Zoysia

Korai green on the 18th at Keya GC during the 2014 KBC Augusta tournament. Why would one deliberately use manilagrass (Zoysia matrella, or korai in Japan) on golf course putting greens?

Does adding more potassium improve drought resistance? This article by Rowland et al. takes an in-depth look at that important question. They looked at bermudagrass (Tifeagle and Tifdwarf), seashore paspalum (SeaDwarf), and zoysia (PristineFlora) grown in a USGA sand rootzone.

Abiko Golf Club won GOLF Magazine’s Best International Renovation of 2013 award. In the article about the work, I read that Brian Silva, with co-designer Kye Goalby, “transitioned the old Japanese two-green system – one bentgrass, the other local korai grass – down to one.

Yoshinobu Tsukada shared this photo of the par three 8th, at Wack Wack’s East Course during the 2014 Philippine Open. This is one of the classic short holes in Asia.

The par 3 twelfth hole at Keya GC in the summer of 2013. I’ve written about perceived divot problems on manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) tees. To summarize, I’ve heard many objections (in theory) to the use of manilagrass on tees in Southeast Asia, the thought being that manilagrass grows slowly and divot recovery may be too slow for this grass to be suitable on tees.

In 2013, I volunteered at Keya Golf Club during the KBC Augusta Golf Tournament. I collected data on putting green performance, and I mowed fairways. With all the korai greens (this is Zoysia matrella, common English name is manilagrass) in Japan and in other parts of Asia, this is the only tournament on the Japanese men’s tour played on korai greens each year.

This isn’t the usual everyday maintenance, unless one is in Japan, in which case these things are routine. On an early autumn visit to Ryugasaki Country Club, I had a chance to observe some of the maintenance work, and I thought it would be interesting to share a few things I saw that are common on Japanese golf courses and less common elsewhere.

Golf course architects or developers may sometimes want to produce links-style courses with links-style playing surfaces. In East and Southeast Asia, the grass that should be used, if one wants to produce such surfaces, is manilagrass (Zoysia matrella).

I know manilagrass can provide a superb playing surface in tropical Southeast Asia, even (perhaps especially) on tees, but I have often heard objections to the use of manilagrass, especially on tees, because of its supposed slow recovery from divots.

This might be an easy one. The picture above is manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) and was taken in December 2009. If you’ve followed this blog, you will know that I am a big fan of manilagrass in East and Southeast Asia, as this native grass produces a fine turf with fewer problems than other grasses in this part of the world.