Royal Oaks Country Club, Dallas

80-acre Tahoma 31 golf course renovation

About Project

An invitation-only, member-owned,18-hole golf club, Royal Oaks Country Club, Dallas, is a secluded oasis in the heart of the downtown corridor. Originally opened in 1969, the club was in need of an irrigation system upgrade that opened the door to a complete regrassing and a redesign by architect Chet Williams. The older turf was a mix of bermudagrass varieties that Superintendent K.D. Davis, CGCS, likened it to “a calico cat” because of the variations of color and texture. Davis tested bermudagrass varieties for more than four years although, from the start, he felt that Tahoma 31 was the right grass for ROCC.

Challenges & Solutions

Challenges:
Solutions:

Outcome

Prior to the renovation of Royal Oaks Country Club, Dallas, Davis says the idea of planting zoysia instead of bermudagrass “came up often,” but he resisted. A big concern was the recoverability of a zoysiagrass under the conditions at his facility. A golf course superintendent since 2000 who has grown in several golf courses and managed zoysiagrass fairways, his gut told him that zoysia wasn’t the right choice for Royal Oaks, which at the time had “five or six” different types of bermudagrass scattered throughout the property. As superintendent at Royal Oaks since 2015, Davis decided to rely on research rather than gut instinct.

He tested four bermudagrass varieties (Tahoma 31, Celebration, NorthBridge, TifGrand) and one zoysia (Zeon) to see how each performed under the strain of infrequent but significant rain events, cold, and shade. Tahoma 31 was the obvious winner. “Tahoma 31 always seemed to come up to the top, and I put it into the hardest, most challenging areas on the property,” Davis says.

Rain Events & Density

The course is in a floodplain where catch basins hold not just water, but silt. Clean-up after a rain event entails removing the silt and debris carried by the water off of the grass surface.

“We don’t have rain events all the time, but when we do, it’s nice to have a denser variety of bermudagrass. If your grass is really dense, the silt just slides off the top as opposed to an open grass, more like a 419, or even a Celebration that has less density, less plants per square inch. When you’re cleaning it up, it just gets damaged more. Some areas where we’ll get some leaves or some silt accumulate, we’ll spray it off with a hose. And when you’re spraying it off it, it slides off the Tahoma 31. If it’s really dense, it’s kind of like having a shag carpet versus a tighter version. It’s just easier to clean,” Davis says. To test Tahoma 31, “we put it around some of our catch basins where I knew that if we were to have a really bad rain event, we would have to do a lot of washing and a lot of cleaning. And it just stood out as the front runner from day one.”

He continued, “I always felt like Tahoma 31 gives us the density closest to zoysia, but also it has the aggressiveness of bermuda. That’s one reason why we went with Tahoma 31.”

Cold

Dallas gets really hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter. Davis wanted a grass that could not only survive but thrive in both extremes.

“A lot of our tees and our greens are elevated a little bit to make sure they’re up out of the floodplain. The last couple of years we’ve had some cold blasts, and those elevated faces that face north when the wind marches down off the plains north of us, they get hammered with the cold weather. And the Tahoma has, even in my test, you could see where the Tahoma was just about fine with the cold weather compared to anything else around it was severely stunted,” Davis says. “There’s a significant advantage to me having a bermudagrass that is cold hardy as opposed—I mean all bermudagrass for the most part can tolerate the heat.—but the benefit to us was the fact that Tahoma 31 can also tolerate the cold.”

Royal Oaks began grassing in July 2023, sodding 15 acres on slopes. The other 65 acres were installed as sod-to-sprigs. The grand opening was October 13th. Davis says he’s happy he chose Tahoma 31 bermuda over zoysias. On opening day, Tahoma 31 was at an HOC of ¼-nch with plans to be down to .350-inch by next year.

“I want to make sure that everything we do is to give our members the best product available. And I really 100-percent feel that the Tahoma 31 was the right call for us. It’s an aggressively growing bermudagrass. It’s beautiful. It handles the low cut. It’s cold hardy. It’s shade hardy. It stays greener longer in the fall and it greens up a little quicker in the spring. So I think that’s a benefit to anybody,” Davis says. “ It ticks off every box.”

