Pebble Creek Country Club in College Station, Texas, Upgrades to Sustainable Platinum TE Paspalum

What happens when a long-time paspalum fan faces severe water quality issues at his new superintendent post? He puts his preference to the test.

Jeff Jowell, a self-proclaimed paspalum enthusiast, developed a love of the turfgrass species as a golfer and a superintendent. Having managed older paspalum varieties and played paspalum courses in the U.S. and Mexico, Jowell came to appreciate both the performance and sustainability features of the turfgrass.

So, when he became superintendent at Pebble Creek Country Club in College Station, Texas, and encountered some of the worst water quality, heat, and drought conditions he’d ever seen at a golf course, his thinking went straight to paspalum.

The existing greens at Pebble Creek were the original Tifdwarf planted when the course was built in 1991. With declining water quality and ever-intensifying summer stresses, the bermudagrass greens struggled to survive.

“Summers here in central Texas get very, very hot,” said Jowell. “And when we have extreme drought situations, our water quality gets worse and worse. It was getting to the point where you could see the bermudagrass getting sicker and sicker the more you watered it.”

With severe drought conditions in the region over the previous two years, the irrigation water for Pebble Creek tested extremely high in salts and sodium bicarbonates.

“We pump out of a perennial stream with all of the wastewater effluent discharge from Bryan and College Station ending up in the stream,” said Jowell. “We are downstream. As we go into a dry spell, it becomes mainly effluent.”

Wetter conditions in the winter generally keep the water quality better, but with the summer droughts, Jowell describes the situation as horrible.

“I started at Pebble Creek at the end of 2022 – in time to experience the hottest summer on record last year. I think it was the fourth driest summer recorded. We had no rain from June 10^th to around September 18^th.”

Jowell measured water quality frequently. Manageable winter pH levels rose exorbitantly in the summer.

“We went from a winter pH of 7.5 to 9.7 or 9.8 and had a SAR (sodium adsorption ratio) of about 19 last summer during the drought. Bicarbonates were more than 380 ppm and sodium in excess of 280 ppm.”

During this time, Jowell paid close attention to a trial area of Platinum TE Paspalum at Pebble Creek. Just before the pandemic, the previous superintendent had sand-capped an acre of one of the fairways that had been in bad shape and planted Platinum TE there.

“That Platinum TE was stellar,” said Jowell. “All through the drought, the Platinum had no problems whatsoever, whereas the bermudagrass everywhere else struggled. The Platinum fairway is a par 5, and the members love it so much, they say they like to lay up instead of going for the green.”

Around this time, Jowell saw a post on social media from a nearby turf farm promoting their new Platinum TE Paspalum. Caney Creek Turf, located just a few hours from College Station, is the only licensed grower of Platinum TE in Texas.

“I didn’t know there was a Platinum TE grower here until I saw their post. You really get my attention with paspalum,” said Jowell. “It was time to make a change. Water quality was the driving force in selecting Platinum TE for our greens conversion, and having a local grower made it an easy choice.”

In February of this year, Jowell began the project to regrass all 22 putting greens on the property with Platinum TE, including 18 holes and four practice greens. In total, Pebble Creek converted about four acres of putting surfaces with greens, collars, and approaches.

“We worked on seven greens at a time with our contractor. I had already done one green in-house prior to our February start,” said Jowell. “The first seven greens were planted by mid-March. Everything went smoothly. We completed the last seven in early May.

“We opened the first nine greens the first week of June and the last nine roughly ten days later. As it went in stages, we got further into the growing season, so the first seven planted had a little more time than the last seven on the ground. But being in the growing season, the last seven were gaining ground with the first very quickly.”

From the beginning, the new Platinum TE greens garnered praise.

“When we first opened,” Jowell said, “a member told me, ‘If this is as good as they ever get, they are better than they’ve ever been.’”

With a big tournament scheduled later in the summer, Jowell coaxed the new greens into tournament condition.

“We started out slow, being cautious with mowing heights and things like that, but here lately, in the growing season and with my plant regulator program, the greens are phenomenal.”

While the paspalum varieties of the past were not always a favorite for greens, the advanced Platinum TE variety delivers championship-worthy putting surfaces. Jowell’s playing experience prior to Pebble Creek demonstrated the quality, and the success at College Station reinforced this belief.

“For me, I enjoy this so much more,” said Jowell. “I love how the Platinum TE is the warm season bentgrass – performs and plays and putts like a bentgrass, whereas the bermudas are bermudas no matter the variety.”

When asked what his favorite characteristics of Platinum TE are, Jowell had plenty to say.

“The color and density are hands down the best. The color is phenomenal, with very little inputs, very little nitrogen. And the color holds,” said Jowell.

“The rooting propensity of Platinum TE is unbelievable. I have roots every morning when we are cutting cups, and there are roots coming out of the bottom of the cups. It is amazing. I’ve never seen roots on a warm season grass like this. Our mowing heights are .08 inches, and we still have eight- to nine-inch roots. And I feel like the greens are still new. They’ll just get a more robust root system as we go on.”

Green speeds have been a plus as well. On average, Jowell says they roll at around 10 to 11 on the Stimpmeter.

“The Platinum TE is so dense that, visually, the greens don’t look like they are fast. It just looks like there is too much grass. But as you putt, you see how fast they are,” said Jowell. “The members – the seniors and the younger, heavy-hitter guys – are all very pleased with the speeds, so I’m comfortable where we are, speedwise. I know that I can tweak a thing or two and get them significantly faster if needed for a tournament.”

As successful as the Platinum TE proved to be at Pebble Creek in appearance and performance, its sustainability scores also got top marks.  

“There is definitely a water savings,” said Jowell. “We are not having to water as frequently. I can go two to three days, even in the 100-degree plus weather that we’ve had lately.”

With the greens success, Jowell is now embarking on a gradual tee box conversion project.

“Originally, we had planned to just convert the black tees to Platinum TE – where the majority of the play is. But as things progressed, the ownership said, ‘What about here and over here…’ We currently have all the black tees and more – about 30 in all so far, including the range tees.

“This fall, I hope to start doing the rest of the tees. The performance of the turf is so good and so well received by the membership and the ownership.”

The results at Pebble Creek received notice outside of the club. Fellow superintendents, industry professionals, and academia share Jowell’s high opinion of the Platinum TE.

“Basically, everyone who comes – the Platinum TE is what they want to see. Even the vendors and sales reps. They’ve enjoyed seeing the progress from what it was to what it is now. They don’t see the same color and density in other grasses. Sometimes, these guys know the courses as well as the superintendents.”

Texas A&M’s Department of Soil and Crop Services has a Platinum TE green at their research farm. Jowell has partnered with Dr. Ben Wherley, Turfgrass Science and Ecology professor, on multiple research projects.

“Dr. Wherley has been blown away. We talk all the time, and he brings out other people who deal with the same issues we have here. I tell them and everyone else all the time that this is the turfgrass for this region and these issues. Between the color, density, recovery – the recovery is so much better.

“As you can tell, I really like Platinum TE. I would prefer to have it on every turf surface I maintain. And I believe we’re going to see a lot more people open to paspalum, especially as water quality issues become more significant.”

Caney Creek Turf in Wharton is a licensed grower of Platinum TE and offers quality turf from the Texas Gulf Coast. “It was great working with them,” said Jeff Jowell, superintendent at Pebble Creek Country Club. “David [Zaskoda] has been an excellent sounding board to ask various questions. He’s also connected me with other superintendents in the area who grow Platinum TE. Caney Creek Turf has been a welcome resource. It’s great to have a local grower.”