Willow Ridge Country Club Turfgrass Chronicles: Can Brown be the New Green?

The US Open has come and gone, and the hosting course looked fantastic, if you're in the minority who see brown as the new green. In a day and age when a well manicured golf course is the norm for member expectations, Pinehurst has reverted back to a more retro and rustic look more akin to the early nineteen hundreds. From a longevity standpoint, it's a fantastic management approach with water restrictions only getting more stringent, and the cost off maintaining larger parcels of land becoming increasingly expensive. Pinehurst has removed approximately 55 acres of rough, switched to a single row irrigation system, and has strong varieties of grass (bentgrass) capable of withstanding extreme summer conditions. It was mentioned that their water usage has been reduced by 70 percent, an extraordinary amount especially at courses that use a municipal or city water supply. That's incredible savings, no matter what part of the country you're from.

To give you some perspective to the resiliency of bentgrass, Pinehurst has greens of the same variety as our bentgrass greens (3,6,11,16,18) that withstand a substantially hotter climate. Bentgrass is very efficient grass that requires little water to remain healthy, or at least within a tolerable health range. Thus you can push these greens to the brink, yielding firm and fast putting surfaces that many golfers would rather not experience. It's a very interesting approach to course maintenance, reducing water inputs, using the most efficient varieties of grass, and adding acres of no maintenance naturalized areas to become a more vigilant steward for the environment. There are also benefits stemming from becoming more environmentally responsible. For instance drier conditions help reduce disease outbreak, because most diseases are fungi that require sufficient moisture to encourage growth. Also with improved varieties of grass such as the newer bentgrasses, you can stretch your chemical application window much further, thus saving money as well as reducing inputs on the golf course. As with everything I'm sure there are cons to the transition as well such as initial cost and disruption to play, the question would then have to be do the pros outweigh the cons? It's a very interesting proposition making the change, it makes great sense. However where issues arise, is the reception by golfers and members. It begs the questions are members ready for a change to a course that's not lush green, and one that offers aesthetic value they're not used to seeing?