North Carolina’s Catawba Country Club
Project Overview
To combat longer, hotter, drier summers at Catawba Country Club in Newton, NC, Director of Agronomy Robert Arrington updated the club’s bentgrass greens in June 2024 to Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass. The goal was not only to help Catawba survive heat stress and improve putting quality, but also to help attract a new superintendent as Arrington, who has been with the club more than 30 years, approaches retirement.
Facility
Catawba Country Club
Location
Newton, North Carolina
Date
Built 1946 and renovated June 2024
Greens
Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermuda
Designer
Donald Ross
Of Note
Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass sprigs grown, harvested, and installed by Modern Turf
Conversion from Bentgrass to Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass
Built in 1946 from a design by the legendary architect Donald Ross, Catawba underwent a 2016 bentgrass regrassing on the original push-up native soil greens. Contemplating the renovation that took place in 2024, several factors contributed to the decision to choose Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermuda.
“Sometimes they’d talk about hosting a major tournament right in the middle of the summer, and we’d wonder if the bentgrass really could take 144 people out there playing all weekend through this heat. We were so on the defense of trying to take care of the course that we were almost taking the course away from the members,” Arrington says. “And now I don’t think we have to worry about that.”
But there was more to it than just heat stress. “We wanted firmer and faster greens, better playing conditions through the summer, and the bentgrass on these native soil greens just wasn’t giving us that,” Arrington says. “A little bit of it was my age and me thinking about possibly retiring in a few years. Did we want to try to bring somebody in who even wanted to grow bentgrass? We thought if we went bermuda, we would have a better playing surface, and we knew we could find somebody to come in who would want to grow a new bermudagrass on these greens. The membership was asking, ‘Well, if you retire, who’s going to want to grow bentgrass anymore?’”
Nathan Evans joined the Catawba staff as golf course superintendent in April 2024, after helping to grow in Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, NC.
“You’re making a good choice,” Evans told Arrington, while still at Old Chatham. “We had done some comparisons to other ultradwarf cultivars, and it was largely ahead. It was always doing better. Mach 1 had a quicker greens speed using the same cultural practices on both types. We were able to compare the two on the nursery greens, and the Mach 1 greens surface outperformed in pretty much every aspect for speed and ball roll.”
Arrington continued, “It did make me feel very comfortable that Nathan and Brian (Brian Powell was the former director or agronomy at Old Chatham and is now employed by the USGA) down at Old Chatham had done a lot of research. They had done the homework and reassured me that I was making a good choice.”
Arrington and his general manager wanted to putt on Mach 1 greens, so they registered for an event at Pilot Knob Park Golf Course in Pilot Mountain, NC, and were impressed.
Finally, Arrington has had a longstanding relationship with Modern Turf, the sod farm in Rembert, South Carolina, that is the exclusive producer of Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass worldwide. “They said Mach 1 was their best grass. I just felt like if they thought that was their best grass, that’s what I wanted,” Arrington says.
“The membership now couldn’t be happier. I mean, it’s amazing the people that come up to us on a daily basis—and we haven’t even had the grass a year yet—who are saying these greens have never been this good.”
– Director of Agronomy Robert Arrington, Catawba Country Club
Renovation Process
The regrassing was done as a no-till conversion to eradicate the old bentgrass but retain the original native soil greens. The course was shut down on June 17, 2024, vertical mowed and aerified for two days (nine holes each day), then treated for two days with granular Basamid that was watered in for a week.
The Modern Turf crew arrived on June 28th armed with burlap sacks filled with live sprigs in a refrigerated trailer. Each green was pre-measured to determine exactly how many sprigs were needed for proper calibration. A team staged the sacks of live sprigs hole by hole and, together with Catawba’s staff, the live material was hand-shaken for consistent coverage. Altogether, approximately 105,000 square feet of live Mach 1 sprigs were planted over 21 greens (18 holes plus putting green, chipping green, and nursery green) in just one day. The sprigs were cut in, rolled, top dressed, and watered.
Super-Fast Grow-in
Within three days, the fresh new sprigs had visible roots of at least two inches in length. By June 10th, 13 days after planting, the new Mach 1 greens had their first mowing.
“I was surprised,” Evans says. “When I’ve previously done this, they were on USGA spec greens, and the process, and how the greens grew-in on the native solid greens was certainly a quicker process. Maybe it’s because there’s more organic material at the top in the no-till native soil greens? I do remember telling myself that this process started growing quicker, in my opinion.”
The course opened for play on August 30th, just two months after sprigging.
Outcome
This interview was conducted in late February 2025, in mid-winter, when the greens had only been open six months. At the time, Arrington reported that with a height of cut at .145 -inch the greens were rolling 10.5 to 11 on the Stimpmeter. “We’ve got some undulations that we are not going to want them to be much more than an 11. This membership won’t want them much faster than that.”
In fact, the membership’s reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. “The membership now couldn’t be happier. I mean, it’s amazing the people that come up to us on a daily basis—and we haven’t even had the grass a year yet— that are saying these greens have never been this good.” Arrington adds, with a bit of self-deprecation, “Well, it kind of hurts my feelings sometimes when they say it’s the best they’ve ever had. I’ve been here for 34 years! I guess they’re making more putts, and because of the trueness of the roll. I think a lot of it, too, is I don’t think they thought they would be this good this quick. You know, I believe they came out of the gate being really good, and it just surprised everybody. I think they thought they were going to have to wait a year before the greens really got good.”
After spending his career at Catawba, Arrington says it’s been an honor to caretake one of Ross’s final golf courses, and he feels that he’s set the club up for many more decades of success.
“One of the reasons why the bermudagrass is going to be a better fit for us being a 79-year-old course is getting firm greens in the summer. Before you could fly the ball to the flag, and it would just stop because it was so wet,” Arrington says. “I think this grass, and the new fast and firm playing conditions, will bring back the way Donald Ross intended the place to play.”
What would Arrington say to other clubs considering planting Mach 1 Ultradwarf Bermudagrass greens? “I’d say I think you’ll be very happy,” he says, with a grin. “I believe you’ll be coming back and thanking me for suggesting it.”