Marc Worner suggests tapping into a recreational favourite – putting greens – as an additional service and income stream.
Competition in the landscape industry has never been more intense. Many clients only look at the cost of the job and not the type of materials used and the quality of the work. A successful business finds its point of difference with the competition and pushes that angle at every opportunity.
Australians love spacious lawn areas. Some grow food. Many have playgrounds, designer gardens, swimming pools, or cabanas to enrich their relaxation time.
Our backyards can easily incorporate a professional-standard putting green because some synthetic grasses mimic real grass. Did you know some synthetic grass is designed especially for golf greens and gives the same ball movement across its surface as the real thing?
If your clients want to improve their short game or just have heaps of family fun, a synthetic grass putting green is the answer. In fact, it’s ideal for any situation requiring an all-weather surface which looks, feels and plays like natural turf, but without the associated levels of wear, maintenance and need for water.
Multiple benefits
A facility of this type could incorporate and complement current or planned swimming pools, spas, tennis courts, or landscaping features in multi-dwelling sites such as apartment complexes, retirement villages, resorts, and caravan parks.
Many businesses could also benefit. At corporate headquarters, a putting green or mini golf course is the ideal way to mix business with pleasure when meeting with clients, provide social activity for staff, and act as an interesting focal point for the premises, which is sure to impress visitors. Hopefully they ask who designed and built it.
Parameters
Synthetic golf grass is specifically manufactured for putting greens, driving ranges, tees, fairways, and mini golf. So, when designing this type of landscape project, consider the size and shape of the putting surface, the slope of the land and how it might affect the layout of the green, specific undulations and tiers that will need to be built into the putting surface, how large the fringe area should be, whether there’s room for chipping areas, and sand bunker viability.
Finally, there’s scope for add-on value in suggesting landscaping ideas that could help finish off the area.
Factors to consider are what the green is to be used for (just putting and/or chipping), size of the area available, access, budget, how many people will be using it at one time, how many holes are wanted, and so on.
In other words, ‘How long is a piece of string?’ Every client’s needs will be different.
Layout plays a part in the cost and enjoyment factor. Costs will differ depending on whether it’s an oddly shaped area or has round or curved borders. The larger or more intricate the area, the more material you will need.
As with any product, as the price increases, so does the quality and durability of synthetic grass. Having said that, there are some projects where these factors are less important.
TIP: Adding some fringe to the putting green is a great way to increase the size. For the standard green, a high-quality, 20mm-pile synthetic grass with double backing for extra strength, and with non-directional construction (like real grass), will allow the ball to run smoothly. Some people choose a dense nylon grass instead of polypropylene grass because it needs less infill. For details, talk to a manufacturer like EnduroTurf. Pile depth depends on the use. For instance, if you wanted a verge or fringe for the green you would use a 30-40mm pile. A verge gives an excellent area to practice chip shots.
If you’re given the budget to build a green that’s over 300 square metres, you can add more slope and contour. The larger the golf green, the more room you have to play with. Don’t overdo it. If you’re going to err, do so by making the green less severe.
TIP: If you construct a chipping green, use synthetic grasses with a base formula that absorbs the impact of golf shots and allows the ball to check up and roll naturally. Most importantly, putting greens should have no more than a two-degree slope. It will look almost dead flat, at least from the edge, but there’ll be plenty of variation and enough interest to make putting fun and realistic. This is the point – the putting green design must be realistic.
TIP: If it’s too fast or has too much break, people won’t use it.
The build
Now to the construction of a synthetic grass putting green:
• Start by preparing the area as you would for laying pavers. You need to get the levels right from the outset, so base preparation is important. If installing a green on a natural slope, level two sections (at each end) and then step down the slope with a small tier in the middle. The tier should be subtle, only dropping approximately 100mm. You may need to remove a fair bit of earth to make this happen, so first make sure your levels are going to work. TIP: Try to choose a green width that matches the supplier’s grass roll width. You want to limit the amount of cutting. Also, tell your client it will be a less-expensive project.
• Next, install and compact porous road base to a thickness of approximately 150mm.
• Then lay around 50 mm of crusher dust, contour it into the required shape of the finished green, and compact. Remember, no more than two degrees of slope.
• A rubber layer (like in playgrounds) of approximately 10mm is then spread over the road base to give it a softer feel underfoot.
Your chosen synthetic grass is then laid. At that time, you may choose to use joining tape to hold the green parts together – like fringe grass to the green. Otherwise you’ll have a join in your design. This tape is expensive, but it reduces the stress and hassle of creating joins.
Last, the final surface of the putting green is built up by meticulously brushing in whitewashed, kiln-dried sand to within approximately 5mm of the top of the grass strands. An infill is required to weigh the green down and give it its ball speed. Interestingly, one retailer suggests whitewashed sand is inferior; however its secret infill doesn’t become compacted and is water resistant.
TIP: The higher the infill, the faster the green speed. The green’s speed – or ‘stimp rating’ – is important to know beforehand so players know how hard to hit the ball over different distances. Stimp is the measure of how far a ball will roll when gravity pulls it down a ramp angled at about 20 degrees. A stimpmeter measures each green’s speed (slow, average, or fast) and the results are published at the better golf clubs for the benefit of their members.
Did you know the famous Augusta National Golf Club in the USA refuses to allow its greens to be rated, even by its own staff.
Variations
Cheaper constructions are possible using different construction methods and materials.
For the base, you can use just crusher dust or river sand. Likewise, if you use less infill the green will not last as long, which is not necessarily a negative, and it will feel harder underfoot, which may or may not matter, depending on the users. However, a softer putting surface eliminates ball skip when putting.
Using cheaper synthetic grasses helps reduce the cost and they’re easier to cut and make joins. You can use any kiln-dried sand – a fine, natural, washed and dried sand designed to be used for jointing block paving and narrow paving slab joints. Builders bagged dried sand will also work.
Costs
Routine maintenance is normally confined to occasional brushing and rolling, depending on use.
Synthetic golf grasses with a pile of between 40-50mm cost around $40 per square metre retail. Synthetic golf grasses with a pile of around 20mm retail for around $50 per square metre. Be aware prices vary widely depending on type, roll width, country of manufacture and delivery costs.
Typically, landscapers quote from around $25,000 including accessories for about a 25 square metre synthetic grass putting green, and this largely depends on site conditions and client demands. Large greens, which mimic famous golf course holes with bunkers, dry creeks, and water hazards can easily exceed $80,000.
Flagging a point of difference
What are putting greens without holes and flags, I hear you ask ?
Golf cups can be purchased in plastic, stainless steel or aluminium. Golf flags range from one metre to two metres in height. Flag sticks and flags come in different colours, checked or plain. For less able people, there is a flag picker, which saves one bending down to retrieve the ball.
So, because putting greens are becoming increasingly popular, stay ahead of your competition, work out your business point of difference, and start promoting this landscape project.