| Installing an At-Home Putting Green |
From "Family Sports"
episode SPT-101 |
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If practice makes perfect, then ideally perfection would begin in your own backyard. While that may not be feasible for race-car drivers or scuba divers, it can be for golfers -- particularly since it's now both possible and affordable to install a personal putting green at your home. Chris Joyce is owner of Tourgreen -- a company whose motto is "the golf experience at home." Chris discusses with DIY Family Sports host Belma Johnson how to have "the golf course come to you." A discernible advantage to having a practice area at home is that you can hone your golf skills without any of the distractions you might have at a golf course, park, etc. Repetition in a relaxed setting -- without interruptions -- may well be the key in helping you perfect your golf technique. Before beginning this project, consider carefully where you want to locate the green. If you're interested only in practicing your putting, you may want to install a green adjacent to your house. In that case, you may want to elevate the surface of the green slightly and border it with a landscaping border such as Windsor blocks (figure A). If you also want to practice chipping and pitching, you may want to locate it in an area away from the house, and you might consider putting in a small bunker as well (figure B). In that case you might construct the green so that the surface is at a natural ground level and surround it with a simple berm. Consider the topography of your property and select an area that will require the least amount of grading. At least for the sizable preparatory steps in the job -- grading and bringing in the rock substrate -- you may want to hire a landscaper who has the proper equipment to take care of these steps very quickly.
- The first step is grading the site (figure C), smoothing and sculpting the terrain as closely as possible to the final contour of the green.
- Next, the rock sub-base is brought in (figure D). Two grades of limestone are used: a dense grade for the first layer, and a finer grade (also called stone dust) for the second. The stone is raked and evened out -- again to mirror the final contour of the green as closely as possible.
- The surface may then be flattened out further with a small steamroller (figure E).
- At this point, the location of any desired breaks is determined and the gravel surface is fine-sculpted before the turf is laid down.
- The location of the cups is determined and those are installed (figure F).
- The artificial turf is laid down and cut to fit the exact surface dimensions of the green.
- Depending on the dimensions of the green, there may need to be some seaming of the turf -- i.e., butting two pieces up against each other. If this is the case, mylar tape and polyurethane glue are used to permanently join the two pieces so that they won't ever separate (figure G).
- In-filling with a mixture of sand and flex material followed by a top-dressing (figure H) are the final steps for preparing the surface so that it closely approximates a real green. The fill materials help the turf fibers stay upright and maintain a good putting surface. These are worked into the surface as you brush and groom the turf itself. The brushing process also smooths out any seams so that they won't show or interfere with the roll of the ball. The fibers along the edges will actually blend together to hide the seams, mimicking the way real blades of grass overlap one another.
For practice purposes, the finished product closely approximates real bent grass such as that used on golf-course greens. Because of the way the turf fibers are prepared so that they stand upright, the surface behaves much as the grass does in terms of the way the ball rolls, checks, slows down and breaks. The price tag for installing a green such as this is a small fraction of what real greens cost. The cost for the one shown in this demonstration (figure I) was about $3,000 -- including paying the landscaper. If you do the landscaping work yourself, you could cut that cost in half. With the assistance of a couple of friends, you should be able to finish the job in a day or two.
RESOURCES :
Tourgreen
At-home putting green products.
Tourgreen
Louisville, KY 40206
Phone: 502-894-0334
Website: www.tourgreen.com
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