Got a letter yesterday from our CC stating the course is probably changing the fairways next year from common bermuda grass to celebration bermuda. The change would most likely result in the course closing next summer while the new grass is installed. For anyone in the know, can you tell me if this is a good choice and what the major differences between the two are? There's an information meeting next Thursday but just wanted some input from an outside source before I attend. Thanks.

Smaller leaf blade.. More aggressive growth habits.. All in all, a better option than common..

Riveroaks in Houston just went wall to wall with it. I hear it's beautiful.

Know of any others in the area using it? Two courses I've played recently that I thought had better grass than Golfcrest (my course) were Magnolia Creek and The Wilderness. I don't know how to describe it other than their grass was fuller and the ball set-up better. Sometimes the ball settles in the grass in our fairways and kind of sits down.

I didn't even know that you could use common bermuda for a golf course.

I believe the renovated Campus Course has Celebration fairways and Mini-Verde greens.

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Know of any others in the area using it? Two courses I've played recently that I thought had better grass than Golfcrest (my course) were Magnolia Creek and The Wilderness. I don't know how to describe it other than their grass was fuller and the ball set-up better. Sometimes the ball settles in the grass in our fairways and kind of sits down.

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I think both of those are 419.

Here's another question for the Supers that I want to ask.

I'm a member at Kingwood CC. Last year, they re-did the greens on the Forest Course,which had long struggled with quality greens, I'm not really sure why.

The closed the course on Memorial Day weekend and re-opened the week after Labor Day (about 10 days later than planned).

I'm told that the greens have still struggled and they've had to bring in sod several times over the last year to patch in some struggling areas. We were given the argument that the greens only had a little bit of grow in time before the dormant season and some of these struggles are to be expected given their "youth".

We have repeated the process this year on the Marsh Course - and it's set to re-open this Friday.

I'd assume we're going to see some of the same struggles and answers again next Spring/Summer.

Here's my question - if there is a known concern with the grow in time and season change, why would they have used the same time frame & schedule? Could they have done the dig out and sprig in the late Winter and early Spring months to give the new grass the whole Summer to grow-in and have better results?

Without knowing shade problems, soil profile issues (drainage, compaction layers, etc)- the simple answer is most likely climate.

If you sprig too early and get a late freeze, you run the risk of your sprigs not being established enough to survive the lower temps. Sprigging at Memorial day guarantees good conditions for grow in. Areas with lots of trees around the green (too much shade and/or poor air circulation) may be to blame for the slower establishment.

The super at Bluejack in Houston has been posting lots of progress pics on Twitter and they've just now started consistently mowing greens that were sprigged 12-14 weeks ago- around the first of June. If you're interested at all in the amount of hard work that goes into building a course, look him up. I think his handle is @BluejackNatTurf.

We sprigged our greens with tif eagle week after Labor Day in 2010. Converted from bent to bermuda. It was tricky and we played Mother Nature with greenhouse plastic during the day later in the grow in and covered greens at night with temps around 50...we sprayed multiple times with pigment with mixtures of black to darken the color to absorb more radiant heat during daylight hours. Our fertility and fungicide program was aggressive. Although not all 18 were completely grown in, 15 were playable, so we overseeded heavy for the winter months and did a pseudo growin stage 2 in spring months.
I would suspect as it was mentioned, shade, soil, drainage, air movement, etc could play a role. It wasn't ideal what we did but we closed the Tuesday after Labor Day and re opened November 11th in 2010

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Without knowing shade problems, soil profile issues (drainage, compaction layers, etc)- the simple answer is most likely climate.

If you sprig too early and get a late freeze, you run the risk of your sprigs not being established enough to survive the lower temps. Sprigging at Memorial day guarantees good conditions for grow in. Areas with lots of trees around the green (too much shade and/or poor air circulation) may be to blame for the slower establishment.

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I suspect some shade issues and the Supers have mentioned draining issues in their weekly e-mails.

I doubt there are soil profile issues as both greens projects have started with completely digging out the old greens down about 12"-16" and bringing in a news greens mix. They then gassed them for several days to ensure a sterile start for the new sprigs.

Given the soil work, they didn't sprig either project until AFTER July 4...which really is the basis for my question. Would it have been better to start digging in March/April and sprig in May as it heats up to allow a long summer growth season?

I understand this year's abnormal rains may have caused a different set of problems, but it occurs to me that sprigging earlier to allow for a longer grow-in may have a lot of advantages over the path taken.

Of course I'm not an agronomist and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

I would be willing to bet it had a lot to do with money. You want to strike a balance between what's best agronomically as well as economically, and the earlier you close, the more revenue you miss out on from spring rounds.

Back to the OPs question, the only downside to Celebration is how aggressively it grows. More than likely will have invasion issues around the greens. But still a way better option than common.

As for the greens issues, I am guessing shade and water management (drainage). I am building 9 greens right now and still have 1 left to sprig. Hopefully we will have sprigs down middle of next week at the latest. Gonna be roller coaster from now till next May or June. Luckily I will have little to no play.

A lot of rain this year made it tough to cut sprigs. I'm sure it's all way behind schedule.

Appreciate all of the replies. Sounds like this is for the best in the long run, just sucks club will probably be closed next summer.

I have celebration in my yard. Great grass with a great color. Blueish green.