Celebration Bermudagrass

[Anthony_Nysse]

This coming summer, we will be grassing our fairways with Celebration Bermudagrass. The grass and process has really begun to take off here in south Florida, with some courses even using it north of Orlando. (Timuquana, Dataw Island, The Landings to name a few)
  The process is tremendously uniquie int he fact that the new grass is so aggressive, that it can be sprigged on top of the exsisting turf, after it has been prepped. (3 herbicide applications, verticut and aerification) The following courses now feature Celebration turfgrass:

Jupiter Hills
The Bears Club
Admirals Cove
Jonathon's Landing
The Dye Preserve
Boca Grove
Naples National
Hole in the wall
Old Corkscrew

The following is a link to the blog that we maintain for the club that outlines the process. 

http://pinetreegm.blogspot.com/2012/01/celebration-bermudagrass.html

[Mark Saltzman]

Anthony,

I met Mr. Kuhn, the Super at High Ridge CC, and I believe he told me they have switched to Celebration as well.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Mark,
  You are right. They renovated and regrasses summer of 2010 and love it. CC of FL has it, as well. Looking forward to adding PT to that list.

[Anthony Gray]

  I hate the look of dormant Bermuda. Does is ever go dormant in Florida ?


  Anthony

[Anthony_Nysse]

Dormant is a wonderful surface. It doesn't usually go dormant this far south, but in the thread about courses that do not get enough attention, the photos of JI West, the rough is dormant and fwys seeded. They're an hour or so north of here

[Brett Morris]

It's interesting the love Celebration receives in the US.  It's an Australian bermuda, released many years ago by the late Rod Riley - known over here as Rileys Super Sport.  It's another naturally occurring ecotype, so it will be interesting to see how 'pure' it remains over several years in different locations through the south.  I think it's one of the forgotten grasses here in Australia as focus seems to always be on Legend, Santa Ana and Wintergreen.  Greenlees Park and Conquest, both released as well by Rod, are also very good grasses, the latter more so in football fields.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Oh when dormant is when the surface is best. The greens are as true as true can be with a wonderful pace. It makes it as far south as the gulf coast. I do not play enough golf in south Florida to know the exact line where it stops in the State of Florida. anyone who over seeds bermuda greens should have their heads examined. .

[Bill_McBride]

Dormant is a wonderful surface. It doesn't usually go dormant this far south, but in the thread about courses that do not get enough attention, the photos of JI West, the rough is dormant and fwys seeded. They're an hour or so north of here

I'm with Anthony Nysse in this case.   I too love playing on dormant Bermuda in the winter.   It's a tragedy so many courses overseed in the name of green.   Dormant Bermuda plays as much like firm links as I can think of in the US.   It's fast, you can putt over it on the surrounds, it's a wholly different game than summer Bermuda.   

We stopped overseeding six years ago but dye our greens so the fans of green grass are assuaged.   The greatest benefit?   No transition in the spring.   

[Tom Yost]

Other than the longer growing season, are there any other benefits over the typical hybrid Bermuda turfs in common use?  i.e. maintenance, playing surface...etc.

Would it it be something we might see being used in the Phoenix AZ climate?  Hot/dry summers, winters with frost and occasional hard freezes.

[Mike_Young]

The only issue I see with celebration is using it on tees.  I have seen it on a practice tee where it was so "stringy" that the divots were a horrible mess.  IF one uses it on tees it takes extra verticutting to be acceptable.  IMHO

[Roger Wolfe]

In Charlotte we have replaced a lot of our shadier tee boxes and tree lined fairways with Celebration.  The results have been excellent.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Bill is right. The lack of transition in the spring is huge for the health of the greens. People who loves greens do not overseed bermuda in the winter.

[Greg Tallman]

Anthony, What was the impetus for the switch? What are the different characteristics versus what you had? 419? T2?

[Anthony_Nysse]

Greg,
  Celebration has more aggressive growth characteristics. It has much better cold tolerance, wear resistance, recovery ability and holds its color in the cold better. Most importantly, is it's aggressive natural. Becaome of that, it can outcompete it's surrounding grasses. Our fairways have a mix of common, 419, tifsport and paspalum....after 6.5 years! Celebration just outgrows and chokes out competing turfgrass.
  I can see using another turf on a site that has not been grass before, but especially on a course that has been around for 50 year and been regrassed several times, this is the best option, which a question.

[SL_Solow]

How does it compare to Champions?  Just curious, no dog in this fight.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Greg,
  Celebration has more aggressive growth characteristics. It has much better cold tolerance, wear resistance, recovery ability and holds its color in the cold better. Most importantly, is it's aggressive natural. Becaome of that, it can outcompete it's surrounding grasses. Our fairways have a mix of common, 419, tifsport and paspalum....after 6.5 years! Celebration just outgrows and chokes out competing turfgrass.
  I can see using another turf on a site that has not been grass before, but especially on a course that has been around for 50 year and been regrassed several times, this is the best option, which a question.

