Turning a lawn into a putting green

[Don Barzini]

[FONT=.SF UI Text][FONT=.SFUIText]Mowed the front and back lawn yesterday. As always when carrying out this task, I was daydreaming about how great it would be if my front lawn could be turned into a practice putting green. Now I don't intend to actually do this - mainly as I have neither the time nor the expertise! So purely from a theoretical point of view because I'm interested, what would it actually take to achieve this? [/FONT][/FONT]
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[FONT=.SF UI Text][FONT=.SFUIText]Could an existing lawn be transformed into a green, or would the lawn have to be ripped up and special turf laid down? If the former, how exactly would you go about this and how long might it take? If the latter, could you start using it more or less straight away, or would you have to leave it and treat it for a while first?[/FONT][/FONT]
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[FONT=.SF UI Text][FONT=.SFUIText]Whichever way it's done, what is the upkeep of a green like? I've never seen a green be "mowed" as such, but would you need some sort of special mower or similar? Presumably it has to be rolled on a regular basis? How often is this done? What are the other considerations of green upkeep? However you do "treat" and maintain it, how often would it have to be done?[/FONT][/FONT]
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[FONT=.SF UI Text][FONT=.SFUIText]There are some knowledgable people on here, so I'm thinking someone may hold the answers! And has anyone here ever actually done this, or know someone who has?

Cheers![/FONT][/FONT]

 

[nickjdavis]

Surely for a price/performance/maintenace balance in a normal domestic environment then artificial turf must be the way to go?

Looking at going artifical for part of my garden and noticed that they did a putting surface at £31/sq meter....add on another £25/sq meter for fitting and building all the substrate on which the greens sits and for something that is around 18' x 12' (6x4 meters) you would be looking at around £1350.

No maintenance other than a sweep with a stiff brush. OK...you cant move holes around but thats the only downside to a green that you can use 365 days a year.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

At a previous club the greens staff trimmed quite a big area off our putting green. I took the discarded turf home and laid it in my back garden. Mega fail. I started with a perfect putting surface but all over the shop - and within no time it was knackered as I didn't know how to look after it.

 

[srixon 1]

I'm no expert.

The greens at our place are amazing and have been for years.

They are cut every day during the summer. Given feed and tonic when necessary. Ironed occasionally for big competitions. Micro tinned and top dressed a few times a year.

Don't forget the special drainage under the surface and the sprinkler system.

All that just so we can roll a small plastic ball into a small hole.

Sounds like a full time job looking after a green. And expensive.

 

[larmen]

Somehow YouTube had a backyard green as one of the recommended videos for me yesterday. As far as I could see they spent most time on underlay and compacting stuff, the green bit was just the little bit at the end. It was with artificial grass.

Ask yourself, could you put on a fairway?

 

[Face breaker]

Strip the old turf off and replace with the correct stuff (bent/fescue) and then spend a considerable amount of time (years) and money (thousands) on machinery/materials/chemicals (top-dressing/fertilisers/fungicides etc) to maintain it would be my educated guess...

Did I mention I'm a green-keeper by trade, a suitable mower will cost you in the region of 4-8k or you could go the whole hog and buy a greens-triple at about 35/40k, if yer feeling flush that is... :thup:

 

[Pin-seeker]

Wouldn't it get boring putting into the same holes?

 

[MadAdey]

many have tried and many have failed. Keeping a green lush lawn is nothing like the expertise required to keep a putting green. What height you chopping your lawn down to now? Now take it down to an average putting green length and see how bare it looks. A lot of skill and experience needed to maintain a nice smooth putting surface.

 

[jim8flog]

Buy yourself the book 'The lawn Expert' (various prices on Amazon) and you will see how much works goes in to the preparation and maintenance of a lawn if you want it be good enough as practice putting green.

AS NickJ says even an artificial lawn requires a very large amount of prep.

I found it easier to have a room in the house with a carpet the same pace as a golf green.

 

[Face breaker]

many have tried and many have failed. Keeping a green lush lawn is nothing like the expertise required to keep a putting green. What height you chopping your lawn down to now? Now take it down to an average putting green length and see how bare it looks. A lot of skill and experience needed to maintain a nice smooth putting surface.

Ooh, 2.8mm, get on, talk about skin a 💩

 

[Golfmmad]

Buy yourself the book 'The lawn Expert' (various prices on Amazon) and you will see how much works goes in to the preparation and maintenance of a lawn if you want it be good enough as practice putting green.

I'd go with this.

I don't think that anybody would be able to create a putting green as good as on a golf course.

With the book "Be Your Own Lawn Expert", will enable you to get as good as possible without the expert machinery. A good quality cylinder mower is a must to get a decent cut.

Many years ago when I bought my first house I built my lawn from scratch using the Lawm expert book. It is hard work and takes years for the lawn to mature enough to be able to cut to the correct length.
So I would say a lawn good enough to putt on is possible but nowhere good enough to match a golf course green.

 

[Don Barzini]

Some interesting info in these replies, thanks.

Seems like I'll just keep daydreaming!

 

[Face breaker]

There are some really nice artificial greens available, look on the Internet, there's one course over in America somewhere that's built using entirely artificial greens and at a glance you'll not tell the difference, only problem is they'll come along side a rather nice price tag, I had a quote for some artificial greens at my last job and for a 10x5 meter putting-green we were quoted 10-12k, that was fully installed though... :thup: