North Carolina Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com
The Swamp.
Just the name evokes a visceral reaction from every college football fan in the south. Florida Gators beam with pride at the mention of their legendary stadium. Other SEC teams’ fans may respond with less enthusiasm, but no one can question the fact that Steve Spurrier-Florida Field is an iconic place to play college football.
The statistics don’t lie – three national titles, eight conference titles, three Heisman trophies and many winning seasons attest to the Florida Gators’ dominant football program. And for every football team that plays on such a big stage, there’s always an unsung hero, a hero that endures the elements and injury, is pushed to its limits, yet expected to perform week after week, year after year – the turf.
Most fans never give it a second thought. Even players and coaches seldom notice this integral part of the game unless it isn’t performing. But turfgrass managers recognize the field as the very foundation of a top-tier NCAA football program. It is this recognition of the importance of playing surface that drives sports turf managers across the country and beyond to seek the most functional and attractive turfgrass available for their sports fields.
A Surprising Find
In November of 2018, when Jason Smith, Director of Sports Turf at University of Florida, saw the events calendar for Spring of 2019 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (aka The Swamp), he knew it was time to start planning a field renovation. To accommodate a concert and graduation, flooring would be covering the turf for nearly a month beginning in April. With field renovation on such a large scale looming, he began his research.
After researching and narrowing the field to three varieties that might uphold the standard expected of a high-level SEC stadium, Smith made a visit to the university turfgrass program’s research site. Dr. Jason Kruse, University of Florida Assistant Professor and Turfgrass Specialist, showed Smith research plots. Nematodes are a major challenge for turfgrass managers in Florida, so when Smith saw that TifTuf had such a low incidence of nematode growth, his interest was piqued.
“The one that really caught my eye was the nematode resistance plot that I saw. It looked like nematodes hadn’t even touched it,” said Smith. “It looked like a control plot. That’s what really caught my attention.”
Upon learning of other features of TifTuf –staying green later in the season than other Bermuda grasses, excellent wear tolerance, increased drought tolerance – Smith was certain he’d found the right fit.
The Road to Excellence
It is easy to recognize what makes a turfgrass variety a great choice for certain uses, but we rarely get a peek into how that specific variety came to be. As new cultivars are introduced with increasing regularity, it is important to understand what goes into the making of that brand, especially when the stakes are this high.
TifTuf’s recent explosion onto the warm-season turfgrass scene is unprecedented, and while it may seem like an overnight sensation, many years of evaluation and development went into establishing this variety as a top performer.
Developed by the experts in Tifton, Georgia, TifTuf was 20-plus years in the making. “It’s important that we studied this in Georgia, but we had bigger plans for TifTuf,” says Dr. Brian Schwartz, associate professor at the University of Georgia and TifTuf breeder (alongside Dr. Wayne Hanna). “It’s very important to do a lot of testing to make sure you don’t release a product that gets out to the public and fails.”
After a painstaking breeding and development process, it was clear that this turf would be a great success if it was brought to market properly. Enter The Turfgrass Group, a licensing and marketing company made up of turf professionals.