Southwest Greens

Retief has had a Southwest Greens putting green installed at his UK home. The low maintenance green looks, feels and plays like real golf grass. The green shape, size, contour and speed was designed specifically to Retief specifications.

 

Southwest Greens ® is the undisputed global leader in the sales, design, installation and maintenance of synthetic golf solutions. With over 8,000 projects installed around the world since 1996, the Company has an unprecedented track record. Southwest Greens has a worldwide sales and installation presence that offers a variety of concepts for residential use, golf courses and the leisure industry.

www.southwestgreens.eu

Installation Notes for Retief's Green:

• Installation took 3 days to complete
• 20 metric tonnes of aggregate base material used to construct the base
• There was a logistical challenge in getting the material from a large pile in the front of the garden to the back. We had to bring it manually in wheelbarrels
• There was a slope issue that we had to deal with as it was sloping 2.5% from top to bottom of the surface. The old green had no issues with the slope as it was a nylon product which always results in a slow surface that doesn’t react well to slope. The SWG surface reacts to slope dramatically as we create surfaces that compare to tour quality greens. Therefore, we had to elevate the zone dramatically to ensure a surface that Retief could practice on, giving him long, straight putts.
• We specifically designed some subtle breaks into the surface to allow for more difficult putts.
• Once the turf was cut in and shaped, we infilled it with 3 tonnes of silica sand and top dressed it with a special silica that is coloured green and black
• Finally, to produce the true ball roll, we rolled the putting surface with a ride-on roller for quite some time to bend the tips of the fibres and create a bent grass putting surface. Retief is able to have the green at whatever speed he wishes and we will work with him to make sure the speed is what he wants it at throughout the year. As he travels around the world and plays in various regions and climates, the characteristics of the various putting surfaces are all unique with different speeds. We are able to achieve whatever speed he wishes, through simple maintenance procedures.