I have been following along with the putting green threads and have decided to finally rip up our sand burr infested West Texas backyard.

I was recently quoted $11,900 for roughly 860 sq ft of turf (blue outline).

Around 380 sq ft of that will be Everlast poly putt 2-tone putting turf with a pile height of 0.5", and the rest will be STR OS53A turf with a pile height of 1.5". I plan to use Envirofill across all turf due to having a dog.

The red outline is where the pool equipment is and I will (hopefully) train the dog to start going there.

The crew will be removing 4-6" of the current area, pouring a small concrete barrier (yellow), bringing in and compacting the subbase, and installing the turf. There is no irrigation in this section of the yard, but there are some irrigation valves. He modeled the putting green to not cover those, but the regular turf will.

One thing that is not in the 2D mock up drawing below is a 1' outline of STR OS53A between the putting green and the pool decking.

Questions/Comments:
1. Does anything listed above seem wrong? Both turfs are supposedly industry leaders.
2. The installer asked me if I wanted to keep natural slope of the backyard or make everything level. I'm thinking making everything level would be best for looks and dual use (backyard games). Thoughts?
3. How many holes can I reasonable put in a ~380 putting green? Installer only put three on his drawing. Would like to try and have at least four.
4. I have two palm trees in my backyard that were lost due to Uri. I asked the installer to get to $11,500 for the install plus removing both. This will have to happen before any turf is installed.
5. Will 380 sq ft feel too small? I am not good at visualizing sq footage.

Thanks for your help.

First of all congratulations. It's a badass experience. Secondly with everything involved price wise I think you're getting a hell of a deal.


Questions/Comments:
1. Does anything listed above seem wrong? Both turfs are supposedly industry leaders.

Seems legit to me but I'm not a turf expert

2. The installer asked me if I wanted to keep natural slope of the backyard or make everything level. I'm thinking making everything level would be best for looks and dual use (backyard games). Thoughts?

Depending on how anvid a golfer you are, I'd stick with natural slope and create undulation. Various putts. Left to right. Right to left. Uphill, downhill etc. A perfectly level putting green isn't beneficial IN MY OPINION




3. How many holes can I reasonable put in a ~380 putting green? Installer only put three on his drawing. Would like to try and have at least four.

I'd go with 3 on a green that size personally. Especially give the shape

4. I have two palm trees in my backyard that were lost due to Uri. I asked the installer to get to $11,500 for the install plus removing both. This will have to happen before any turf is installed.


5. Will 380 sq ft feel too small? I am not good at visualizing sq footage.

I don't believe so. It's definitely on the smaller side of things but it's also about what functionality you want it to have. If it's for putting and chips and I believe that's ample space.

average square footage of 2 car garage is around 18ft X 20ft = 360 Sq Ft.


Maybe that helps?

No clue. But I'm in the for pic by pic progress.

If you're dead set on 4 holes. My opinion on location

Agree with Bond. Do 4 holes just like he drew it. Also, I would try to make it as level as possible for a few reasons.

1. Almost impossible to make it perfectly level so you will naturally have some slope over time in some areas.
2. Almost all greens over time will get super fast. Stimp over 11-12.
3. Big breaks on ultrafast greens are great at Augusta but most people practicing their putting will tire of that over time and not really improve their on course putting with normal speed greens. I find that a straight 5-6 footer is the best way to practice if that is what you want out of your green.

Thanks for all the opinions so far!

I was able to get them to add another hole and remove the trees which increased the original bid just a little.

I will have them level everything but still allow for proper drainage/runoff.

I also am going to change the green shape to make it less "phallic" haha. Thinking of making the top curve a little less pronounced. He said the roll will be 15' x 24' rectangle that I can shape however I want and use any cuttings to fill in if needed.

Tree guy should be coming by mid next week to remove the palms and then excavation would probably start a week after that.

Ill keep everyone updated with pics!

Definitely attempt to make it level, because as mentioned above, level isn't going to be level anyway. And it will do the most to let you use the entire green. If you don't and with the holes in the ends/corners, you may end up with some putts that are physically impossible to make unless you are putting from one particular angle.

For example, say that hole in the top right corner has some decent right to left break on it, you wont be able to putt at that hole down the side because you'd have to putt the ball off the green to play the break

In my opinion the location is off. Needs to be moved slightly over, towards my house in Fort Worth...again, just my opinion.

Congrats!

