Club Is Re-Doing Greens

[Bucki1968]

Not sure where to post this but...our club is closing in May to re-do the greens.  They claim they will be back open in mid September. So, me and boys having a conversation yesterday about how long it will take for the greens to be "good" again. We play at another club who opened in October (after re-do on greens) and the greens are hard as rock and slower than they used to be. From my experience, it takes a good year for the greens to really get back to peak condition (playing partners seemed to think that it would take longer). Anyone else have any experience on this subject?

[Sandy Divot]

Being in Tampa, I am guessing the greens will be bermuda. New bermuda greens are usually pretty firm, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they might protect them a bit, and cut them a bit longer until they get well established. I would think they would be able to get them up to speed well before the firmness is gone, and the combo of speed and firmness will make them play pretty tough for awhile.

[iacas]

It depends heavily on what they're actually "re-doing."

If they're re-building the entire green, from base layers on up, it will be awhile. USGA spec type greens are very firm at first. There's no thatch, there's little sand, etc.

[DaveP043]

I really don't know if the is cimparable to Tampa, but I'll tell my tale anyway.  My only experience with rebuilt greens was for courses in Pinehurst.  A number of courses have replaced old Bermuda or Bent greens with the new strains of small-leaf Bermuda like Miniverde and Champion.  I have a membership at Talamore and MidSouth.  In each of those, the greens were replaced over the summer (2016 at Talamore and 2017 at MidSouth), re-opening around the first of September.  We played the 2017 Newport Cup at Talamore and MidSouth in mid-October, so about 5 or 6 weeks after MidSouth re-opened, and the greens were fabulous.  Yes, they were firm, but balls would stop if struck properly.   The speed was very good, and the ball rolled really true.  And now, 5 and 6 years later, they're just as firm, just as true, and maybe a tiny bit faster.  Hopefully, your experience will be as good as ours was.  

[Bucki1968]

TifEagle Bermudagrass will be used on the greens. They are going to "re-establish the surface areas back to the original boundaries".  Sounds like completely new greens to me?

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, Bucki1968 said:

TifEagle Bermudagrass will be used on the greens. They are going to "re-establish the surface areas back to the original boundaries".  Sounds like completely new greens to me?

Yeah, we had a similar thing.  I guess over the years the more aggressive surrounding Bermuda out-competed the grass on the greens, so the greens continually grew smaller.  I hope it goes well for you, I think what I remember was something like a 90-day grow-in period after the new seed went down (or maybe they sprig this grass, I don't know.)      

[phan52]

5 hours ago, Bucki1968 said:

TifEagle Bermudagrass will be used on the greens. They are going to "re-establish the surface areas back to the original boundaries".  Sounds like completely new greens to me?

Our greens were redone with bent and enlarged back to their original size a few years back. It took about two years for the recovered areas to match the rest of the greens and those areas were aggressively aerated over the last couple of years. They putted fine but they looked different. Now you can't tell any difference.