Carolina Green
10108 Indian Trail Fairway Rd
Indian Trail, NC 28079
kprice@cgcfields.com
704-753-1707 ext 105

Inman Sod
19 Harris Plant Cir
Rutherfordton, NC 28139
jspears@inmanmills.com
864-680-3509

Carolina Turf Farms, Inc.
PO Box 850
Raeford, NC 28376
ncsodman@carolinaturffarms.com
910-875-6141

Chanshare Farms
10785 W 12800 N.
Tremonton, Utah 84337
www.chanshare.com
eric@chanshare.com
435-854-3627

Craft Turf Farms
10505 Co Rd 65
Foley, AL 36535
https://craftturffarms.com
david@craftturffarms.com

Grassmasters Sod Farms
2300 W 350
North Patoka, IN 47666
www.gmsod.com
pam@gmsod.com
812-779-5468

South Florida Grassing, Inc.
P.O. Box 725
Hobe Sound, FL 33475
https://www.southfloridagrassing.com
sfgrassing@yahoo.com

West Coast Turf
11803 E. McDonald Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85256
Danielle.Scardino@westcoastturf.com
888-893-8873

Riverside Turf
18161 Sandy Point Rd
Charles City, VA 23030
morgan@riversideturf.com
804-829-2608

Winstead Turf Farms Inc
22860 Hwy 196
Arlington, TN 38002
bobby@winsteadturffarms.com
901-491-5025

South Turf, (DBA New Life Turf)
7500 Savannah Hwy
Neeses, SC 29107
afogle@newlifeturf.com
acribb@newlifeturf.com
800-752-1035

Carolina Fresh Farms
7 locations in S.C. to serve you
www.carolinafreshfarms.com
800-675-7954

Riverview Sod Ranch
14616 E 146 St South
Leonard, OK 74043
riverviewsod@yahoo.com
918-232-5673

Sod by Sherry
7700 N Heaston Rd.
Calumet, OK 73014
sodbysherry@gmail.com
405-630-8710

CHINA

Forward Group
Shenzhen, China
cxjtyx@forward-group.cn
+86 15220236619

JAPAN

Soil Maxx
Tokyo, Japan
msato@soilmaxx.com
81-80-3359-8747

VIETNAM

Outfield Nurseries
Ngoc Giang Hamlet, Vinh Ngoc Commune
Dong Anh, Hanoi Vietnam 100000
jason@outfieldasia.com
84-24-3514-8592

Tuckahoe Turf Farms
401 Myrtle Avenue
Hammonton, NJ 08037
keith@ttfarms.com
609-784-3704

Greenfield Turf
PO Box 138
Gordonville, MO 63752
Greenfieldturffarm@hotmail.com
573-450-4058

Keeven Bros Sod
602 Laura Hill Rd
St. Peters, MO 63376
Drewkeeven@keevenbrothers.com
636-544-9706

Keevenbrothers.com

Central Sod of Maryland
920 John Brown Rd
Centreville, MD 21617
team@centralsodmd.com
https://plantsod.com
410-827-5000

Grassmasters Sod Farms
2300 W 350
North Patoka, IN 47666
www.gmsod.com
pam@gmsod.com
812-779-5468

Hawaiian Turfgrass
94-840 Lanikuhana St.
Mililani, HI 96789
hawaiianturfgrass@gmail.com
808-371-0527

Legacy Turf Farms
850 Indian Mounds Rd
Cartersville, GA 30120
gary@legacyturffarms.com
https://legacyturffarms.com
770-607-0491

West Coast Turf
42-540 Melanie Place
Palm Desert, CA 92211
mel.williams@gmail.com
760-340-7300

Poinsett Turfgrass LLC
PO Box 48
Harrisburg, AR 72432
poinsett.co@gmail.com
870-761-0355

AUSTRALIA