The Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association held their winter meeting this weekend at Daniel Island near Charleston, SC. I had the great pleasure of playing Yeamans Hall Club with the Board of Directors. What a great course! If you have been there, you notice the square greens. I kept thinking of the challenge of maintaining square greens. In the picture, the light green turf on the corner is Diamond Zoysiagrass. The dark green is Bermudagrass. I noticed zoysia is used in areas where shade and excess wear and tear occurs. It amazes me how low these new turfgrasses are being mowed. Courses like Peachtree GC and Atlanta Athletic Club have proven the tolerance of these newer Zoysiagrass varieties.
While I never heard of square greens, I wondered why Seth Raynor designed the greens this way. As I mentioned before, on old golf courses, tee boxes are square and called boxes for a reason. In the 1800's, golf courses used 2x8 lumber, built a box and filled it with sand. A golfer teed the ball up in the elevated tee box by making a small mound of sand with their hand. Hence, the word tee box. Today, traditional courses like HCC have squared off tees for nostalgic reasons.
