re: What happened to Atchafalaya GC?

I swear it’s a Louisiana mental disease that you have to cut down all the damn trees to have grass

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I’m so damn sick of hearing this excuse from people. There are golf courses all over the world with trees near greens and tee boxes that have lush, vibrant grass on them. It’s a complete bull shite excuse. Do your damn job and the grass will grow and quit worrying about drinking beer and playing in your weekly and weekend games…

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If you can't get enough hours of sunlight of airflow, you can not grow quality Tifway 419 Bermuda grass. Yes, there are some varieties of Zoysia and some newer varieties of Bermuda that may do well in a partially shaded area, but they are not what grass is at Atchafalaya. Also those varieties of turf aren't putting green quality turf grasses. So it's not an excuse, just poor design. I was told by Pete Dye during tghe construction and grow in of TPC Louisiana that he was the designer and its was my business to figure out a way to maintain it. Guess what, #2 green there has suffered for years. Same reason Atchafalaya struggles with a lot of its greens. They are too close to the wood lines. Over time, wood lines encroach more and more. Quality high performing turf grass needs Airflow and sunlight to grow and perform.