Zoysia On The Practice Range

[JMEvensky]

Anybody have experience?

We're doing some work to the range and re-grassing is a probability. We currently have Bermuda on the practice tee and Meyer zoysia fairways. I was hoping someone had experience with maintaining a zoysia practice tee.

We're most concerned with recovery vis a vis Bermuda along with any surprise ongoing maintenance costs.Plus,any heads up on newer zoysias would be helpful.

Any comments/suggestions appreciated.

[Anthony_Nysse]

I would push you towards Celebration or Tifgrand. Great color and recovery. Tifgrand is probably more similar to zoysia, with its fine texture and upright growth and ability to be cut tight.

[Patrick_Mucci]

JME,

I had heard some people say that Zoysia is a slower growing grass and therefore not an ideal grass for practice tees.

Maybe Anthony and other Superintendents familiar with the growing patterns of Zoysia can comment.

[Anthony_Nysse]

JME,

I had heard some people say that Zoysia is a slower growing grass and therefore not an ideal grass for practice tees.

Maybe Anthony and other Superintendents familiar with the growing patterns of Zoysia can comment.

100% correct! and that's what I was getting to. Unless you have tremendous space, the recovery of zoysia is slow. When I played East Lake we were on hitting mats to protect their zoysia. This was early fall.
  Zoysia is a very tight, upright surface, but not great on a practice tee, IMO if you have a small area and a lot of member practice

[Adam Warren]

I wouldn't go Zoysia either.  Thats a waste of the extra money Zoysia would cost you.

With Bermuda, you just basically want to stress to your members to not keep all the divots together.  Bermuda recovers better if there is spacing between the divots.  Not sure the best way to explain that, but with how many people will take divots all in one area, cool season grasses like Rye and Bent will recover better with that.  They want to separate their divots with Bermuda.

[Lyndell Young]

I would agree with the previous posts against Zoysia, and I would add that overseeding is not an option as well.

[David Ober]

I'm pretty sure that the practice facility at The Club at Carlton Woods uses Zoysia for the driving range and surrounds, and it is a fantastic facility.