Tiger Woods' First Course in U.S. to Feature Zoysiagrass


Grassing will get underway this month at Bluejack National. The club, located in Montgomery just outside of Houston, will feature the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course scheduled to open in the United States.

All surfaces of the 18-hole layout will be planted with two varieties of zoysiagrass - Zeon Zoysia and L1F Zoysia - developed by Bladerunner Farms of Poteet, Texas. The only exception will be the greens, which will be TifEagle bermudagrass.

Bluejack National's director of agronomy, Eric Bauer, says the fairways are being sodded with Zeon Zoysia. The course will have no rough, Bauer says, because "the designer and the developer want golf to be more enjoyable and to increase the pace of play.

"We're blanketing the entire fairway playing area with Zeon Zoysia. Tee tops and green surrounds are L1F Zoysia, a new variety that can tolerate lower mowing heights. It will allow us to take the height down shorter. This is based on the desires of the Tiger Woods design team to create a lot of different shot options."

Bauer adds, "We are sodding a total of 97 acres," with the intention of having the course grown-in and ready for play by the fall of 2015.

The developer, Beacon Land Development, decided to sod the zoysiagrass, Bauer says, rather than sprig it because "we were tied to a residential component. It was more important to open next year, which sodding allows, rather than sprig and wait another year to open."

Zoysiagrass varieties are known to require less water and fertilizer than bermudagrass, a family of warm-season grasses widely used on golf courses. Along with zoysiagrasses' lower input demands, another deciding factor in the selection of Zeon Zoysia and L1F Zoysia at Bluejack National was, according to Bauer, "shade tolerance. We kept a lot of significant trees. The course is severely wooded."

Medalist Golf is building the golf course. The turf used to grass the golf course was grown by All Seasons Turf Grass in Brookshire, Texas. Scott Sipes, sales manager for All Seasons Turf Grass, says the sodding process will require 520 truckloads of grass equaling 4.2 million square feet of sod in the form of big rolls and slabs.

All Seasons Turf Grass has been in business for more than 35 years. The family-owned sod producer is one of the largest in the state of Texas, producing certified sod on a sand-based profile, the preferred growing medium for the golf industry.

Even though the company has such a long history, Sipes says he recognizes the significance of growing the grass for the first American course designed by Tiger Woods.

"Any time you work with someone in the industry and they are the number one name in golf - everyone in golf knows who they are - it's a challenge, it's prestigious, it's quite an honor," Sipes says.

For more information about Bluejack National, visit http://www.bluejacknational.com.