After weighing the pros and cons for more than a year, Heritage Golf Club in Wake Forest is joining the growing list of North Carolina courses switching to Bermuda greens.
The project began in late June and is expected to be completed Sept. 1. Temporary greens were cut over a two-week period so play will continue (at about 700 less yards). Heritage members can also enjoy 31 other area courses at a discounted rate during the span of the construction.
“Now we pray for lots of rain,” said Tami Bright, the club’s membership and marketing director. “
Heritage Golf Club, designed by Chapel Hill-based architect Bob Moore, will celebrate its 13th anniversary in October.
“The grass we’re switching to wasn’t available 13 years ago and we just get a lot of play,” Bright said. “This is an opportunity to improve a great product we already have.”
Heritage Golf Club has averaged between 38,000-40,000 rounds per year since opening, making it one of the Triangle’s most successful semi-private layouts.
“That’s a lot of ball marks and foot prints,” Bright said. “Our ownership waited to see how it has worked at other places, and our superintendent spent all winter tracking to see if he would have had to cover the greens on certain dates, would he have had to pull the covers on 18 holes or just open nine.”
Superintendent Nick Bisanz, who has been here for three years after coming from TPC Scottsdale, has been involved in one other green re-grassing and will oversee the Heritage project.
“The whole idea for the change is to provide a better product to the customers when we have the customers here,” Bisanz said. “We’ve struggled in the past summers with the North Carolina heat, plus traffic and disease pressure. Moving to the warm season grass puts our down time in the winter time when it is not ideal to play.
“We’re changing surfaces over completely without major construction; we’re going right over the top of the existing greens so that can be tough. It’s a little scary. You’ve got one chance to get it right. You don’t get a redo.”
Triangle Golf Today will track the project from start to finish with a feature story in the Fall Issue. – By David Droschak