| Gee, $30K sounds like a lot of money for dirt and grass. (I've
bought ALOT of dirt recently). Even at $30 per cubic yard (way high,
fill is $7, crushed stone $12 to $15, loam about the same) you could
buy 1000 cubic yards of material (stone, gravel, dirt, etc) resulting
in a green 30' wide by 30' long, with 30' deep soil? I own a
backhoe, so the digging/spreading is free, and how much could the
seed cost? I'd think that the most expensive part would be the
mower.
I'll look through the notesfile and see if I find any references.
Andy Ostrom
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| Don't forget some other things that come into the money category:
- Irrigation. Sometimes a lawn sprinkler with a hose might be good enough.
Sometimes it isn't.
- Water - do you have a well? If so, how about the electricity to move that
water onto your putting green every night when mother nature fails to supply
it? If you get town water, how much does that cost you? When I worked at
a course, we watered all 19 greens every night in the summer when it did
not rain. We ran about 4 in-ground sprinklers for approximately 15 minutes
per green (at about 2-5am - that's the best watering time).
- Fertilizer and other chemicals (like pest control, weed control, iron to
keep the grass green, fungicides, etc). Without chemicals, in the summer
time around New England, you could loose a whole green in one night to
pythium. Ask Pleasant Valley - a few years ago, they lost several over
night. Chemically treating the green is a constant thing as well.
The saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" really
applies here. Right now it costs me about $150 per year for lawn
fertilizer that I put down 4 times a year on 10,000 sq feet. But will
you find chemicals needed for a golf green that cheap? Probably not.
Also, I don't put down iron or magnesium or lime on my lawn whereas
you may want to do that on a green.
- Labor. How much do you consider your time and effort worth? You have to
change the holes from time to time too - that takes time. If you don't
the lips of the holes start to sag a lot. Don't forget you will want to
mow the green every day. You'll also want to de-thatch it maybe 2 times
a year (we did it 6 to 10 times a year at the country club - more on that
in a second). In the spring, frost heaves will probably wreak havoc on
your green too. You will have to roll it which takes time and you will
need a roller (but you could probably rent one from a local rental place).
- Since you will probably want to mow at least 4 or 5 times a week, be prepared
for blade sharpening and replacement for your mower. Not to mention
preventative maintenance you must do on the mower. After all, it is
mechanical... At the course I worked at, the mowers were all overhauled
maybe twice a year but the blades (especially for greens and tees) needed
constant sharpening and height calibration.
By the way, if you decide not to mow as frequently, keep in mind that you
will damage the grass each time you mow it if you slice off more then
1/3 of its length. You can usually get away with that for your lawn but
when you are talking about grass that is about 3/16 of an inch, you will
for sure see the grass brown in a very short time. Just getting the bent
grass low enough for putting is a pain.
- Frequent mowing also contributes to thatch build up. Boy, does thatch
love to slow down greens. And you need special kind of thatching reels
for your mower for a golf green. The kind you would use on your lawn
would practically destroy a golf green. We used to "verticut" the greens
6 to 10 times per year depending on how fast they were. Our triplex mower
came with detachable reels that could be swapped for "veticut" reels. With
a walk behind greens mower, you may not get so lucky...
Not only does thatch slow down a green but build up can speed up disease
and "choke" the grass (lack of nitrogen towards the roots).
- What about heavy rains? You might have to use a squeegy to remove
access water from the green. Too much water is just as damaging as
not enough and can contribute to an attack of pythium.
- Do you plan on having an bunkers around the green? That could set you
back a few bills.
- Speaking of sand, don't forget you will want to top dress the green from
time to time. We used to do it 3 times a year to speed them up. And by the
way, the sand used in top dressing dulls the mower blades in no time at
all.
- Then there's aerification. Don't you hate it when golf courses cut those
small plugs out their greens? Well, it is routine maintenance that is
typically down 2 or 3 times a year (spring, maybe once in the summer, and
most definitely in the fall). Aerifiers aren't cheap either (whether you
rent it or not).
- Most courses also overseed their greens in the full to keep it thick. Since
you may not see as much traffic as they do, you may not need to do this.
However, I would for the first 2 or 3 years until the root system is well
established. So, don't think that seed is a 1 time purchase. You may find
yourself buying 1 or 2 more bags then you planned if you overseed.
- If your green is not level to the rest of the ground, how do you plan to mow
the banks? We used fly mows for banks and each fly mow was about $500 to
$1000 each.
- How about time estimates? Sure, here's some of the things I remember:
o It takes about 7 to 10 minutes to mow a 2000 sq foot green with
a hydraulic triplex mower. Of course, those go for about $20,000
so you would want a hand mower. Figure at least 3 times longer
(because you will have 1/3 the cutting width) and maybe slightly
more because you won't walk as fast as a riding mower. Remember
to wash your mower afterwards - grass as it decays forms an acid
that will most certainly shorten the life of your mower's metal
parts.
o Top dressing requires you to spread out the sand before working it
in. With a machine, it takes about 3 to 5 minutes to evenly spread
a think layer of sand. If you use a shovel, expect a lot longer then
that. Then you need a steel mat to drag along and work in the sand.
o Figure about an hour or more for 1 sprinkler, maybe 30 minutes for
2 sprinklers each time you water the green.
o It takes about 2 minutes to change each hole.
o Aerification will take you about as long as mowing (maybe a little
longer). Then you will have to rake up the plugs that were removed.
o Fly mowing a bank takes about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size
of the area).
o Spreading chemicals will take time. If you have liquid chemicals, it
will probably take a little longer by hose (maybe 10 to 20 minutes).
o Blade removal, sharpening, and replacement will run you an hour.
o Mower engine work could take you all day.
o Rolling a green will take maybe a half hour.
o Overseeding will take some time (if you don't have a slicer to do the
seeding, you should do it after you aerify in the fall). Seeds won't
germinate very well if they don't come in contact with soil. This
activity could range from 10 minutes to an hour depending on how you
do it.
While it is true that you may never shell out $30k of your hard earned
cash, you have to consider that it is going to cost you some $$$s for
certain items while others (your time and patience) cannot really be
measured.
When I worked at a golf course, it was easy to determine the cost of
a putting green. All the head greenskeeper had to do was figure out
the cubic yards of material needed to build all 19 greens, the amount
it costs for the chemicals, seed, water, irrigation equipment, electricity
to run the water pump and how much time to build each green (and you
can figure out the labor costs based on time).
You certainly won't be taking on the building of 19 putting greens of
varying sizes so I would expect that your costs might be somewhat
lower. Anyone out there have a putting green in their backyard that
can supply us with ballpark figures?
The amount of time you want to spend on this green depends. You could
spend probably next to nothing but chances are, your green will reflect
that. The more money you put in, the nicer it will probably look.
Mike
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| About 15 years ago I began working at the Wollaston Golf Club when they
were building the course. It was fascinating watching the amount of
labor, time and care it took to build each green. The course
superintendent told me two of the most important aspects were drainage
and disease control. On these greens, they had a 2 foot sand base for
drainage (whereas the tee boxes had a 1 foot sand base)!
After getting the contours exactly right and putting down the topsoil,
the builders proceeded to place a layer of heavy plastic over the
entire green surface, taping all seams and making the perimeter of the
plastic airtight. Then they had some kind of machine that blew
in a chemical vapor that was supposed to kill off ALL bacteria,
disease, etc. in the soil. The last step was seeding, and seeding,
and seeding the green.
Good luck to whomever takes on this project.
Gary
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