At Home on the Range

The United States is made up of 3 basic growing regions. We obviously are in the “Warm-Season Zone.” The benefit of being in this climate is having it be beneficial to Bermuda grass as it thrives in the warm weather. Our golf course, for the most part is covered in various types of Bermuda grass. The genius of this type of grass is it is constantly repairing itself and trying to spread. It does this 2 ways, with rhizomes and stolons. Rhizomes grow under the earth, while stolons grow across the top of the ground. This benefit is specifically helpful to golf courses as over time Bermuda grass will eventually cover divots made by the golfer on the course. Where the Bermuda grass needs the help of the player is on the driving range. We rotate the driving range because of the amount of traffic that the plant sustains to try to get it to grow over the divots that are made by the golfer.

The ideal divot pattern for the recovery of the plant is long linear tracks with about 4 inches of Bermuda grass between tracks. This allows the plant on both sides of the track to maintain its health and produce stolons to grow over the area created by the divots. An additional side effect is the fact that this uses less turf in a limited space on the range and allows more players to use the area. If you could help us in this process it benefits both the grass and the player that would like to practice or warm up before their round of golf at TPC Tampa Bay.