Bermudagrass and Zoysiagrass Cultivar Selection: Part 2, Divot Recovery

Golfers commonly remove turf and soil when swinging a golf club causing a divot in the turf. Divot recovery is an important factor that should be considered when selecting a species or cultivar for use on golf course tees or fairways. There are few reports directly comparing the divot recovery among bermudagrass (Cynodon spp. Rich.) and zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp. Willd.) cultivars. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to quantify divot recovery of several bermudagrass and zoysiagrass cultivars in a combined field experiment. Divot recovery was evaluated on four collection dates for five cultivars of bermudagrass and seven cultivars of zoysiagrass. Cultivars generally with the fastest time to 50% recovery were ‘Princess 77’ and ‘Riviera’ bermudagrass and ‘Palisades’ zoysiagrass. Generally, the cultivars with the slowest time to 50% recovery were ‘Meyer’ and ‘Zenith’ zoysiagrass. Additionally, ‘Tifway’ bermudagrass had similar divot recovery times to ‘El Toro’ and Palisades zoysiagrass. These results demonstrate that differences and similarities exist among bermudagrass and zoysiagrass cultivars for divot recovery, and golf course superintendents can use this information to better select cultivars that could improve surface playing conditions.