Replacing Backyard Putting Greens

Mike Gross is a contributing writer to Residential Putting Green Magazine and is CEO of TourGreens, LLC, a putting green installation company.

One of the things we see in our business is people wanting us to repair or replace their backyard putting green previously installed by someone else.

Often, the original installer is nowhere to be found, or the homeowners were unhappy with their workmanship or service and thus do not want them back. Or, they did it themselves and come to realize it is time to call in the professionals.

The reasons for their displeasure are varied. Poor workmanship, installation methods, and/or materials are often at the heart of the problem. Sometimes it is a result of inadequate maintenance procedures. Other times, it is a matter of poorly thought out design elements like type of turf to be used or whether to incorporate fringe turf, chipping areas, or bunkers in the project.

Also, maturation of the surrounding landscaping can change the aesthetics of the putting green over time. More often than not, it is a combination of several of these factors that give rise to us getting the call.

It is possible for putting greens that were installed properly to be repaired and restored to like new conditions. Last summer we restored a couple putting greens we originally installed in 1996 with excellent results.

I can’t say I have had as good a result restoring greens installed by others. Many times there are just too many of the factors listed above at play to go the repair route and it makes more sense to replace the putting green.

The decision to replace rather than repair is always a hard one to make for most homeowners because they think about their investment in the original project and don’t want to see it as wasted. However, if they cannot, or will not, use or generate aesthetic value out of their current putting green, then having it there in its current condition is a constant reminder and source of unhappiness for them.

Once the decision is made to replace, we then go about looking at the project almost as if the current putting green wasn’t there. We do not want to repeat past mistakes however so we ask many questions about what they like and dislike about the current green and surrounding areas then help them to see what could be, instead of what is. Our goal is to create a beautiful “golfscape” that will generate many years of pleasure. Below are some pictures of a recently completed project. The existing green did not putt well. The base construction was sub-par, the undulations un-realistic, and the seams had come apart. The bunker did not drain, was angled towards the house, was a maintenance nightmare, and not being used. There was no place to hit chip shots incorporated into the green so the owner had placed a mat on his patio that he tripped over often. The landscaping around the green was bare in some areas yet had gotten out of control and overgrown in other areas thereby eliminating some of the putting surface and causing staining from the foliage.

According to the homeowner, he called us hoping to be able to restore his unused putting green to like-new condition and ended up happy to have a better than new “golfscape” in his backyard that he has spent more time on in the last month than he had on his old one in the previous two years.