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Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
June 18, 2006
Putting areas not par for the course, yet some homeowners love idea JOANNE E. McFADDEN For The Sunday Gazette For months, neighbors passed by the Munger family's Clifton Park home, wondering just what Mike Munger was building in his front yard. "We were the talk of Clifton Park," he remembers. Someone even stopped Munger's wife at the supermarket to ask about the mystery project. When the family moved from Mechanicville to a home on a busy road in Clifton Park, the Mungers determined that most of the family's activities would take place in the back yard. For safety reasons, the couple preferred that the kids play back there. Still, Munger was looking for some way to transform the front yard, which was an eyesore, full of trees, some with their trunks buried 6 feet into the dirt because of the grading that had taken place during the construction of the home. "I had to do something, but I wanted something low-maintenance," Munger said. An avid golfer, introduced to the sport by his father when he was little, Munger decided to build his own putting green. The project took a while, though, as he had to do so with the little spare time he had on evenings and weekends. After clearing the front yard, Munger rented a machine to dig out a small area in the middle. He put some play sand in the hole and used a roller to configure the putting green, leveling it out where it needed to be, and creating a second level to add a bit of difficulty. Munger then purchased some high-quality outdoor carpet in green and laid it down over the sand. To hold it in place and to form a border around the area, Munger used stackable stone. Where he accidentally rolled the lawn mower over the carpet, he stacked more stones, but to someone who didn't know it, it just looks like a mini-obstacle in the three-hole putting green. And metal spikes with reflectors on the top mark each hole. Despite the time and effort to build the green, Munger isn't even the main beneficiary. His son, 8-year-old Mason, gets out there the most. "It's mainly him that drags me out there," Munger said. And when Mason's friends are over, they practice putting, too. The mini putting green is also a favorite activity during family gatherings. Munger's father, uncle, nephews and nieces all practice their golf skills at parties and the like. SMALL COURSE The do-it-yourselfer who wants something a little more involved can install a gravel base topped by a layer of fine limestone, which helps with drainage, underneath the green. It is critical, experts say, to have the green level so that it does not collect water. Many golf courses will sell bunker sand if you're ambitious enough to build in a sand trap. Golf afficionado Nason Richmond of Schenectady did construct a golf course in his back yard, as well as a golf game in his garage. The backyard course is a full-swing, condensed golf game that can even be played by people in wheelchairs, using a special club that Richmond designed. There is also a practice chipping grid. "After the full swing at each hole, there's a chip," Richmond said. The course is regular rye grass, which Richmond mows tightly. Richmond also built a game he calls "the U.S. Slopen" out of plywood and AstroTurf in his garage. There is one hole, but nine positions from which one can putt. Each position gets progressively more difficult. "No. 1 is straight; No. 9 has an 81/2-inch curve," he said. PROVIDING INSTRUCTIONS If you're into golf and your lawn, and you're up for the challenge of creativity golf-course-quality turf, Leo Melanson of Newburyport, Mass.-based Putting-Greens.com wrote a 50-page instruction manual covering the entire process - from site-planning to dealing with pests and disease. Melanson's instructions follow the U.S. Golf Association specifications, including a drainage layer, intermediate sand layers, and a carefully designed root zone layer. These create the ideal environment for growing creeping bent grass, the most commonly used grass for golf courses, or, for warmer climates, Bermuda grass. Pretty much anyone can do this and it does not cost a lot of money, Melanson says, but homeowners need to have the time to spend maintaining this kind of turf. "It requires TLC, special equipment, and special techniques," he said. A green-quality mower is key, and sometimes they're not easy to find. "There are a couple of semi-professional mowers," he said. "Beyond that, you really have to try to get a professional mower from a golf course," he said, noting that there are people who refurbish and sell them. In the nine years since he wrote the manual, Melanson has shipped them all over the world, including Europe, South America and Africa. BRINGING IN SOME HELP For those who don't have the time or inclination to do it themselves and want something to play on without a lot of maintenance they can leave the construction to an expert. Saratoga Custom Putting Greens in Galway is a dealer for Mirage Putting Green, a company that specializes in synthetic turf for backyard putting greens. The company offers three different types of turf, including a tournament green that looks like bent grass, a country club green, and a municipal green that mimics Bermuda grass. Depending on the design, the putting green can be a mix of different types of turf. The greens are custom-designed to any configuration, by the company or the homeowner. Saratoga Custom Putting Greens also handles around-the-green landscaping, partnering with a couple of local landscaping firms.
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