Turfgrass types of some oustanding golf courses:
Pinehurst Resort and Country Club Pinehurst, N.C. (Penn G-2)
Augusta National Golf Club Augusta, Ga. (Penn A-1,Pennlinks, Penncross)
Butler National Golf Club Oakbrook, Ill. (Penneagle)
Cypress Point Club Pebble Beach, Calif. (Seaside 2)
Hazeltine National Golf Club haska, Minn. (Penncross)
Troon North Scottsdale, Ariz. (Penncross)
Oakmont Country Club Oakmont, Pa. (Penneagle, Penn G-2, G-6)
Cherry Hills Country Club Denver, Colo. (Penneagle, Penncross)
Inverness Golf Course Chicago, Ill. (Penncross,Seaside)


Question: What type of grass will I use?
The two dominant types of turf used for Putting Green Construction throughout the world are Creeping BentGrass and Bermuda. Bent Grass is dominant wherever temperatures are moderate to cool, and Bermuda is the preferred turf type in tropical climates. In the United States, Bent is used on 79% of the greens and Bermuda on 21%. Here is a chart of turf types used for Putting Greens from a survey of over 16,000 courses conducted by the GCSAA.
STATE% Bent% Bermuda
Florida199
Georgia4852
South Carolina1387
North Carolina6634
Alabama1882
Tennessee6436
Mississippi891
Louisiana199
Texas5050
Arizona6040
Oklahoma9010
Arkansas6040
Nevada946
California8713

* Hawaii is 100% Bermuda
** All other states are 100% Bent Grass

A special word to all you Golf Crazy Texans out there; your climate is perhaps the hardest to give you advise on turf type. I am told that most courses in Texas have abandoned Bent for the more heat tolerant Bermuda. But if you see the chart above, the state is still 50/50. My understanding is that Bermuda is preferred in Southeast Texas and Bent is used mostly in Northwest Texas and by some of the top resort/PGA courses. The courses that have switched to Bermuda have done so because of the difficulty keeping Bent moist when it is not drought tolerant at all. If you want to plant a small Bent grass green, you may still be able to keep it in great shape because the watering and care is small in comparison to that of a course with 18 tee boxes and greens that can be 20Ksf. It is a hard decision because Bermuda will be harder to get and is generally only available to you in SOD and/or Plugs which will be more expensive than Bent Grass seed. I suggest that you consult with several qualified greenskeepers in your area for an understanding of what is required in your special climate.

My Manual on Putting Green construction covers the basics of cultivating and maintaining BentGrass. This is the type of turf we have where I live (New England), and it is easy to grow and most likely to give the back yard greenskeeper good results. If your climate is tropical, you may be forced to use Bermuda in which case you must buy SOD which makes the project more expensive. My manual will not help you with the grow-in stages of Bermuda, but the core techniques used in the maintenance section apply to Bermuda as well as Bent.

There is a great chart of climatic zones for putting green turf on the Jacklin Golf Web Site http://www.jacklingolf.com .

Turf climates indicates for all parts of the world.


Backyard Putting Green Construction Manual
 Copyright © 1998