Emerging Alternative to Overseeding
Overseeding a golf course requires time, labor and money, and inconveniences golfers during the grow-in times. Is there a better alternative? There might be one emerging.
Some golf courses have experimented over the years with coloring, or painting, their dormant turfgrass, rather than overseeding it. It sounds kind of silly, but as the quality of the "turf colorants" has improved, and best-practices for doing it have been shared among greenskeepers, coloring (at least of the dormant greens) is catching on with more golf courses. Overseeding is still more common for now.
A case study of the use of turf colorants
published by the USGA Green Section concluded:
"The majority of golfers could not tell the difference between fairways treated with turf colorants and the conventional overseeding practices. Low-handicap players at the course especially preferred the colorant-treated playing surfaces. Turf colorants provide excellent visual definition during the winter and eliminate the poor playing conditions during the overseed transition periods. Of course, there were some golfers who were not happy with the change and preferred the overseeded fairways, but for the most part the reaction has been extremely positive."