{"id":343450,"date":"2025-12-12T02:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343450\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:05:08","slug":"new-turf-variety-will-cost-272462-at-two-of-the-villages-oldest-golf-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343450\/","title":{"rendered":"New turf variety will cost $272,462 at two of The Villages\u2019 oldest golf courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The turf variety will be changed on the greens at two of The Villages\u2019 oldest executive golf courses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Amenity Authority Committee voted 4-1 this week to spend $272,462 to change the turf variety used at the greens at the Hilltop Executive Golf Course and the Silver Lake Executive Golf Course. Both courses are located on the Historic Side of The Villages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">During renovations of the two executive golf courses, the previous golf maintenance director chose to install TifGrand Bermuda Turf variety on the greens. Since that time, based on resident feedback, course superintendent\u2019s feedback, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/2025\/03\/10\/the-villages-has-new-director-of-executive-golf-maintenance\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hiring of the new Executive Golf Maintenance Director Donald Jones<\/a>, the philosophy of what turf variety to use on executive golf courses in The Villages has shifted. In 2023, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/2023\/05\/05\/aac-to-consider-1-285-million-bid-for-renovation-of-two-golf-courses\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hilltop Executive Golf Course<\/a>\u00a0 had a $653,309 renovation, paid for by the AAC. In 2021, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/2021\/10\/28\/residents-cheer-renovation-of-silver-lake-executive-golf-course\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Silver Lake Executive Golf Course<\/a> saw a $329,234 renovation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Donald-Jones.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"299151\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/2025\/12\/11\/new-turf-variety-will-cost-272462-at-two-of-the-villages-oldest-golf-courses\/donald-jones-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Donald-Jones.png\" data-orig-size=\"484,468\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Donald Jones\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Donald Jones&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Donald Jones was named executive golf maintenance director earlier this year.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Donald-Jones-300x290.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Donald-Jones.png\" class=\"size-full wp-image-299151\" title=\"Donald Jones\" src=\"https:\/\/www.villages-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Donald-Jones.png\" alt=\"Donald Jones\" width=\"484\" height=\"468\"  \/><\/a>Donald Jones was named executive golf maintenance director earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cTifEagle is preferred over TifGrand for golf course greens in Florida due to its superior putting quality, finer texture, and proven performance under intense management,\u201d Jones told the AAC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">TifGrand, while shade-tolerant, is better suited for fairways or lawns rather than greens. TifEagle is what is currently used on all executive golf course renovations and is what is used on all championship course renovations for greens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cTifEagle was developed specifically for putting greens. TifEagle is a third-generation ultradwarf Bermuda grass bred for golf greens, offering tighter density and finer leaf blades. It provides an exceptional putting surface and delivers fast, smooth, and consistent ball roll, meeting the high expectations of club players and tournament conditions,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He added that TifEagle responds well to frequent mowing, verticutting, and topdressing, which are essential for maintaining championship-quality greens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Since its introduction in the 1990s, TifEagle has been widely adopted across Florida courses, including PGA West renovations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">AAC Chair Donna Kempa cast the lone vote against the switch.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>Comments have been temporarily disabled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The turf variety will be changed on the greens at two of The Villages\u2019 oldest executive golf courses.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99,166605],"class_list":{"0":"post-343450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-the-villages-fl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}