Zoysia

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.

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.

Habu CC 15th hole When the photo above was taken, I was the superintendent at Habu CC in Chiba prefecture, and the course looked superb in late November after the ryegrass we planted to the bermudagrass fairways had grown for about seven weeks.

Ok, here is a relatively easy one. What is causing the splotchy dew pattern on this warm-season fairway? Bonus question: what country is this golf course in? This is bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) holding the dew, and zoysiagrass not holding as much dew.

There are four interesting things I would like to point out in this short video from a par 5 hole on a golf course in Central Japan. 1. The cart has no driver.

This is a report of one week in Japan, during which I taught a seminar about turfgrass nutrient requirements, visited five golf clubs in four different prefectures—only one of which had less than 36 holes—and saw lots of interesting course maintenance equipment and grasses.