It's no secret that I like talking turf and all things related to golf. A couple weeks ago, I was asked this question below. The more I thought about it, I felt like this would be an excellent blog post for others to see, since it is such a great question.
QUESTION: I overheard another golfer say the “general rule” is that every excellent golf course should be shut down for one year every 25 years and completely renovated, greens, fairways, bunkers, every part of the course. Is this true?
MY ANSWER: That’s a great question that I could speak for hours on. However, I’ll make it brief. I think the basis for what your friend is saying is that the ASGCA (American Society of Golf Course Architects) puts a life expectancy on golf course infrastructure. For example, They claim that bunkers need rebuilt every 5 years. A USGA spec sand based green lasts 25 years. Tees last around 15 years. An irrigation system’s life span is 20 years. At this point, each of these surfaces should be rebuilt according to the ASGCA. Then there is real life. Some clubs are over the top on renovating constantly, while others, wouldn’t tolerate being closed for any length of time outside of the normal off-season. It’s my opinion that a USGA spec sand based green can last much longer, provided they are maintained correctly and the proper amount of aerification is done to them to remove the organic matter that building below the surface. A USGA green fails when too much organic matter accumulates below the surface and water stops draining through the sand, which usually happens when the Club isn’t aerifying enough or topdressing with sand, consistently enough. At HCC, I always say that these greens can last forever unless of course, you want to put new grass on them.
So to go back to what your friend said: 25 years is the ASGCA recommendation on greens but it would be too long to wait on bunkers. If one was trying to generalize the golf course industry, I wouldn’t say he is wrong by any means, but it’s slightly more complicated than that. I also don’t know many golf courses that commit to re-grassing fairways and roughs that frequently (although some do). It may seem like you hear that more often now but I attribute that to how far turfgrass breeding has come over the last 25 years. There are so many better grasses out there compared to what was available back in the 80s and 90s. You hear more about clubs going to Zoysia fairways, for example. That was done because the membership wanted a better surface, not that there was anything wrong with what was there prior. Grasses on native soils like fairways and roughs, don’t really fail, there are just superior varieties of turf that have come available and offer more density and upright growth compared to what was available in years past.
