The building process starts for Polo Fields Golf and Country Club's turf plot. Photo courtesy of Andrew Lewandowski
Editor's note: Turf plots are often also referred to as turf nurseries. GCM has changed the term due to the turf plot's non-commercial use in a golf course setting.
In August of 2024, we decided that our course needed a turf plot. Why? Because a turf plot is a great resource. It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. This past season, our team ran into an issue resulting from both dryness and an unusual amount of rain. The weather pattern caused us to have some type of pythium root dysfunction. A turf plot would have allowed us to transplant new turf. Instead, we had to take plugs from the practice greens and fill the bad spots with cup plugs and hex plugs.
You do not need a big budget to build a decent turf plot, but we decided that if we were going to build one, we were going to build it right! We started by clearing a large area out of the way of play. We then proceeded to level the area with a Ventrac seeder and aerifier. Once we got it all leveled, we put in irrigation with a Rain Bird system. We brought in five truckloads of USGA 90/20-rated sand, spreading it out in two different areas: one for greens height and one for collar and aprons height. Once everything settled, we seeded the greens and collars areas with Tee-2-Green Pure Distinction creeping bentgrass seed. We seeded the extra areas with tall fescue to ensure that if we had an issue with our rough, we could quickly replace it and move on. With all of these factors included the project cost around $10,000 to complete.
Building the turf plot was a great experience with my mentor, who led the project and allowed me to be part of the process. I hope to use the skills I learned from this experience throughout my career. Construction knowledge is a necessity on a golf course, even if you aren’t building a turf plot. I learned that when you are building a turf plot, it can be translated to how that process should work for course greens.
Along with learning the process of building a green, the irrigation knowledge I picked up was priceless. I learned that it is best to have the water flow from head to head. It is the
most efficient way to make sure your greens have proper water coverage.
Turf plots of any type are very useful and important to have at your course because they can mitigate damage caused by any number of common issues on the course. Equipment malfunctions, pop-up diseased spots, LDS (localized dry spots) and other issues can all be addressed much easier with an on-site turf plot. If a spot pops up, you can easily replace it with plugs or even take a sod cutter and replace a bigger area.
Turf plots could be the difference between a successful year or a bad one. Your turf plot should be the best, most well-taken-care-of area on course. Why would you replace bad sod with more bad sod? Turf plots allow you to have easy access to the good stuff. If you build your turf plot the right way, without cutting corners, it’ll prove to be a worthy investment.
Andrew Lewandowski is an assistant superintendent at Polo Fields Golf and Country Club in Louisville, Ky.