KEY WEST, Fla. -- Key West Golf Club has reopened after damage and salt water intrusion from Hurricane Wilma last year forced a renovation of the course using salt-tolerant Seadwarf Seashore Paspalum turfgrass. An 18-hole public facility, Key West GC is the southernmost golf course in the continental United States.
On Oct. 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused an eight-foot storm surge that flooded the golf course with four feet of salt water and inundated the irrigation ponds with ocean water, leaving no source for fresh water, and severely damaging the course's Tifdwarf Bermuda grass greens.
Key West GC General Manager Doug Carter, Head Golf Professional Eric Favier and Head Superintendent Koby Minshall called in a professional, Dr. Lee Berndt of William Berndt Associates, International Management Consulting, to help them in their recovery. Berndt recommended they re-grass their greens with a salt-tolerant, dwarf variety of seashore paspalum turfgrass called SeaDwarf.
"Due to the location of Key West along with its harsh environment, Seadwarf seashore paspalum is the best grass for Key West Golf Club," Berndt said.
Added Minshall, "Paspalum will tolerate the salty environment in Key West. In the event of a future storm surge or heavy salts in tropical rain storms, the Paspalum will have a good chance of survival."
Carter said playability of the grass also figured into the decision to re-grass with SeaDwarf.
"The grass is very dense and grows very quickly," he said. "It seems to have a more vibrant color than the Bermuda grasses and with the proper maintenance practices it may also have less grain."
SeaDwarf seashore paspalum turfgrass is very environmentally friendly, in that it requires up to 50 percent less water and up to 75 percent less fertilizer than Bermuda grass.
"The biggest environmental benefit is that it will [tolerate] effluent water for irrigation much better than other turf grasses. This will help conserve the fresh water supplies," said Eric Favier. "In the future, especially in South Florida, water conservation is very important and irrigating with reused water will be very important."
Minshall said the new SeaDwarf grass, which can tolerate seawater salt levels, will act almost like an insurance policy against future tropical storms and hurricanes.
"Seadwarf will help us survive future hurricanes because it is more salt tolerant than Bermuda grass," Minshall said. "Even if there is no storm surge associated with a hurricane the rain water in tropical systems is high in salt content."
The back nine greens are in excellent shape for play this season but will be re-grassed with SeaDwarf in June of 2007.
Along with re-grassing the greens with SeaDwarf, Key West GC did fairly extensive work to a number of fairways. They put in new drainage on holes 1, 2, 5 and 9. On hole No. 6, they raised the landing area up with roughly six inches of fill and sprigged it with new 419 Bermuda. They also sprigged some low-lying rough areas of No. 6 with Aloha seashore paspalum.
The 18-hole Key West GC opened in the early 1920s as a nine-hole facility. In the 1950s, another nine holes were added to make 18 holes. In 1983, Rees Jones was hired to design the current 18; Key West GC was Jones' first design with his own company.
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