Your Bowling Green Specialist
6 Reasons to use artificial grass for bowling greens
You know the saying, ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’ … Well if it’s an artificial grass bowling green on the other side, then it’s absolutely true!
Quality, well-laid artificial grass bowling surface doesn’t just look great all year, the synthetic surface provides a stable, smooth green to play lawn bowls all day, year-round.
Many bowling clubs, sports clubs, retirement villages and thousands of happy bowlers around the world, have discovered the HUGE benefits of using (synthetic carpet (artificial grass) for bowling greens.
You may be dubious, or perhaps you need to convince club members or residents that installing or upgrading to artificial turf is a good idea.
Some bowlers who have played on older-style artificial grass, may think a natural grass bowling green is better.
And we know there are dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists who up until now, haven’t been convinced that artificial grass is the best choice for lawn bowls.
However, technology and manufacturing techniques used to make speciality artificial grass products for bowling greens, have come a long, long way! This in conjunction with our laser levelling and cement stabilised based construction provides for a well rounded playing surface.
At BD Design & Build, we always ask our clients (in New Zealand, Australia and the United States), for feedback about the performance of their new synthetic bowling greens.
Based on their feedback and our knowledge, here are our top 6 reasons why Artificial Grass – Synthetic Surface product and base construction is the best choice: Read on to learn more about Artificial Grass For Bowling Greens
#1 Less Maintenance and More Sustainable
Greenkeepers/maintenance staff face ongoing challenges to keep natural grass bowling greens in good condition.
Whether it’s the weather, battling weeds, watering, mowing, rolling, aerating, brushing (the list goes on) … It’s hard work and very time-consuming to maintain real grass.
Installing or upgrading to a Artificial Grass For Bowling Greens dramatically lowers the time (and cost) involved, compared to maintaining natural turf.
With artificial grass, you WON’T need to:
- Mow Grass
- Roll Grass
- Aerate Turf
- Brush Greens
- Use anywhere near as much Water
(Some clubs now use up to 400,000 litres LESS a year!) - Use Weedkiller, Pesticide or Fertiliser
- Use Sand
#2 Lower Costs
The cost of maintaining traditional bowling greens can be a burden, especially for smaller clubs or retirement villages.
- Synthetic Carpet (artificial grass) involves MUCH less maintenance – greatly reducing the overall running costs of a bowling green.
- Lower maintenance costs helps keep membership fees as low as possible, to encourage new members to join and existing members to stay. You may also attract bowlers from other clubs, when word gets out about how the new synthetic surface – artificial bowling green is playing!
- Long-term, installing or upgrading to artificial turf will free up money for other things your club/village may need.
- Irrigation water costs can be high through the dry summer months for a natural green surface. The low water requirements with the maintenance of the synthetic carpet, maintenance costs don’t rise unexpectedly across warmer seasons.
#3 Stable Surface – Play All Day, All Year
The quality and performance of the artificial grass – synthetic surface and cement stabilised base construction, enables all year round and all weather playing.
With the advances made by specialist textile engineers, the quality and performance of the synthetic carpet playing surface performs consistently at a high standard throughout the day, with playing speeds not altering significantly like other playing surfaces.
Modern, scrim reinforced underlay also creates a more comfortable green underfoot.
- BD Design & Build uses World Bowls Accredited True Draw synthetic carpet and underlay. Our World Bowls standard greens can be played on year-round.
- True Draw synthetic carpet is stable and plays consistently in all weather conditions. It’s designed by textile engineers for high UV conditions and drains exceptionally well.
- With real grass, varying surface levels can occur through ground movement. The base construction of our synthetic bowling greens is stable and can be precisely leveled by laser – helping to create a consistent, even playing surface across greens, year-round.
- We use the widest artificial grass rolls in the industry: 5.8 meters wide! Less seams per green (on average, 6 seams per green) creates a smooth, consistent playing surface.
- The True Draw needle punch carpet we use has a surface weight of 2000 grams per square meter – creating a stronger, more durable bowling green which doesn’t stretch or shrink. The carpet is also fully reversible and can be played in both directions.
#4 Stable Speeds
Modern manufacturing techniques and products mean the performance of a quality artificial grass bowling green can be exceptionally good.
Roll speed on True Draw artificial grass bowling greens isn’t affected by weather conditions, temperature or shade.
For our synthetic bowling green installations, on completion, BD Design & Build performs a final speed test to ensure the surface is playing to World Bowls standard.
Speed tests can also be completed throughout the lifetime of the green to ensure the surface is still performing at the same level as to when it was installed. With this additional testing, it has been discovered that over time the green will play even better than the day it was laid. This is due to the oxidisation of the carpet in the local climate elements and consistent player use.
#5 Cement stabilised base construction drains faster
The back layer of quality artificial grass for bowling greens, is evenly perforated with drainage holes – this means:
- The cement stabilised base construction is installed with laser levelling technology to be within the World Bowls standard tolerances across the surface. Under the cement stabilised base is a complete drainage system design for the specific site and weather conditions.
- Each ditch around the green is installed with a flood proof outlet to ensure surface water stays below the green and flows away from the playing surface.
- The drainage system is connected into the on onsite stormwater connect on site. BD Design and Build will work with the club/village/main contractor to ensure all connections are provided and installed correctly.
- The True Draw needle punch artificial grass can drain approximately 50 litres of water per minute (per square meter of grass).
- The artificial grass drains evenly across the whole green – no need to worry about standing water or damp areas affecting roll speed, or causing matches and tournaments to be postponed or cancelled.
- True Draw artificial grass can drain approximately 50 liters of water per minute (per square meter of grass).
#6 No Chemicals Needed
The environmental and possible health impacts of using weedkiller, pesticide and fertiliser to maintain natural grass bowling greens, also need to be considered. None of these chemicals are needed to maintain an artificial grass bowling green.
Combined with using far less water, it’s hard to ignore the environmental benefits of having a synthetic bowling green … It really is the best your green can be!
CONCLUSION
With drastically reduced maintenance* and costs … Being able to enjoy bowling all day, year-round … Stable surfaces and speeds … Exceptional drainage and far less environmental impact, it’s easy to see why artificial grass bowling greens have been installed at so many bowling clubs, sports clubs and retirement villages.
*To make maintenance even easier, on completion of our synthetic bowling greens, BD Design & Build provides a full Maintenance and Care Instruction Plan, new vacuum cleaner, and personal, ongoing after-sale support.
Artificial grass can also be used for indoor bowling greens and to cover banks around greens, to protect them from the impact of bowls hitting banks at speed.
If you’d like to know more about installing a synthetic bowling green in New Zealand, Australia or the U.S.A., email BD Design & Build via our Contact Form.
