BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Preparing for the LIV Golf tournament isn't just about the setup of the equipment.
It starts well beyond that with the greens themselves, but Cedar Ridge Country Club has run into some difficulties getting them up to par.
A course normally has two years to prepare the greens, but Cedar Ridge has only had about six months.
On top of that, the brutally cold winter is what's presented another challenge with one of the two types of grasses they have.
"All of our warm season grasses took a hit. There was a freeze in late December that impacted regionally through parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, so it was a pretty widespread event," said Eddie Roach, the Cedar Ridge Country Club course superintendent. "Unfortunately, when it's dormant grass, you don't know what the damage extent is until it breaks dormancy."
Roach said it wasn't until six weeks ago that his team was able to truly see the plant death that occurred from the winter.
The good part is most of the greens are cool season grass which survived. It's the fairways, tees, and most of the rest property that are warm season grass that was affected.
Once they saw the toll winter had, it was about addressing the areas of most importance first, like landing zones.
"We have adjusted them up or back to put them in better turf areas, but for the most part, the areas impacted aren't high areas of traffic or areas that are going to be impacted for these guys," Roach said.
He estimates of the 200-acre property only 10% of it is still not in the best condition.
Since this type of grass likes warmer temperatures, which we just barely started to reach, Roach estimates most of the growth people will see has occurred in the last ten days.
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