Synthetic golf courses are the way of the future - Synthetic Grass Lawns, Artificial Turf, Putting Greens and EcoLogical Lawn

Synthetic golf courses are the way of the future
With golfers all over Australia now installing synthetic putting greens in their homes, golfing legend and golf course designer Arnold Palmer believes golf courses will soon follow the trend and be entirely made from synthetic grass.

"It is almost a foregone conclusion that there will be some [synthetic golf courses] built … I don't think there will be any resistance. I don't think there's any reason for resistance.," said Palmer in an interview with Associated Press.

In the story, Palmer, who has now designed more than 200 courses worldwide, says that environmental concerns and the demand and cost of water use on the golf course makes 'synthetic golf' very appealing to designers. Up to one million litres of water per day are used on typical American golf courses in the summer.

Palmer said that he didn't expect any negative reaction from the purists as golf courses already have artificial greens, tee boxes and practice ranges.

Bill Rorke, Managing Director of Pro-tech Corp, Australia's biggest supplier of synthetic putting greens, which play as true and the world's top greens, says Pro-tech is already in discussion with major golf course designers in Australia.

"There has been some strong interest from big designers in Australia as people are starting to realise that advances in technology are allowing us to produce synthetic putting greens that play as a true as a top championship green," said Rorke.

"Australian Champion Peter O'Malley has one in his front yard in Sydney, along with a number of other top international golfers like Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Mark Calcavecchia, Lee Janzen, Hale Irwin and Corey Pavin.

"The big plus for designers is that with synthetic putting greens, the cost of maintenance is considerably reduced, as these putting greens require very little maintenance, and obviously no watering is needed, which is particularly attractive in our dry climate," said Rorke.

Bill Rorke says the installation of a Pro-tech Green starts with the preparation of the area, which has to be meticulous.

"We start by installing a porous road base to a thickness of 150 mm, which is then rolled. A further layer of up to 100 mm of fine crushed carbon road base is laid and contoured and trowelled into the required shape of the finished green. A rubber layer is then placed carefully over the road base to give a softer surface to walk on and finally the 35 mm long strand synthetic turf.

"The final surface of the putting green is built up by meticulously brushing in silica sand to the top of the turf strands, which are then rolled to create a firm and true surface. We use a different synthetic grass for the green surrounds.

"After the green is installed, routine maintenance is normally confined to annual brushing and rolling, if there has been a lot of use," Bill Rorke said.

Pro-tech also manufactures fibrillated synthetic lawns for residential and commercial use. 'Fibrillation' is a European concept, involving the splitting of the synthetic fibres to give the lawn a grass-like look and feel.

Pro-tech can be contacted on 1300 554 334.

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Released for Pro-tech Corp by Dennis Rutzou Public Relations.
For further information please call David Lizzio
or Dennis Rutzou on (02) 9413 4244.

Synthetic Grass Lawns, Artificial Turf, Putting Greens (Indoor and Outdoor) and EcoLogical Lawn

MEDIA RELEASE 26 July 2004