bunker | Asian Turfgrass Center

We've all been curious about this

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:57:44 +0700

I was in Melbourne at the end of last week and had a chance to visit some courses. I went to two courses on Thursday and didn’t record any videos. Then we had an idea over dinner on Thursday night—maybe we should do some Cart Rides on Friday.

And that’s how, with the kind cooperation of the course managers at Royal Melbourne GC, Metropolitan GC, and Kooringal GC, I ended up recording three cart ride episodes in one day.

Organic material at the surface of greens at Royal Melbourne GC is removed by first lifting the bentgrass in thin (7 to 8 mm, about 3/8 inches) pieces, removing the organic layer beneath, and then laying the bentgrass sod back on the green.

These aren’t long videos, but they are informative, and show a snapshot about species selection, turf management, bunker edge management, playability, irrigation challenges, and so on in the Melbourne area.

If you want more about firmness, remember that there is an Office Hours episode of more than 90 minutes duration on the topic: Firm bentgrass greens and OM management with Richard Forsyth.

I don’t want to give too much away about firmness, because I want you to watch the videos and learn from those conversations. But I will say that I have been reflecting on the topic for a long time, and trips such as this one certainly helped enlighten the subject for me even more. One of the maintenance practices that leads to firmer surfaces is an avoidance of decompaction. The soil needs to be decompacted enough so that one can maintain 100% grass cover. Any decompaction beyond that point is softening the surface without enhancing playability—unless it’s softer surfaces you are after. Another maintenance practice that leads to firmer surfaces is an avoidance of routine topdressing. But there are a lot of interactions with that practice—surface organic material being a primary one—and I encourage everyone to monitor their surface organic material with OM246 measurements while also keeping track of exactly how much sand is being applied.

Zoysia checkerboard sod planting

Wed, 13 May 2026 14:13:51 +0700

Zoysiagrass sod in Japan and Korea is typically cut into small pieces that are easy to handle. I had a conversation with Dr. Mike Richardson and Andrew McDaniel about this some time ago, but at that time I wasn’t able to find the photos I wanted to demonstrate the “each piece on its own, with topdressing between allowing the grass to grow together” method.

I’ve found some relevant photos now.

Most golf courses in Japan, and a lot in Korea, are planted to zoysiagrass.

Golf course construction site near Tokyo Bay, February 2001

In tropical locations, zoysiagrass can be grown in from stolons, if you can wait the months it takes to produce a usable sward. In temperate climates, for obvious reasons related to grow-in time and erosion prevention, zoysiagrass sod is used when establishing large areas of turf.

Zoysiagrass sod is planted as areas are ready for grass

Of course, if you won’t be playing golf on the surface immediately, or if you won’t be opening the park immediately, there is no need to plant each piece of sod with its edges touching the adjacent piece. These are rhizomatous and stoloniferous grasses, and they will fill the gaps between sod pieces, eventually.

Zoysia japonica sod planted around a bunker in a checkerboard pattern, South Korea

The spacing between pieces can vary based on when the sward needs to be used. If it needs to be used immediately, then the sod needs to be planted with each piece touching the next. If the sward will be used after months of good growing weather have passed, then sod can be planted with large gaps between pieces.

Checkerboard planting of Zoysia japonica sod with topdressing between the sod pieces, South Korea

An obvious benefit to this method is the efficient use of sod. One only purchases the amount of sod necessary, and then allows the grass to fill in the gaps. A less obvious benefit, but one that will be familiar to any who have considered whether to seed or sod a cool-season green, or to sprig or sod a warm-season one, is the type of surface one has after sodding with topdressed gaps between pieces. This surface has some areas of sod, with their usual burden of thatch and resistance to water movement. Then there are lots of spaces with a brand new turf growing in the rootzone mix you have topdressed with, free of thatch, into which water can easily infiltrate. It’s a bit of a hybrid system between sodding and sprigging, with the benefits of both.

Insight from Andrew Thomson's Presidents Cup Diary

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Andrew Thomson is the author of Bridge to the Gods: Tales from Kyushu. That very book happens to be sitting beside my computer as I write this. I’m bringing it to read this weekend when I’ll be on a small island in the Andaman Sea.

