this sort of GPS-aided, slope analysis on two problem putting surfaces. These were USGA greens with the normal amount of mix in most places, 11-12 inches. Slope analysis indicated that a 1-2 inch adjustment in most areas would suffice to improve slopes for pinning — keeping the profile within a reasonable 10-14 inch parameter. But the 12th green, in particular, featured a really steep front that Pine Valley superintendent Steve Mueller wanted to soften, to allow more pin positions.

“In order to get that front portion to a slope that was manageable, we had to add 5 inches of mix in some places,” Lohmann says. “So now you’re at 15-17 inches, which means that part of the green is going to dry out faster. Steve knew that this spot would require hand-watering to keep it moist enough, but he decided that was worth it — to create the playability his members wanted on the front of that green.

“That’s a really good example of what we mean by ‘green analysis.’ You can scrape or add mix to reduce slopes — without rebuilding — but there can be agronomic repercussions to reducing or adding mix in a certain area of a green, making it drain too fast and dry out, or hold moisture longer than the rest of the green. Every green is so different. The analysis is case by case, so it’s important to explore potential outcomes before you start tearing into a putting surface.”

At Pine Valley, Lohmann performed this analysis as a first step — using the data to allow crews to pull the sod off, stockpile it temporarily, make the necessary adjustments to the soil mixture (depth and contour), then put the sod back on.

In 2013, across town from Pine Valley, at Fort Wayne Country Club, Lohmann performed a similar analysis and recontouring for superintendent, Brian Chalifoux — taking several inches off isolated, dry spots where mix was too deep.

“We had 2 feet of mix in some of these areas. You can’t live with that,” Chalifoux says. “Twelve is ideal, but you don’t have to get that exact number. We measured the depth of the mix, which varied all over the map. Bob had the charts, so he came in and moved some of that excess sand while recontouring at the same time. He also channeled a lot of water away from the bunkers. Bob brought the professional expertise; he made sure we didn’t make mistakes — but he also listened to our expertise regarding specific issues on site. The greens came out fantastic. Most of the members couldn’t even tell they’d been touched.”

If members at Fort Wayne had helicopters, they might feel a bit differently. Because he had several greens where drainage capacity was limited, Chalifoux hired crews from Kentucky-based Golf Preservations to install slit-drainage in those spots. Matching the backfill mix with the existing green profile is never perfect. As a result, the parallel pattern left by the slit-drainage process can remain visible for some time after play resumes — especially in the spring, when the grass is lean, Chalifoux says. Two years post regrassing, these lines are slowly fading. “This was definitely the answer,” Chalifoux says.

Creativity on a budget

Lohmann and Golf Preservations did themselves one better this past summer by slit-draining, recontouring and expanding 15 putting surfaces at the municipal Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Ill., using turf rescued from the recently decommissioned Donovan Golf Course down the road.

“The issue at Newman was the issue we see most everywhere: Root growth on these old, push-up greens was down to nothing,” says Todd Quitno, a Lohmann senior architect. “The greens would hold water after a major rain and lose grass during the heat of summer. They were obvious candidates for slit-drainage — but these greens were tiny circles, none of them more than 3,000 square feet. The original green pads were there, so there was lots of room for expansion.”

“Lohmann Golf Designs had actually done a lot of planning ahead of time,” says Samson Bailey, owner of Golf Preservations. “They had estimated the area they wanted to expand — basically they kept us inside the irrigation system, so we could leave that intact. It took us two weeks to slit-drain 15 greens, using a 2-inch system on 6-foot spacing, including the drainage and sod in the expanded areas.”

Quitno had painted out these areas on the periphery, extending 180 to 270 degrees around the old green pads. This added an average of 1,000 square feet per green. “We cut those areas out 4-6 inches deep, at least half with a shovel because some of these extensions were only 2-4 feet wide,” Bailey says. “All those extensions had drainage installed and we filled the coring with a 6-3-1 backfill mix of sand, peat soil… We worked with the natural grade and softened it a little further to blend it in and run it off properly. We tried to make it as natural as we could.”

This is where the departed Donovan entered the equation. Golf Preservations harvested enough bent/Poa turf from Donovan to add 15,000 square feet of putting surface around the 15 greens at Newman. Bailey says he thought the newly expanded greens looked playable two days after the transfer, but golfers were kept off for two weeks. In a month, the colors matched up, golfers were back on the course.

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“The ability to recapture lost green space is such a huge deal,” Quitno says. “You hear a lot about that sort of thing when folks are restoring famous old golf courses. But your course doesn’t need to be old or famous. You can lose appreciable square footage on a 20-year-old course. At a public course like Newman, being able to spread traffic around a green is vital for turf health, as is getting the water out of the profile quickly.

“At an exclusive, private layout, you can often get away with fewer pinning areas on smaller, vintage greens — because they don’t have the traffic. Newman does and that’s why, combined with the slit drainage, we were able to have such a huge impact on playability and maintenance there. They were frankly skeptical about spending that money, especially when they had just closed another Park District course. But full credit to Golf Preservations. They tied it in beautifully and finished fast.”

Lohmann noted that 20 years ago, a good percentage of these clubs would have been convinced, or at least been counseled — by the architect, by the superintendent, by the prevailing golf industry S.O.P. — to simply rebuild these troublesome greens, though perhaps not at a muni like Newman where budgets are always tight. However, the same cost-efficient processes are now being considered across the board.

“That’s not to say that at some point, it doesn’t make good sense — the best sense — to rebuild greens, but it’s something we’re trying to avoid because it’s so expensive, so time-consuming for course staff, and it takes the course out of play,” Lohmann says. “That’s why GPS-aided greens analysis is so important. You’ve got to understand what’s there now. If you really know the problem areas, you can assess beforehand the impact you can have with this more surgical approach.”