About the Project
Scott Lupold is the director of sports turf at the University of Southern California. He’s responsible for the oversight of all of the fields on campus as well as the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
Under his purview, he’s responsible for a host of facilities. And they’re all grassed with Tahoma 31 Bermuda, grown by licensed producer West Coast Turf.
“Every field we’ve put in since 2021 has been Tahoma 31,” Lupold says.
Lupold noted several reasons why he’s using Tahoma 31 exclusively at USC.
Strength & Player Safety
Quick Transition From Overseed
“What we found last year is we sprayed out our ryegrass the day after the season was over in May … and we were full Bermuda in like, I think, three-and-a-half weeks. That includes the infield, that includes the front of home plate, that includes in and around home plate,” Lupold says.
“It was the quickest transition we’ve ever been through on an overseeded field by far. It wasn’t even close.”
Fewer Inputs
“If now you’re not using an excess amount of nitrogen, your disease pressures are lower, obviously you’re not spending as much money,” Lupold says. “There’s a lot of benefit to that.”
“When your recovery is that much faster, if it doesn’t wear near as much, you just don’t need to use the same amount of nitrogen that you might on another variety to push it to recover.”
Looks Great on TV
“This one is its own color. I mean, it’s kind of got a really beautiful olive green type of color,” Lupold says. “And then what happens with that is now you can stripe this grass and actually have it lean over to create a really, really cool looking, almost cool-season grass-esque, striping for you.”
