Columnist Peter Benton: Local golfers forced to put game on hold

Peter Benton

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 12:06 p.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Local golfers frustrated over many courses being closed because of overseeding should take heart -- it's only for a couple of weeks and then these layouts will be even better than before.

Just to enlighten those who are not sure what is happening and to explain the reasons for both aerification and overseeding, the following may be of interest.

Aerification, one of the many preventative maintenance programs that are so necessary to the health of golf courses, invariably takes place in late summer and approximately six weeks before overseeding begins.

Three very important objectives are achieved: Soil compaction is relieved, thatch is reduced and/or prevented and the soil mixture around the highest part of the roots improves. If this process is not attended to, particularly on the greens, the roots decline and the turf becomes increasingly weaker and thus is susceptible to disease.

Because Bermuda grass becomes dormant with the arrival of cooler weather, overseeding with rye (which thrives in colder conditions) must be completed by late October as that is when Las Vegas usually experiences its first frost.

Here in town, 90 percent of our layouts begin their overseeding process immediately following Labor Day because the days, and especially the evenings, generally cool down.

This process basically consists of three major steps: a) watering is cut back; b) a special machine renovates the turf to loosen the mat and thatch of the fairways to enable the seed to make good contact with the soil; and c) the fairways are then chemically treated with growth retardants. This eliminates the Bermuda grass growing, which in turn means that it does not compete with the fresh rye seed (which is sown with a pre-plant fertilizer to feed the grass once it germinates).

The seeding rate of this perennial rye grass (which is the most widely used for overseeding in the southwest section of the country) varies between 400-800 pounds per acre. Depending on the quality of seed purchased, the price of this expensive commodity varies between 75 cents and $1 per pound.

The reason so many of our courses close for this mandatory program is because after the seeding, they must be kept constantly moist as the seed takes anywhere from five to 10 days to germinate. After approximately 12 days, mowers start cutting the new fairways. Shortly after that, the course reopens for play.

In the new year, once the soil temperature reaches a consistent 55 degrees the Bermuda grass begins to grow back (this transition period happens through April, May and June) when the rye is basically choked out, as Bermuda is a far more aggressive grass.

Thus the cycle has been completed.