how to make my yard like golf course grass?

• Choose the Right Grass. Bermuda or Zoysia grass make great home lawns, especially in the South. ...
• Hire a Professional. Florida grasses and climate is not for a novice to navigate. ...
• Use the Right Tool. The best type of mower to produce golf course quality turf in your home lawn is a reel mower. ...
• Mow at Perfect Height. Biggest mistake: mowing your turf too short. ...
• Aeration. Keep your lawn cultivated by aerating which creates small holes in your lawn, so water, air and nutrients can reach down to the grass roots.
• Fertilize Consistently. Golf course turf receives adequate nutrients from regular fertilizing. ...
Optimize Water Coverage. Golf course superintendents use a number of techniques to ensure good water coverage. ...
Measure and Respond. Today’s golf courses use high-tech irrigation control systems with sophisticated sensors. ...
Resistant Plants and Turf. When Florida experiences drought-like conditions, lawns and plants often suffer the consequences. That’s why many golf courses use native plants and more resistant turfs.
Use Alternative Water Sources. Some courses irrigate their lawns with water from onsite water hazards and storm water ponds, reclaimed water facilities or even desalinized brackish or ocean waters.
Grow Greens Hydroponically. Many golf greens use a hydroponic system for growing grass. ...
Maintenance Plan. When your business depends on lush green landscapes to stay in business, you don’t take any chances.

Full Answer

Can You Make Your Lawn look like a golf course?

Have you ever looked at your lawn and wished you could make it look like a golf course? It’s no secret that golf courses use special equipment, techniques, and strategies to make the grass look amazing, writes Mike Erbe of HamptonGolf.

How do I have a course-quality lawn?

The key to having a course-quality lawn is a basic understanding of the fundamentals of lawn care. Each lawn is unique, so it’s important that you understand your particular lawn. Let’s dive in... Grass doesn’t grow particularly well if it doesn’t have enough sun.

How do you fertilize your lawn for a golf course?

Golf courses utilise this technique, which is how they get the grass to look like a carpet. Once you reseed, apply a high-quality fertilizer within 48 hours. Make sure you water your lawn well at this time. The most common type of fertilizer is granulated, but water-soluble fertilizers are also available.

How do you Mow Your Lawn like a professional golfer?

Use the Right Tool The best type of mower to produce golf course quality turf in your home lawn is a reel mower. A reel mower uses a reel and a bedknife to cut the blades of grass like a pair of scissors, unlike a rotary mower which typically has a single blade with a sharpened edge spinning at high velocity that doesn’t cut as cleanly.

How do golf courses keep grass so nice?

Golf courses use aerators to create small holes in their fairways, so water, air and nutrients can reach down to the grass roots. This helps the grass grow deeper roots and it also creates an opening to help it break through to the topsoil.

What kind of grass do they use on golf courses?

Bentgrass is one of the most popular types of grass planted on golf courses. It's available in many varieties, commonly found in cool summer and coastal regions. It's short, even, and flat, making it the perfect match for putting greens and courses.

How do golf courses grow grass so fast?

Mowing Frequency A big reason why golf courses look the way they do, is mowing frequency. The shorter the grass, the more frequently it has to be mowed to maintain the desired height. In order to have a green lawn between mowing sessions, it's recommended that no more than 1/3 the length of the grass be removed.

How do I turn my yard into a golf green?

How to make your own backyard putting green in just 8 stepsSelect a Site. No surprise here. ... Start Digging. You don't need to go extremely deep. ... Add Some Contour. You're not trying to replicate the greens at Augusta. ... Install Proper Drainage. ... Cap it with Sand. ... Seed it or Sod It. ... The Final Touches. ... The Long Haul.

What grass does Augusta National use?

Bermuda grassAugusta National Golf Club Augusta is situated in what many consider to be Bermuda grass country, or couch as we know it by here in Australia. The Masters Tournament is held in early spring, which means the turf grass has to be at it's very best in both appearance and playability.

Is Kentucky bluegrass used on golf courses?

