TWO thousand nineteen was a year of awakening and realization for the Philippine Golf Industry. After decades of building golf courses that followed the American model with hybridized turf grasses to give the golfer the ultimate playing experience, reality bit hard.
The reality of the struggle to keep the imported turf grasses alive and healthy in the face of extremely hardy and aggressive endemic grasses wore heavily not just on the golf courses that were in marginal fiscal shape, but even with some golf courses for which money was less of an issue.
Valley Golf Club was just such a golf club. The club struggled to keep their famed South Course in playable condition. Several golf course maintenance contractors had come and gone and still the South Course was no better for it.
Valley’s tree-lined fairways, which is what attract most golfers in the first place, was its own worst enemy. The extensive amounts of shade provided by the trees prevented the Tifton fairways from achieving optimal health. Most turfgrasses have an insatiable need for sunlight, requiring nearly eight solid hours of the sun’s rays to just grow normally. This was just not possible at Valley without cutting down most of the trees, something the club was just not prepared to do.
Early in 2019, under the watch of Dan Salvador, the club started down the road to address this problem once and for all. The plan was to allow zoysia, the most shade tolerant of turfgrasses and a hardy endemic that was the source of much of the infestation of the club’s fairways, to take over the South Course’s fairways and greens. The plan was sound but due to the slow growing nature of zoysia, time was the enemy.
Cliff Friedman took over management duties at Valley late last year and embraced the project. Friedman is a long-time golf management professional with experience in golf courses all over Asia. He’s had a front row seat in this battle with the environment to provide a better golf course for the likes of you and me and agreed wholeheartedly with the move toward endemic turfgrasses for Valley Golf.
Working with VMJ, the club’s maintenance contractor, Friedman came up with innovative methods to help speed up the process. The polka dotted greens became a source of amusement for the members initially, but as zoysia took hold and the general health of the greens improved, their playability improved immensely. This stuck a chord with the members who developed a real appreciation for what the club was doing with their beloved South Course.
Beyond the greens, the club had significant issues with the conditions of the course’s fairways. Again, shade was the issue. Many of the fairways, such as that of the 11th hole, were receiving much less sun that was ideal for the turf. Zoysia had the answer but the problem was the amount of time that it would need to effectively take over the fairways.
Friedman and VMJ came up with a solution. After aerating the North Course’s zoysia greens, they spread the plugs on the affected fairways. It took time, but their work and innovation proved effective. The 11th fairway is in the best condition that we’ve ever seen. Most of the bare spots are gone and the hole is more playable that it’s been in the last decade. No more muddy fairways during wet season. This scenario extends to almost every fairway on the golf course.
The different turfgrass is going to change the playing characteristics of the golf course. Zoysia is a thick, sinuous grass which provides a great ground cover and is extremely hardy. It grows slowly but once allowed to grow in, it’s extremely resistant to weeds and the invasion of other species.
The golf ball sits up on zoysia which will facilitate getting your longer clubs, i.e. your fairway woods and hybrids on the ball in a sweeping swing. With the shorter clubs, especially your wedges, where a steeper angle of attack is required, you need to know that zoysia is tough. It’s difficult to drive the clubhead through at impact as zoysia will grab and stop the clubhead in certain situations.
It putts well but is extremely grainy. You will be surprised how quick you can make a zoysia green. Speeds of 10 or greater aren’t a problem. With the right care and preparation, the greens will receive an approach shot with a less lofted club readily. But getting to grips with the grain and its effect on your putts will be the key to a good performance on the greens.
The only real downside of zoysia is how slowly it grows. We last visited in November after the club had completed the plugging work on the greens. Five months later, the plugs are still visible, if a little less so. Realistically, the greens on the South Course are probably another four to six months away from being completely converted over to zoysia.
In the midst of their metamorphosis, the greens on the South Course are very quick. Speeds got up to 12 on the stimpmeter during the Don Celso Tuason Memorial Golf Cup, the club’s big member-guest, giving a taste of what they’ll be like once the new grass fully grows in. The increase in the effect of the grain is also readily apparent. I found that I had to almost double the amount of borrow on some putts that ran across the grain.
As good as the South Course is now, the club still has work to do. The current focus is to aggressively attack the patches of carabao grass that dot the fairways. They need to weaken it sufficiently to allow zoysia to take over. Equally, there is work to do on several of the fairways that stiff feature the club’s former ground cover.
But the most difficult part is behind them and things are looking up for Valley Golf. I mean that in the most literal sense. The club’s share price is up at around P1.5 million now which has to be the highest it’s been is nigh on two decades. So is the morale of the members and that’s what counts the most.