No water, no problem.

Golf course gets its green back during drought using Endurant turf colorant

[caption id="attachment_837" align="alignleft" width="500"] Bentley Village golf course goes from brown to green using Endurant turf colorant after winter drought drains irrigation lakes.[/caption] Southwest Florida visitors don’t expect to see brown golf courses. Nonetheless, that’s what many people are seeing at several courses in the area this February as the area suffers a winter drought. Some golf courses, however, are beating the drought using Endurant turf colorants. The superintendent of an 18-hole golf course within Bentley Village, a community located within North Naples, found a solution to their lack of water. The golf course irrigation is sourced from the community’s own lakes, but due to an intensively dry winter, the lakes ran out of water. The community had just enough water to maintain the greens, but the rest of the golf course was brown and dry. “We operate out of our own self-contained lakes, and once they’re out, we’re out,” said Bentley Village Golf Course Superintendent Anthony Labno. Despite the weather conditions, members weren’t letting Labno off the hook. They wanted green grass. “They kept wondering what I could do. I explained I need three things to grow green grass: sunlight, water, and food. Without any one of those, there isn’t much I can do,” he said. Soon, he discovered Endurant turf colorants. “I don’t like having to mask things. But we needed to do something to get the course in much better looking condition,” said Labno. Geoponics helped Labno pick a shade of green to best match the paspalum turf. Endurant Premium added the best shade to match the areas of healthy grass that still existed on the course. “People outside the industry often don’t understand. They want it to be green. But ideally, we want playable, tournament quality turf,” said Labno. Now, Bentley Village has the best of both worlds. “I’ve got a dry course that plays well, it’s quick, it’s fast, and, I got green. I think it looks great. I like the color of it,” said Labno. Member guests arrived on a rainy Wednesday, two days after applying Endurant turf colorant. Members agreed, the golf course looked impressive. The one day of morning rain wasn’t of much help yet, but it didn’t hurt the turf either. “We got over an inch of rain today, but I doubt it’s enough to get the lakes up and running yet. We got to see how Endurant holds up to rain,” said Labno. Since Endurant is not merely a temporary dye, but rather a lasting colorant that adheres to turfgrass, the rain had no effect on the color and durability. “I would definitely recommend Endurant. If you’re in a situation where you need to get some color quickly— whether it's dormant or to cover up from frost or in my situation where there’s no water— Endurant provides a great solution to get some color,” said Labno.   Learn more about Endurant at www.TurfPaint.net or order here.