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Golf courses

Native Grasses for Golf Courses

Native grasses can be used in a variety of different circumstances on a golf course. They can be used in the long rough, in the carry zone, for fairway delineation and as features in landscaping around bunkers. There are some suggestions that they can occur naturally on fairways as well, although we would not be recommending them for high traffic areas

The low maintenance features of many of our native grasses suit very well for this application where shading can often be significant, where maintenance is minimal and where play should be difficult, but not impossible.

Often the native grasses occur naturally in these areas on older golf courses, but some suggested types would be Kangaroo grass, Barbed wire grass (bad name but a great grass), Black Spear grass and Common tussock grass. These are all upright growing grasses that would still allow for errant balls to be located.

If shading is likely to be very heavy, then grasses such as redgrass and weeping grass are definitely worth including.

While a change of mowing height is likely to be the most common and simple method of transition from the fairway to the fairway edge, the transition into the light rough is often best with a change of grass type to provide a greater contrast and clear delineation. The grass chosen for this should not be tall and clumping, rather it should be of low height, dense and reclining. These grasses are regularly in play and should not be too severe on golfers. At the same time they will sometimes receive irrigation from overspray and fertilizer from a wide application, and so they should be grasses that are capable of growing well under both no-input and occasional-input systems.

The best grasses for this condition are weeping grass, wallaby grass (especially a short variety such as Oxley), Queensland bluegrass and redgrass. They should be sown at normal lawn rates to provide the density of grass cover that will be needed for the light rough. All of these grasses can be graduated in mowing height as the distance to the fairway increases to accentuate the colour differences from the fairway.

Upright tall growing and colourful grasses can be used to provide a visual contrast to the close-mowed conditions of the fairway or green. They can add texture to the playing condition if used as spaced plants in amongst a low-growing sward of grass for places such as bunker islands or as occasional plants in the light rough.

Grasses ideal for this application are the taller upright plants such as Kangaroo grass, Tall oat grass, Lemon scented grass and Large tussock grass. Some of these might not be familiar to many readers but they will feature more and more in landscapers and golf course architects considerations for feature plants.