Arizona State University

Mesa, AZ

The facility is approximately 10 acres in size and was constructed during the spring of 2004. The driving range is 365 yards from tee box to tee box. DAKOTA Peat at a 20% rate was chosen to improve the water-holding capacity of the sand for the 66,000 ft² of tee box area and the 11,600 ft² of USGA putting greens that make up the focal points of the Professional Golf Management (PGM) facility.

On July 2, 2004, Western Sere hydroseeded the entire facility with seed and stolons. During the next several critical days of “grow in” we experienced four days of 112-115°F temperatures with 10-15 mph winds with gusts up to 25 mph. The irrigation booster pump went down on us several times a day because of the extreme temperatures and an overactive thermal protection switch, while the new irrigation system had many sprinkler head bottom valves stuck open from dirt and small stones left in the lines. The DAKOTA Peat held enough moisture in the sand base during this period of terrible growing conditions for us to have a successful grow-in. Because of these experiences I highly recommend using DAKOTA Peat anywhere in the southwest where one might encounter high temperatures or sandy soils with extremely high infiltration rates.

The east end tee box is 36,000 ft² of Tifway 419 over a 12″ base of 80/20 mix of sand and DAKOTA Peat. Two USGA putting greens for the students are located in this area both were built over a 12″ DAKOTA Peat/sand base. The original green (built in 2004) is 5,000 ft² of TifEagle, while the second green was finished in the fall of 2007 is 2,300 ft² of MiniVerde. This tee box is used exclusively by our 220+ PGM students for practice and player development classes.

The west end tee box is approximately 30,000 ft² of Pennington Princess 77 over a 12″ base of 80/20 mix of sand and DAKOTA Peat. This end is open to the public and I recently added (fall 2007) a 4,300 ft² USGA putting green which also has the 12″ DAKOTA Peat/sand base for the MiniVerde ultra-dward Bermuda.

Stephen P. Hefner

Golf & Facilities Management, Program Coordinator