Most that are not from Arizona are unaware that we plant a completely different grass on top of our Bermudagrass in October so that our courses stay green throughout the Winter. There is far much more than spreading seed and sitting back to watch the grass grow.

Bermudagrass Colors
Bermudagrass is what covers our entire golf courses. There are different varieties on the greens than elsewhere, but it is all bermudagrass. However, when the ground temperature starts to go below 55 degrees, the Bermudagrass begins to lose the ability to produce chlorophyll (the stuff that makes plants green). This will make the grass turn brown and it will stop growing. It is NOT dead, it is for lack of a better comparison, hibernating or sleeping during this time. If we were to not overseed, this is how the entire courses would look from mid December through mid March. This is how our roughs and non-integral parts of the course look even when we overseed, because we do not overseed these areas.

Those of you that are here in September and October know that this time of year is when the courses look absolutely amazing. This is for a couple reasons that happen at the same time and are related. Reason #1 is Bermudagrass is not native to Arizona, it is a tropical grass "Bermuda" that needs tropical weather "humidity" to flourish. Most of you moved to Arizona because it is dry and not humid. However, "most years", July-September we get our Monsoons and the humidity rises. Monsoon moisture in Arizona will vary from year to year, some years not as prevalent as others. This year was an outstanding year with humidity, much better than most other years. With moisture in the air (humidity), we get reason #2, the temperatures begin to drop from the scorching AZ summer highs. August through September is the closest Arizona is going to get to a "Tropical" climate and this is when the Bermuda grass thrives and really starts to take off.

Winter Variety of Grasses
The grasses we use to overseed with are perennial ryegrass on the general area and a combination of poatriv and bentgrass on the greens. These three types of grass are also not native to Arizona. These winter grasses require temperatures between 65-75F to germinate and grow optimally. Any temperatures above 85F and below 40F will cause the winter grasses to stop growing. Temperatures above 100F will kill these winter grasses. Once these winter grasses are established they will survive Arizona frosts and still continue to grow and produce chlorophyll (green color) throughout the winter months. These temperature constraints require Arizona golf courses to be overseeded during October, when the temperatures are conducive to grow these varieties in the quickest time frame (about 3 weeks).

Overseeding
Overseeding is the planting of grass seed directly into existing turf, without tearing up the existing turf or soil. If we just simply overseeded the winter grasses into our Bermudagrass, the process would not go well. It would be like putting Tiger Woods in his prime "Bermudagrass in October", straight up against a brand new golfer "Winter grass seed". Tiger is obviously going to win the battle. The two grasses would compete for the moisture and nutrients in the soil. The more established Bermudagrass would take the majority and the Winter grasses would not survive. This would be a very costly waste because the courses would be brown in the winter due to the bermudagrass going dormant when the temperatures drop.

To limit this battle from occurring, we force the bermudagrass into dormancy through the process of applying a growth regulator, scalping (cutting low), and reducing water. This is a two week process that we complete before closing each course and dropping seed. This process turns the grass brown and makes the Bermudagrass go to sleep, not die. Now that the Bermudagrass is asleep and the temperatures have hopefully lowered, we drop the winter seed and start a heavy regiment of water to get it to germinate before the Bermuda wakes up. Once the winter seed germinates, we start targeting it with the nutrients it likes. If all goes well, we get a nice patch of about 40-50 acres of green winter grass on the tees, fairways and greens. There will still be bermudagrass mixed in that woke up and stole nutrients from winter grass. The goal is to get enough winter grass to germinate so that it can successfully compete with the Bermudagrass but still keep the Bermudagrass alive, but dormant underneath. When we get into the Spring, we have to start to limit the winter grass growth so that it does not fully overtake the bermudagrasses. If the we do not limit its growth in the Spring, there will be no bermudagrass left when the winter grasses die in the 100F+ temperatures.

As you can see it, there is a lot more to the process that initially meets the eye. Below is the most recent flyover video from the Vistas. We are all ready to open for play (Cart Path Only), tomorrow, Saturday, October 22nd.