PROJECT DETAILS
About the Project
Chris Jordan, Director of Greens and Grounds at Olde Eight Golf Club in Greenwood, South Carolina, has grown-in and managed Tahoma 31 at a previous posting, Berkeley Hall’s Fazio North Course in Bluffton, SC. Based on the grasses’ performance there, Jordan chose Tahoma 31 for Olde Eight.
“We have Tahoma 31 everywhere except the greens, which are sprigged with TifEagle. Tahoma 31 is on tees, fairways, collars, and event lawns,” Jordan said. “If it’s grass other than the greens, it’s Tahoma 31.”
Built on top of what was a course called Stoney Point, Olde Eight Golf Club opens in November 2025 with 18 holes of golf. The course retains the former course’s basic routing, but every other element is brand new. In January 2026, the project starts construction on additional acreage to create a nine-hole, par-3 course plus a double-sided driving range and practice area that will be home to a golf academy. All of those areas, except for greens, will be grassed with Tahoma 31, too.
PROJECT DETAILS
H.O.C. Versatility
Jordan said there are several reasons why he chose Tahoma 31 again.
“I like how tight you can mow it. I mean, you can get it really tight. If you want to take your tees or your collars down to a quarter of an inch, I believe you can do it. Tahoma 31, it’s got a lot of body to it. It’s a full upright-feeling grass.”
He continued, “Some of the grasses that make good playing surfaces at fairway height don’t do well in the rough at 2 inches. The Tahoma 31 still keeps enough body as an upright grass in the rough. I can mow it ¼ to 3 inches if I need to, and it will still do what I want. I can have all the same grass (on all surfaces of the golf course except greens). The flexibility in the height of cut allows us to use it in different areas on the golf course.”
Hardy & Aggressive Growth
“It’s pretty hardy up against traffic … It’s an aggressively growing grass. On tee boxes where people are going to take divots, it will fill in quickly. If you do get damage, either from traffic or mechanical injury in the growing season, it will fill in rapidly, which is big.”
For a Fast Grow-In, Sod in Winter, Sprig in Spring
South Carolina’s temperate climate allowed construction over the winter months of 2025. The overseeded Tahoma 31 sod was installed as dormant grass in January and February. Jordan explained, “We sodded large slopes, around tee boxes, around greens, around bunkers, around drain basins, and then areas that were flatter we sprigged.”
In all, the grassing measured out to “about 40 acres of sprigs and 40 acres of sod.”
The strategy behind the schedule was simple—to get the most grass in place so that by spring, the look of the golf course would emerge.
“It’s not like we did the bulk of the work in the winter but if you can put the sod down, you can kind-of lock in those features, your bunkers, your greens, you can loop everything just to hold it in place so that if we had a big rain event in March, it’s not just a bunch of dormant grass that can just be washed away. You’ve got something there holding it up.”
The cold tolerance of Tahoma 31 is well known in the industry, and Jordan was quick to point out that benefit. “It over-winters well and wakes up and survives the transition back into the spring.”
By the spring, the sod helped investors and prospective members to see the golf course come to life.
“In April, you’ve got azaleas blooming, and all these green surrounds that are a dark, beautiful green and striped up. It gets people pretty excited pretty quickly.”
Jordan said he feels the grow-in went extremely well.
“I think everyone’s going to be happy with the condition we’re in on opening day.”
- The eye-level golf course photos were taken by Chris Jordan
- The drone photos and photos of Chris Jordan on a tractor and with daughter Liza were taken by Rob McCallum, Director of Club and Member Relations at Olde Eight Golf Club
