Courses - Types of Grass
and What They Mean to Your Game
The type of grass you play on affects
your game. That’s especially true when it comes to putting, where the
type of grass can dramatically affect your putts. Knowledge of how the
different types of grass affect your game, gained through all your golf
lessons, golf tips and personal experience, can help lower golf scores
and golf handicaps.
Although every locale is different,
there are grasses that can be used on almost on any course. There are
also grasses that can be used only in specific areas of the United
States, like the South. In addition, there are specialized varieties of
grass developed specifically for putting greens. Known as cultivars,
these varieties require intensive maintenance and considerable pesticide
and herbicide maintenance.
Types of Grass
Bentgrass is a hardy, resilient type of
grass. Brought to the America from Europe, this perennial is used on
courses in the North, Northeast, and Midwest because it withstands cool
temperatures. Creeping bentgrass is ideal for greens, fairways, and
tees. Colonial bentgrass is better suited for fairways than greens
because it’s not well adapted to lower mowing heights.
Bermuda grass is a textured, fast
repairing grass. Native to Southern Europe, it’s used on courses in the
South because it withstands heat. It adapts well to low mowing heights
and is wearable. Bermuda grass is used for tees, fairways, and greens.
In the cooler part of the season, Bermuda grass is overseeded with
perennial ryegrass, known for its rapid reestablishment, until the
Bermuda grass recovers from the Winter.
Other types of grass found on golf
courses are Kentucky bluegrass, Zoysia, a warm season grass, and
Bahiagrass, a low maintenance grass used in roughs. St. Augustine grass,
native to the Wet Indies, can’t be used as far North as Bermuda grass.
Poa anna, a bluegrass that thrives in cool and damp conditions such as
northern California, does well in hot and humid conditions but not in
cold and freezing temperatures. Pebble Beach, for example, has poa anna
greens.
How Grass Affects Your Game
A course’s conditions, which include the
type of grass used in the fairways, affects how you play. For example,
the grass affects how much spin you can put on the ball. You can put
more spin on shots hit from Zoysia grass than Bermuda grass because the
ball sits up better. Bentgrass is also better for adding spin to the
ball. Finding out what type of grass you’re playing on before starting,
as I often say in my golf lessons and golf tips, can save you strokes.
It’s especially helpful to know the type
of grass used on the greens. Some of the turf grasses developed
specifically for greens make them fast, especially if the greens are
well kept. TifEagle, a Bermuda grass developed for putting greens, is a
good example of a turf grass that can be made really fast and thrives
under close mowing and heat. Greens made with Tifdwarf are also fast but
you can’t keep it at the same height as bentgrass for long before it
begins to thin out.
Grass and the Grain of the Putting Green
Creeping bentgrass is the grass of
choice for putting greens in any climate in which it can be grown.
Bentgrass has very thin blades, which grow densely. It can be mowed very
closely, resulting in a felt-like smoothness to the putting surface.
Hot, humid climates take a toll on bentgrass greens, so putting quality
declines as temperatures rise. Hybrid Bermuda grass is used for putting
greens in warm, humid regions. It tolerates heat well under low moving
heights.
The key with any grass, as I’ve pointed
out in my golf lessons and golf tips, is determining which way the grain
goes. The grain is the direction the blades are growing thanks to
factors like, the direction of the setting sun, prevailing winds, and
water drainage on the greens. Aside from these identifiers, you can find
the grain’s direction by locating the brown, sunburned side of the hole
(due to exposed roots). That’s generally the direction the grass is
growing.
The grain can affect your putting. Putts
traveling down-grain will go at a much faster pace than putts hit into
the grain, and breaking putts will either be magnified or reduced by the
grain. Applying this understanding of grain while on the course will
allow you to visualize the speed and direction of your putts more
precisely, ultimately leading to lower scores and lower golf handicaps.
Now, what I’ve just explained to you
should help you understand how grass affects your game, but experience
is the best teacher. Be aware of the type of grass you’re playing on and
keep track of how it affects your game. Knowing how the grass plays can
lower your scores.
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the
best-selling book “How
To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a
working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven
continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly
newsletter with the latest
golf tips, golf
lessons and golf
instruction.
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