New Greens Grassed with Salt-Tolerant SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum
Key West, Florida (Friday, September 15, 2006): Key West Golf Club is set to re-open on October 1st after damage and salt water intrusion from Hurricane Wilma last year forced a redesign of the course using salt tolerant Seadwarf Seashore Paspalum turfgrass from Environmental Turf, Inc.
On October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused an 8-foot storm surge that flooded the Key West Golf Club golf course with 4 feet of salt water and inundated the irrigation ponds with ocean water leaving no source for fresh water.
The course’s Tifdwarf bermudagrass greens were severely damaged. The irrigation water, which is drawn from lakes on the 100-acre property, was infiltrated with at least 1,500 ppm (parts per million) of salt.
Key West Golf Club’s General Manager Doug Carter, Head Golf Professional Eric Favier, and Head Superintendent Koby Minshall called in a professional, Dr. Lee Berndt, of William Berndt Associates, International Management Consulting, to help them in their recovery. Berndt recommended they re-grass their greens with a salt-tolerant, dwarf variety of seashore paspalum turfgrass called SeaDwarf.
"Due to the location of Key West along with its harsh environment, Seadwarf seashore paspalum is the best grass for Key West Golf Club," Berndt said.
Added Koby Minshall, "Paspalum will tolerate the salty environment in Key West. In the event of a future storm surge or heavy salts in tropical rain storms, the Paspalum will have a good chance of survival."
Renovation of the front nine holes on the course began in June 2006.
Carter said playability of the grass also figured into the decision to re-grass with SeaDwarf.
"The grass is very dense and grows very quickly. It seems to have a more vibrant color than the Bermuda grasses and with the proper maintenance practices it may also have less grain," said Doug Carter.
SeaDwarf seashore paspalum turfgrass is very environmentally friendly, in that it requires up to 50% less water and up to 75% less fertilizer than bermudagrass.
"The biggest environmental benefit is that it will handle (tolerate) effluent water for irrigation much better than other turf grasses. This will help conserve the fresh water supplies," said Eric Favier. "In the future, especially in South Florida, water conservation is very important and irrigating with reused water will be very important."
Minshall said the new SeaDwarf grass, which can tolerate seawater salt levels, will act almost like an insurance policy against future tropical storms and hurricanes.
"Seadwarf will help us survive future hurricanes because it is more salt tolerant than Bermuda grass," Minshall said. "Even if there is no storm surge associated with a hurricane the rain water in tropical systems is high in salt content."
The course will re-open to play October 1st.
"Our grow in time was expected to take 90 days," said Minshall, "and were are excited that the greens are ahead of schedule."
The back nine greens are in excellent shape for play this season but will be re-grassed with SeaDwarf in June of 2007.
Along with re-grassing the greens with SeaDwarf, the management of Key West Golf Club did fairly extensive work to a number of fairways. They put in new drainage on holes 1, 2, 5 and 9. On hole # 6, they raised the landing area up with roughly 6-inches of fill and sprigged it with new 419 Bermuda. They also sprigged some low-lying rough areas of the #6 hole with Aloha seashore paspalum, also from Environmental Turf.
The 18-hole Key West Golf Club originally opened in the early 1920’s as a nine-hole facility. In the 1950’s another 9 holes were added to make 18 holes. In 1983, Rees Jones was hired to design the current 18. Key West Golf Club was Rees Jones’ first design with his own company.
Key West Golf Club is the southernmost golf course in the continental United States. It has been listed as a four star "Places to Play" in Golf Digest Magazine.
Key West Golf Club is an 18-hole public golf course facility located just minutes from downtown Key West at 6450 E. Jr. College Rd., Key West, Florida 33040. The annual membership at Key West Golf Club is $1800 for a single and $2800 for a couple. There is also a $19 per person cart fee each time a member plays. The daily green fee at Key West Golf Club ranges from $90 – $160 in season and $65 – $90 in the off season. The management company that operates Key West Golf Club is Green Fairway’s Inc. The golf course is owned by Gwenn H. Smith. For more information on Key West Golf Club call: 305-294-5232, email: info@keywestgolf.com or visit:www.keywestgolf.com .
For more information on SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum or to find a licensed sod producer near you, call 772-460-5575 or visit: www.environmentalturf.com .
Contact:
Stacie Zinn
Cell: 239-398-4224
stacie@environmentalturf.com
