Media Contact: Stacie Zinn
Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte, NC, will be closing June 1st, 2009 for two months to convert the putting surfaces to environmentally friendly SeaDwarf ® Seashore Paspalum turfgrass, Signature Golf Group, the Myrtle Beach, SC, based management company, announced. Dave Downing, CGCS, President of Signature Golf Group will oversee the transition of the putting surfaces from Bentgrass to SeaDwarf® Seashore Paspalum, a drought-tolerant improved turf variety that requires less water and less fertilizer and may be irrigated with alternative water sources. Due to poor water quality negatively impacting the existing putting surfaces at the course, Rivers Edge will convert to the resilient, salt-tolerant SeaDwarf® Seashore Paspalum grass. “Rivers Edge has decided to change the putting surfaces to create more positive consistent conditions on the putting surfaces,” said Downing. Although SeaDwarf® Seashore Paspalum has been successfully planted on golf courses around the world, the renovation of River’s Edge will be the first ever No-Till conversion done with SeaDwarf ® SeashorePaspalum. No-Till is a process by which the new grass is planted without tearing out the existing surface. The No-Till process has two benefits: it maintains the existing contours of the greens surface and it allows a golf course to reopen sooner as the renovation process is much faster than standard methods of renovation that in effect would destroy the greens and require them to be rebuilt. “The No-Till method of greens renovation is a very innovative process. SeaDwarf® is a very innovative turfgrass and the only dwarf variety of paspalum grass on the market today. The combination of the two could be a game changer for the golf industry,” said Stacie Zinn, president of Environmental Turf, the Avon Park, Florida, company that licenses sod producers to grow SeaDwarf® world-wide. “I can’t think of a better place for the SeaDwarf to make its debut as a no till project. This transition from bentgrass to seashore paspalum to my knowledge is truly a first. The use of a new grass to help adapt to an extreme environmental condition is the reason we grow grasses like SeaDwarf. It is far better to work with what nature gives you, than to try and control it. In the capable hands of John Shaver and David Downing I have every confidence this will be a successful venture,” said Hank Kerfoot, president of Modern Turf , the Rembert, South Carolina, company supplying the sprigs for the project. As a test, Rivers Edge converted the facility’s putting green last summer and it was “very successful,” Downing said. Rives Edge Golf Club will plan to re-open in August, 2009. Rivers Edge will be posting progress reports and photos throughout the conversion process online at www.river18.com. For more information please contact Signature Golf at 1-843-215-FORE (3673) or visit www.signaturegolfgroup.com.
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