Secondly, Kentucky Blue Grass. is uses on the golf course in tee areas, rough, hazards, and fairways. Blue Grass makes up a majority of the golf course. Kentucky Blue grass establishes a thick carpet quality, with color ranging from emerald green to dark blue.

What fertilizer is used on golf greens?

High potassium fertiliser suitable for autumn/winter or early season use. Contains nitrogen from 3 sources to ensure cool temperature green-up, but with high potash to harden and protect grasses.

What kind of fertilizer do golf courses use?

Golf Course Fertilizer is thought to be special; however, it has the same NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) that most low-cost plant fertilizers contain. In reality, there is nothing special about golf course fertilizer.

How do golf courses get grass so short?

To keep the grass so short on greens, special mowers are used. Golf course mowers are reel mowers, not rotary like most lawn mowers used at home. The reel spins and cuts the grass like a tight scissor cut. The cut height is set by adjusting the difference between the front and rear rollers.

What is the best synthetic putting green?

Mirage International, which is known for the Best Artificial Putting Greens in Golf, have the most realistic roll on the market. Mirage Turf requires no sand infill and is warrantied for 10 full years against fading and degrading. Mirage TourPutt is available in numerous speeds ranging from 9 to 12 on the stimpmeter.

What is golf course sand?

1. Golf Courses & Sports Fields. Silica sand is used for bunkers and greens on golf courses, as well as for natural and synthetic sports fields. Those sand traps you find yourself stuck in way too often when you're playing eighteen are usually full of silica sand.

How do you make a golf green sand?

0:103:21Playing in the Sand - Selby, South Dakota - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAnd you set your ball on it where your ball is about and you put it there slower than any grassMoreAnd you set your ball on it where your ball is about and you put it there slower than any grass greens you've ever be like putting out of a sand bunker then you have a rake just like a garden rake.

What type of mower is best for golf course?

The best type of mower to produce golf course quality turf in your home lawn is a reel mower. A reel mower uses a reel and a bedknife to cut the blades of grass like a pair of scissors, unlike a rotary mower which typically has a single blade with a sharpened edge spinning at high velocity that doesn’t cut as cleanly.

What is the first step in a lawn makeover?

Testing your soil's pH level is an important first step in a lawn makeover. Learn why mowing a wet lawn isn't a good idea, plus get tips on what you should do if you absolutely must cut the grass. Learn how to inspect and replace damaged risers and heads in a lawn sprinkler system.

How high should I cut my lawn?

Biggest mistake: mowing your turf too short. Mowing your lawn at a height of 1 to 2 inches helps keep the turf healthy and promotes deeper rooting. The lower the height of cut, the shorter the root system and this can make the turf susceptible to disease, insect damage and other environmental stresses. You need to remove no more than 1/3 of the leaf blade each time you mow your lawn. This insures that the turf isn’t stressed from taking too much leaf tissue off. Mowing your lawn at least weekly during the growing season will insure that you don’t scalp the turf.

How long has Bob Crawford been playing golf?

Crawford has 20 years under his belt making his Georgia golf course sparkle and has been awarded the Environmental Leaders in Golf Award for Best National Private Course by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and Golf Digest. Even Crawford admits that his own home lawn is “not quite up to the same standard as the golf course.

How thick is thatch in lawn?

Thatch causes trouble for your lawn when it exceeds 1/2 in ch thick. Cutting through and removing thatch will improve your lawn's health. Keeping Grass Out. Control stray grass growth, and you'll save hours of time maintaining your planting beds.

What happens when you over water a turf plant?

When you over water the turf it doesn't have to search very hard for water and the root system tends to be shallow in the soil. By watering deeply and infrequently, you "train" the plant to search deeper for its water and a deep healthy root system is going to make for a drought-tolerant plant.

Is Bermuda grass good for a lawn?

Bermudagrass or Zoysiagrass make great home lawns, especially in the South. These grasses are well suited for hot summer temperatures, are cold tolerant during most of our winters and are drought tolerant in times of little rainfall.