Alright the final quote was just signed! Here is a data point for anyone who may be looking to do this in the future. I know I always am looking for comps and wanted to provide this as I believe it was a fair bid:

Putting Green
15'x24' Everlast Poly Putt 2 tone
(4) Aluminum cups with sticks and flags set at 4" depth
All Labor, Materials, Installation, and Disposal
$3,920.46

Regular Turf
15'x55' STR OS53A
Adding concrete barrier
All Labor, Materials, Installation, and Disposal
$5,601.38

Tree Removal
Remove two 20' palms with stump grind
$963.92

Warranty
Contractors warranty of 1 year.
Manufactures warranty of 8 years.

Total is $11,350.84 with tax.

My setup is scheduled to be installed next month. Mine will be a little over half the size of yours and I'm paying about $0.75 more per sqft on the regular turf than you and about $0.40 less per sqft on the putting green turf. I went with Turf Rocks in DFW. I'll hopefully be able to post pictures by Thanksgiving.

Awesome! Look forward to seeing it!

Waiting to see pictures!

Construction has been delayed a few weeks. They should be starting on the 27th! Ill be sure to post progress pics

Congrats!! I've had two natural grass greens and, while I thoroughly enjoyed them, it is a lot of work and I wouldn't recommend it for most.

One thing I've always wondered about synthetic greens is can you have replacement plugs? In other words, if you have 4 cups can you have 4 turf plugs on the green that would allow for the cups to be moved around on occasion just to mix things up?

I can't imagine how that would work, the base below the turf is usually rocks/gravel/etc. Plus then you would have seams around your green

Construction started this past Wednesday afternoon! So far, they have removed roughly 4-6" of existing sod & dirt, installed new irrigation and pool valve boxes, and started bringing in sub-base and compacting it. I asked that everything be level with proper drainage, so they are using leveling string to make sure there are not any high or low spots. We should be at a point today to bring in the putting green to spot and design the shape. At this time we will choose hole locations. I will update with more of the process and pics throughout this week.

Before construction started. Used to have a 25' palm where the dark circle is in the first pic.

Removing 4-6" of sod and dirt

Bringing in sub-base and leveling. New irrigation boxes installed.

Dude you got an absolute STEAL on this project

Update time! We spotted the 15' x 24' putting mat today to try to visualize everything. I really wanted to utilize the natural curve of the pool decking and keep a 1' border of Bermuda around the green. This unfortunately creates a little more waste then I imagined, but aesthetically will be much better than re-arranging the green to maximize putting green sq footage. What are your thoughts? I will take an overhead drone picture of the orange markup today and figure out the best place to put the holes.

Nice to see the progress.

As far as thoughts/opinions, I personally leaned towards more putting surface for my green, but admittedly it isnt aesthetically appealing and yours will probably look nicer upon completion.

Its all about goals and what you want to get out of it. If you want something that is fine to just roll around a bit on and looks great next to your pool, I think you're headed in the right direction. For me it was about getting hours of practice on with a variety of putting situations, so the aesthetics took a back seat.

Either way, if its what you're shooting for you'll be happy when its complete.

I agree with you on it varies person to person. For me, at my current skill level (10 HDCP), this will work great. I didn't want impossible putts to make. I can work on my mechanics and still have the ability for 20+ footers.

Living in the West Texas desert, aesthetics were a big part of the design. I need my own personal oasis to keep sane haha. This makes my back yard dual use since people can putt on the green, and others can lounge / play yard games in the area to the right of the green.

Here are some drone shots to give everyone a better perspective.

When do we get to see final product?

Soon! Hopefully by tomorrow evening. There was a defect in the original turf, so they had to order in another roll from the manufacturer. The roll came in Monday evening. They cut and spotted the green and began installing the long turf yesterday. Here is where I decided to put the holes. I left at least 3' between the cup and fringe at any given point. They got further than the pictures show yesterday, but want to save the big reveal for the final post.

Looking good.

Ohhhhh look at me, I have an inground pool and a putting green in my backyard....

looking good! totally jealous here.

Everything was finished today! I couldn't be happier. It turned out perfect! If anyone in the West Texas area is ever considering putting in a putting green, turf, irrigation, or landscaping, I highly recommend WTX Turf & Landscaping. High quality work and stand up guys.

Thanks everyone for all the help in this project!

Flop it over the wall yet?

Congrats! Looks good!

How's it holding up? After living with it for awhile now, anything you would do differently?