THE COURSE
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a tee
time
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green acres
It's an important time of the year at Indian Wells as the overseeding process results in top course conditions
rian Hampson has been
the Director of Agronomy
at Indian Wells Golf Resort for the past three years.
When it comes to the care and
maintenance of the turf and
landscaping on the Players and
Celebrity courses, he's the guy.
This is an important time of
the year for Hampson and crew.
During October and November, the courses undergo overseeding
in various stages.
The Players
Course fully reopened in mid-October; the Celebrity
Course opened for play
on Nov. 8, with cart-path only
until the end of November.
Here's how Hampson explains
the undertaking:
Brian Hampson (inset) helps keep the course healthy and green.
Why overseed with rye grass
during the winter?
The main purpose is to grow
a type of grass through the winter that is suitable for playing
golf, since bermuda will not
grow in cooler temperatures. We
are struck with two different environments between the winter
and summer, which creates the
unique prospect of two different
types of grass to be used during
those two periods. Bermuda is a
warm-season turf and rye grass
is a cool-season turf.
•••
What will conditions be like
when the process is complete?
We open the courses with
good turf coverage. Within two
weeks, the conditions are quite
good with the mowing heights
down to a standard length. The
thing to keep in mind is that the
courses continue to get better
each week until they reach peak
conditions in the early spring.
•••
What's the no. 1 benefit from
the golf course's standpoint?
Aesthetics is certainly high on
the list and something we go to
great lengths to achieve here at
Indian Wells with the wildflowers and other landscaping.
•••
What about for the golfer?
Having played on most types
of turf, I can say that bermuda
grass overseeded with perennial
rye grass is probably the best
playing surface in the world.
The rye grass is seeded over the
bermuda mat, which gives a
certain amount of cushion
under the ball and makes playing shots easier for most golfers.
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