PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — A golf course like TPC Sawgrass requires strenuous, yearlong efforts and hard work to keep the greens up to par ... no pun intended.
Unfortunately for the grounds crews, our weather patterns over the last several months have not made things easier as the course was readied for The Players Championship.
"The weather, the El Nino pattern that we've had has been a struggle", said Jeff Plotts, the Head of Agronomy at TPC Sawgrass.
The last few months have seen many gray days and plenty of rain that doesn't dry out very quickly. Rain is typically good for the grasses, but during the winter, too much of it can be detrimental to the growth of grasses come springtime. With TPC Sawgrass also being so close to the beach, coastal fog will often keep the course much wetter than is desired by Plotts and his grounds crews.
Saturated turf can also greatly slow the speed of play down on the green.
"When a golf course is soft, the ball doesn't release as much on the fairway. They're not getting a lot of bounding shots on the greens. It just makes it a little softer and makes the golf course play a little longer," explained Plotts.
The 17" of excess rainfall that TPC Sawgrass saw in 2023 was just too much for the turf to handle. Plotts emphasized how essential good cultural aerification and topdressing practices are to keeping water moving within the grasses and not allowing them to become too over saturated. June is typically when the major cultivation takes place, where ground crews will apply light applications of sand across all surfaces to help the grasses mature properly.
The base grass at TPC Sawgrass is Bermuda grass, which loves the heat and humidity of summertime, however for The Players Championship, cool season grasses are planted to help firm up the course. A rye grass blend is overseeded in October, which has now become a brilliant green just in time for The Players Championship.
Our somewhat mild winter also made things difficult on the grounds crews. The lack of frost and cold weather inhibited the cool season rye grass from completely maturing this year, but thanks to the over 100 workers employed on the Sawgrass grounds, the course is ready to go for the final rounds of the Players Championship this weekend.
Remember what the area around TPC Sawgrass used to be.
"This once was a swamp. Mother nature doesn't like to be tricked so it will come back to a swamp if we're not doing the right things", emphasized Plotts. We a little love and care, TPC Sawgrass's turf will look impeccable for golfers for years to come.
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