How they mow the fairways at Augusta National.

Rain fall...

January 2011 Rainfall 275mm - January 2010 Rainfall 90mm
February 2011 Rainfall 13mm - February 2010 Rainfall 95mm

Out with the old in with the new !

Durban Country club has replaced their 4 year old Jacobsen greens mowers. These mower have over 5000 hours on there clock and are starting to incur excessive maintenance costs and problems hydraulic leaks etc.

The new Toro 3250 mowers also have groomers fitted on that helps with the quality of cut as well as lightly verti cutting the greens. By grooming the greens as well as top dress and verti cutting greens we would have the best possible playing surface.

The Old DCC paspalum greens vs. The New DCC Mini verde greens

How quick are we to forget how the old greens use to look and roll ... The old greens use to be Paspalum and where 60+ years old, they also had a serious infestation of cynodon in them witch was clearly noticeable in winter where the paspalum went dormant and the cynodon where still growing. This cause them to be very bumpy when you putt on them and looked unpleasant to the eye.

The paspalum greens also had root problems due to layering in the soil and this led to very shallow roots witch cause them to unhealthy and also burn up very quickly in the hot Durban summer. They needed a lot of fertilizer, wetting agents and water to keep them going.

The new greens at DCC have been redone with a new variety Cynodon called Mini Verde. The greens where stripped from all the old grass.

The growing medium was fumigated and rotovated to brake all the layers and kill of everything that was growing in them to stop and foreign grass popping up all over. Then greens where shaped and leveled to the desirable contours needed.

The grass was laid in sods and needed a lot of topdressing and rolling to get to the final levels.

The new mini verde root system are 6-7 inches long after only 4 months of growth and looks very healthy and promising

The new Mini Verde greens need substantially less water and fertilizers and it can also handle the Durban climate much better seeing as it is a warm season grass. These greens are rolling much better and greens speeds of 11ft and up can be reached for tournament conditions if needed.

With these new greens maturing slowly we are looking forward to a great putting surface all year round and greens being constantly quicker then the old country club greens.

GCSAA