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Welcome to Brain Stuff from howstuffworks.com, where smart happens.

Marshall Brain

Hi, I’m Marshall Brain with today’s question, how can the grass on the greens of a golf course be so absolutely perfect? If you have ever looked at the grass on a well maintained golf green, it is absolutely amazing. It is a flawless surface made out of plants. To make it this perfect takes a lot of work. The work starts by creating what is practically a hydroponic growing system for the grass.

When constructing the green, a bulldozer creates a 12-16 inch deep hole the size of the green. In the most advanced systems, this hole is completely lined with plastic and then gravel and drainage pipes are added, topped by sand. The greens grass grows at a sterile sand medium with perfect drainage. The surface is contoured to allow perfect runoff as well, so there’s no puddling when it rains.

Where you put the green is also important. It needs plenty of sunlight, preferable full sunlight with no surrounding trees and good air flow over the green. Sometimes you’ll see fans placed around a green to keep that airflow going. Then you choose perfect grass, grass that’s ideally suited to your climate. A sterile sand medium and a good location controls for a huge number of variables. But now the grass is totally dependent on its keepers for life support. That means the grass needs a steady diet of water and nutrients to keep it alive.

To this mix is added a variety of herbicides to kill weeds that try to move in, pesticides to control insect damage, and fungicides to control disease and help keep the grass perfect. Once the green is established, you start in on maintenance. This includes daily mowing with a precision greens mower, watering, federalizing, applying chemicals, aerating, and general coddling. If you were willing to do all of this, you too could have a golf green in your front yard.

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