Thomson also gets around a bit. I’m following the news this week from the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Yesterday at the captains’ press conference I heard Thomson—he said he was from Golf Digest Japan—ask about the physics of ball reaction on the greens (listen to his question, and the full answer, at the 10:50 mark of this video). Ernie Els replied that “There are certain flags and certain conditions where the flag is a destination, not quite a target.” The greens and the aprons at Royal Melbourne are notoriously firm.

I found out today that Thomson is also writing a Presidents Cup Diary. I was fascinated to hear his thoughts about the course and about the upcoming competition. Today he wrote about course preparations for this event, among other topics. With his permission, what follows is an extended excerpt from today’s entry.

From Andrew Thomson’s Presidents Cup Diary

Preparing and presenting a golf course for a globally significant tournament is no easy task. It takes more than just a few months to do this, and Richard Forsyth has lived up to his reputation as Australia’s premier master of turf care. We members of Royal Melbourne, and those other Melbourne golfers who know and love the course, are delighted with what Richard has given us this week. But what of those who are seeing it for the first time? What do they think?

Andrew McDaniel grew up in Alabama. These days he serves as the only foreign golf course superintendent in Japan, where he looks after Keya Golf Club near Fukuoka, a ten-minute drive from your diarist’s house. From Thursday last week he joined Richard Forsyth’s team to help prepare the Composite Course for the Presidents Cup. In past years Andrew has done the same thing for the Ryder Cup and the U.S. Open. He knows the best courses in the United States.

“It’s amazing,” he says in his lovely Alabama drawl. “The way the turf is cut so short all around, even around the tees and between the greens and the next tee. That’s impressive. We never do that in Japan.”

What is it in particular about this golf course that catches your imagination, I asked him.

“As an American superintendent working in Japan for the past 18 years, and virtually my entire professional career, it’s been somewhat of a dream to come and see Royal Melbourne. During our orientation Richard was quick to let us know that some things on the course might look out of place, but that’s how he likes it. He only strives for perfectly manicured areas where it matters. After going to the course to see it in person it was quite overwhelming. Tees, fairways, approaches, and greens are perfect. The rough as Richard says, it is what it is. And the bunkers - I’m not sure how to describe the bunkers. They’re very natural, intimidating, and the most beautiful piece of artwork you can find on a golf course anywhere in the world.”

As a superintendent yourself, what strikes you about the way the course is prepared?

“The water management of the turf is very precise, with only hand watering to the surfaces that need it to ensure they keep the firmness they are looking for. The course being in the sand belt, everything under the turf is sand, and the bunkers are basically dug out and it’s the natural sand which makes the bunkers. Water management is also very carefully done to the bunkers to ensure they stay firm as well, so that no balls bury in the soft sand.”

So says the professional man of the turf.

Watching the practice out there today it struck me that a Presidents Cup played on Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s Composite Course is the equivalent of an Open, a Masters, or a U.S. Open in the quality of what we will see. The course and the players hardly come better any day or anywhere else. And among the two teams there are some fascinating characters.

For those with an interest in American history, the Civil War occupies a special place in the spectrum of what America has endured since its founding. While living in Washington DC for a few years from 2001, I used to visit various Civil War battlefields - Gettysburg and Antietam especially - and read all I could about the key participants: Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and President Abraham Lincoln. I loved poring over those sepia-coloured photographs of the soldiers, gazing at the exhausted, bearded men, soldiers of either the Confederacy or the Union, and seeing reflected in their weary expressions evidence of what they suffered.

Whenever I see Dustin Johnson’s face up close it reminds me of those sepia photographs. His face always seems calm, sometimes weary, his eyes deep-set and his beard ever present. Watching him this morning practise putting from the back of the 4th green (6th West), he experimented with various angles, then began putting off the green and using the slope of the right apron to roll his ball down to the pin position marked with a tee peg. It was sublime skill on display, and the gallery on the slope above the green loved it. Gary Woodland tried the same but failed, much to everyone’s amusement. To conquer these greens, I told myself, you have to have been through Antietam or Gettysburg to quell your fears and learn to coolly fire back at the enemy while under bombardment.

“My God, this is a monster,” one of the spectators remarked to his friend.

No, I thought to myself. To call this golf course a monster is incorrect. Monsters have no subtlety. They roar and breathe fire, but they don’t bring on surprises. This course is simply an extraordinary and beautiful creature that can suddenly confound even the best players. Does Johnson have its measure? We shall see.

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