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Difficulty Not realistic eco-only
Backyard putting green
A real green, not turf carpet. The hardest thing you can grow in a yard.
Cut height
0.125 to 0.25 in
Mows per week
5 to 7
Hours per week
5 plus
Extra cost per year
$1,500 to $4,000
How the course does it
Greens are creeping bentgrass on a built sand base with drainage, mowed daily at an eighth of an inch, rolled, topdressed with sand every two weeks, aerated twice a year, and sprayed with fungicide on a schedule because grass that short gets every disease. One hot humid week without a superintendent and it is gone.
Mower
Greens reel mower, $1,500 used and up
How you do it
- Build a 12-inch sand root zone over drainage tile; native clay will not work
- Seed creeping bentgrass or sod it
- Mow daily, roll, topdress, hand-water in heat
- Accept that an eco-only approach means losing it to dollar spot or pythium in a wet August
Straight talk
We are not going to pretend. A natural bentgrass green cannot be kept eco-only in Chicago humidity. If you want to putt at home, install synthetic turf for the green and grow a fairway-cut collar around it with a reel mower. That is what most backyard greens actually are.