What is the difference between golf course maintenance and lawn maintenance?

The third difference between golf course maintenance and lawn maintenance is watering. Most golf courses have automatic sprinkler systems, but what you may not know is that the best superintendents don’t just have their sprinkler systems on a set timer.

How tall is a golf fairway?

The average height of a fairway is .75″. The average lawn mowing height is 2.5″ to 3″ which means that they have to mow a golf course much more often. This actually helps the grass. Cutting grass more often, makes the grass grow thicker, which helps to choke out weeds, and believe it or not, grass actually likes to be cut.

Do you need to aerate a golf course?

People are constantly driving golf carts over them and they receive a lot of foot traffic too. Most lawns don’t need to be aerated monthly because they aren’t subject to a lot of traffic, but once a year is always beneficial to the grass.

Why do golf courses use native grass?

The United States Golf Association is taking these efforts a step further by supporting university grants to develop grasses that are resistant to drought, salt water and pests.

How does fertilizer help golf course turf?

Golf course turf receives adequate nutrients from regular fertilizing. Fertilizers typically contain a balance of potassium and nitrogen, which helps the grass stay strong, even when it’s subjected to extreme temperature and heavy traffic. Weeds are kept at bay almost automatically, because no sunlight or moisture can get to them — the turf is too dense.

Why does grass turn brown?

This helps the grass grow deeper roots and it also creates an opening to help it break through to the topsoil. Shallow roots are more likely to go dormant when warmer weather arrives, causing grass to turn brown. Deep roots help the grass stay strong, lush and green.

How deep is a hole in a golf green?

This system is installed during construction — a bulldozer makes a hole for the green that is between 12 and 16 inches deep. In more advanced systems, the hole is lined with plastic, before gravel, drainage pipes and sand are added.

What is the use of irrigation systems in golf?

Today’s golf courses use high-tech irrigation control systems with sophisticated sensors. These sensors record data on wind conditions, rainfall, evapotranspiration (ET), and outside temperatures, and automatically adjust watering cycles to optimize water levels on playable areas of the course.

What type of mower is best for golf course?

The best type of mower to produce golf course quality turf in your home lawn is a reel mower. A reel mower uses a reel and a bed knife to cut the blades of grass like a pair of scissors, unlike a rotary mower which typically has a single blade with a sharpened edge spinning at high velocity that doesn’t cut as cleanly.

Is Zoysia grass good for a lawn?

Bermuda or Zoysia grass make great home lawns, especially in the South. These grasses are well suited for hot summer temperatures, are cold tolerant during most of our winters and are drought tolerant in times of little rainfall. If you already have a different type of grass, you can still get your lawn looking amazing by the tips below.

Why do you punch your lawn?

That’s because punching — a.k.a. aeration — promotes healthy turf by helping water and nutrients move through the soil so the roots can more readily absorb them. As with so much yard care, choosing to punch — or not — depends on what you’re after.

Why don't golf courses clear the fairways?

What most golf courses don’t do is clear trimmings from the fairways because, well, that involves a ton of labor. What’s more, there’s a benefit to leaving trimmings, which decompose and provide nutrients for the turf. In your own yard, to clear or not to clear is largely a matter of aesthetics.

Do you have to use weed killers in golf?

Weed killers do exactly what their name suggests. But that doesn’t mean you have to use them. As part of golf’s ever-growing eco-friendly focus, superintendents rarely turn straight to herbicides “Before that, you’re running through a list of variables that you’re trying to do right by,” Smith says.

Can grass be cut off?

Grass is not like hair. You can’t cut it all off and expect it to grow back just as it was. When it comes to mowing, superintendents abide by the “one-third rule,” the gist of which is this: Never chop off more than one-third of the leaf blade with a single mow.

Is it bad to leave grass trimmings behind?

If you’re keen on making your lawn look like Augusta National, by all means, clear away. But leaving trimmings behind isn’t bad for the grass, Smith says, unless those trimmings become moist and matted clumps, like the kind that often form in damp conditions.