Advance seeded bermudagrass meets the high standards
Golf in the United Arab Emirates, like much of life in the region, moves quickly and is highly competitive. Little stands still for long; if you do, you are likely to get left behind.
The thirty-five-year history of golf in the country has seen many courses built and rebuilt. The Montgomerie Golf Club Dubai, part of the Emirates Hills development, celebrated its twentieth anniversary back in 2021. “Twenty years makes it an old course in the UAE,” laughs Jordan Fairweather, cluster director of agronomy for Troon Golf, which operates the ‘Monty’ and several other courses in the region.
Keeping the offer up to date is important everywhere, but perhaps even more so in this location. Which is why the Monty’s practice facility has just been rebuilt. “It has always been one of the best driving ranges in the region, aesthetically speaking, but we needed a chipping facility, which it didn’t really have, to keep up with the state of the art in the region,” says Fairweather.
Practice is big business at the Monty, which has a team of six teaching professionals and a very popular short course which has no clothing rules, hence attracting a lot of young people and new golfers. The strong real estate market in the region meant the short course was threatened, but at the same time offered an opportunity to improve. Owner EMAAR had a proposal to develop nine new super-villas – on the site of the existing short course. “That gave us a chance to put together a plan to improve the facilities, so we spoke to Gary Johnston of European Golf Design, who is essentially the golf architect for EMAAR – he did Dubai Hills and is doing Dubai South at the moment,” says Fairweather.
I’m really delighted with how the grass has performed.
Jordan Fairweather, Cluster Director of Agronomy for Troon Golf
“The range was large, but the tee was completely straight, and Gary suggested that by making it curved, we would funnel balls into the center, improving safety and making space for a new nine-hole short course, a wedge academy for the exclusive use of our teaching pros, and a chipping green for the members – which they have never had before,” says Fairweather. “The owners liked the idea, so we started golf construction in June 2023. We couldn’t close the existing range, so we fenced it in two and built it half at a time. The range is now back in play, and the par three course will open in April. The par three course has two tees per hole, holes from 65-100 yards, three small lakes, a very large waste bunker between two holes and several other bunkers. The use of the land is very good.” Fairweather faced a difficult decision on how to grass the new facility. Recently, golf in the UAE has become dominated by seashore paspalum because the courses are irrigated with treated effluent water, which is relatively saline. Being older though, the Monty is a bermuda course, and Fairweather says that was central to his thinking.
“I took a lot of heat for not going paspalum, but I already see a lot of contamination of our bermuda from birds dropping seeds and suchlike,” he says. “If you are using the same machinery to maintain different grasses, contamination is inevitable.”
Once he had decided it should be bermuda like the existing course, the question was which strains to use, and here Fairweather brought in John Holmes of Atlas Turf International to advise. “It was a no-brainer to do TifEagle greens because we have them on the main course,” he says. “For the rest, I said to John, ‘Ideally, I want something that will hold colour in the winter. Is there something that is more salt-tolerant than 419 and which can cope with low use of herbicides – in this region, we have very few available to us?’”
I’ve never seen bermuda seed germinate so quickly. I came in on the fourth morning and saw a green tinge – which means it must have germinated towards the end of the third day. It was quite amazing.
Jordan Fairweather, Cluster Director of Agronomy for Troon Golf
Holmes and Fairweather eventually settled on North Shore SLT seeded bermudagrass. Developed by Pure-Seed Testing, North Shore SLT tolerates salts well, holds its color in winter conditions and has excellent resistance to pests and weeds. They had initially thought that its vegetative cousin was the best choice, but Fairweather says that the cost of shipping in the sprigs was prohibitive, resulting in a switch of focus to North Shore SLT. “Because the range construction was split, we had about six separate seedings,” says Fairweather. “The first seed went down in late August: I’ve never seen bermuda seed germinate so quickly. I came in on the fourth morning and saw a green tinge – which means it must have germinated towards the end of the third day. It was quite amazing. From week two to week six, the grass didn’t do much because it was so hot, but once we got into October and the temperature started to cool, it went crazy. We have done a lot of slicing, verticutting and topdressing to push the grass, and it has worked really well. The end of the range was only seeded in October, and it is open now. I’m really delighted with how the grass has performed.”