Interesting that the choice was made for a more aggressive cultivar. I've heard good and bad about celebration, good being it grows like crazy, bad being it grows like crazy. Tony, I'm not questioning your choice because I don't know enough about the issues, but how does a more aggressive grass provide a better golf surface? Or is it more about getting to a mono stand?

SL, Champion is an ultradwarf used on greens. Celebration is used for non-green areas. Apples and oranges.

[Ben Sims]

More aggressive grass = more aggressive cultivation.  Probably okay for a place like Pine Tree with the crew to manage it to a lush mono-sward.  Maybe not so good for average course X without the $ to control it to a golfing standard.  At a place with less attention to detail in the maintenance process, I'm thinking it will eventually push into the rough where it will invariably be cultivated much less, resulting in the deep stringy stuff that gives bermuda a bad name. 

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Tony that would be my question too on the aggressive issue.  I was merely talking bermuda generally earlier not this one.

[Anthony_Nysse]

  Celebration is being used by high end clubs and public course, many which need to open quickly because of revenue. There are stories of closing and regrass with Celebration in 6-8 weeks and have 80-85% turf coverage.
  Celebration will eventually grow into the rough a bit. Several courses have "no tilled" their fairways 5 years ago and have 12-24" into the rough, which is not really much to worry about. Of the courses that intentionally planted Celebration on the entire property, it really only grows about 1.5" long and sort of curls into itself.
  It's most aggressive in the summer months, when growth regulators can to used to slow down its nature. It’s the best option for us because we have very little play in the summer and can do the nessessary practices, but it will also provide a much better surface in our season, when it's not growing as much. We sodded it onto our south range tee 2 years ago and last winter was the first winter in years that our membership had turf on the tee the entire season.

These are photos from Jupiter Hills, who did the same conversion this past summer. I think that the surface is quite tight. We will also be initiating a fairway topdressing program, with nearly .75" of sand being applied the first year.

[Ben Sims]

  Celebration is being used by high end clubs and public course, many which need to open quickly because of revenue. There are stories of closing and regrass with Celebration in 6-8 weeks and have 80-85% turf coverage.
  Celebration will eventually grow into the rough a bit. Several courses have "no tilled" their fairways 5 years ago and have 12-24" into the rough, which is not really much to worry about. Of the courses that intentionally planted Celebration on the entire property, it really only grows about 1.5" long and sort of curls into itself.
 

That's some good gouge Tony.  Thanks for following up on some of our posts.  I'm curious, with that much sand going into newer turf, what sort of pH range are you guys looking to stay within?  Is Celebration happier than other bermuda's in more acidic soil?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tony,

With "Celebration" being so aggressive how do you prevent it from encroaching into the putting surfaces ?

[Anthony_Nysse]

Ben,
  Generally speaking, Celebration seems to be less finicky on acidic soils than many other bermudas, which is great for Pine Tree because we had several fairways with pH in the 4's, upon my arrival. We have such ebs and flows with rain in south Florida, and with many courses (Pine Tree included) using reclaim water, soils and salt built up are the key to growing turf, IMHO. Our soils are much more balanced now, but it certainly has been a few years in the making.
  The sand allows the new sprigs something to grow into, but also allow for the Celebration to be less "leggy." In fact, the addition of sand is a 1/3 of the cost of the project, but one that we think is important as we are on old, dairy farm land.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Ben,
  Generally speaking, Celebration seems to be less finicky on acidic soils than many other bermudas, which is great for Pine Tree because we had several fairways with pH in the 4's, upon my arrival. We have such ebs and flows with rain in south Florida, and with many courses (Pine Tree included) using reclaim water, soils and salt built up are the key to growing turf, IMHO. Our soils are much more balanced now, but it certainly has been a few years in the making.
  The sand allows the new sprigs something to grow into, but also allow for the Celebration to be less "leggy." In fact, the addition of sand is a 1/3 of the cost of the project, but one that we think is important as we are on old, dairy farm land.

Mr. Mucci,
  We are not regrassing the tifeagle approaches with Celebration. We are going to re-establish the tifeagle edges and where the new fairway grass will meet with the tifeagle approach, a barrier will be install, up to 10" deep that will stop the Celebration from jumping into the tifeagle. Of course, edging was done in the past to stop this, but nothing man made installed. This will go about an inch below the surface of the turf. Jupiter Hills installed this barrier right to the edge of their greens and the definition is incredible. The follow is a video of how it is installed and the comany that will actually be doing the work.

http://preservegolfclubagronomy.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-11-10T08:09:00-06:00&max-results=1