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SAN ANTONIO, TX,
June 13, 2004- The
Club at
Sonterra, a private country club on the north side of San
Antonio, has shuttered it's trophy North course for at least 3 &
1/2 months to replace it's
Bentgrass greens with Champion Bermuda. The North was perhaps
the southern most course in the U.S. to have the smooth playing
Bentgrass. Bent typically doesn't fare well in extremely hot
climates such as the summers that San Antonio is known for.
American Golf Corp, which owns Sonterra, decided it was time to
move on to something that would be more easily maintained and
provide a consistent putting surface year round.
When in good shape, putting on Bent just doesn't get any better.
The ball rolls, you can read the breaks, and the putts fall.
Unfortunately when Bent gets too much heat, and Poa starts to
creep into the Bent, it can get ugly.
AGC has deployed
Champion Bermuda successfully at many of it's other courses and
decided to move to Bermuda at Sonterra based on it's resiliency to
the local climate.
Oak
Hills CC in San Antonio, which hosts the SBC Champions Tour
event, moved to Bermuda a few years back and it has been received
well there.
Sonterra North has
several elevated greens that require accurate iron play and many
Sonterra members expressed concerns whether the new greens being
installed will hold as well as the Bent. To appease these concerns
Sonterra will be re-contouring and enlarging the greens to
accommodate the expected difference in play between the Bent and
the Bermuda. Sonterra's North current greens, which encompass
approximately 90,000 square feet, will be increased to
approximately 130,000 square feet. Sonterra is also taking
advantage of the down time to do other renovations such as
leveling tee boxes and installing a new amenities package along
the course.
The Tournament Players Club at Southwind, which hosts the PGA
FEDEX St Jude Classic, shut down two weeks ago to begin the exact
same transition from Bent to Bermuda. John Spiess, GM at
Southwind, says he's very optimistic that the change at Southwind
will be a good one from both a maintenance standpoint as well as
providing a consistent putting environment for both it's members
and the Tour event.
Assuming all goes
as planned, the North course will reopen on or about October 1st.
Sonterra will go to a shotgun start on it's South Course on
weekends to help accommodate the increased play while the North is
down.
The North course is
one of the top courses in SA, and while it's always painful to
take a course down for a few months, the end-result should be a
newly refreshed, top-notch course for the members of Sonterra.
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We're
members ourselves at Sonterra. If you would like info about
joining
The Club at Sonterra please contact us at
info@amigogolf.com.
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SEE RELATED GREEN INFO FROM THE
USGA AT:
FAQ- Green Construction
<>
staff report
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