Team Zoysia International Arthur Milberger [far left], Don Roberts [second left] and Dr Milt Engelke [far right] with Ning and Brad Burgess.
Bangkok, Thailand: Zeon Zoysia is poised to ‘change the golf industry for the better’.
That’s the view of
Brad Burgess, Managing Director and Owner of Sports Turf Solutions [STS], a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation [AGIF].
It was in June, 2014, that Thai Turf Farms International Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the STS Group of companies, signed a license for Zeon Zoysia grass to be put into production in Thailand and other regions of Southeast Asia.
Burgess said: “Zeon Zoysia is becoming extremely popular throughout the world due to a range of factors that will change the golf industry for the better. The playability of Zeon is one of the features that players of all levels will enjoy.
“The natural deep green colour and striping ability gives it the ‘wow’ factor while the fact that it can be maintained with low inputs of fertiliser means operators can save tens of thousands of dollars per year in fertiliser costs.
“This also results in less growth, less thatch build up and less maintenance practices all round.
“Water savings can be more than 50 per cent less than other varieties of turf commonly used in Asia. Plus all types of weeds can be selectively controlled.
“Zeon is also extremely resistant to diseases and insects, meaning pesticide use is almost totally eliminated. Furthermore, it is extremely salt tolerant.”
Not only will the course being built for the golf tournament at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro be grassed with Zeon Zoysia but so, too, will
Tiger Woods’ first United States-designed course, Bluejack National.
In Asia, Zeon Zoysia has already been in play at the Sta Elena Golf Club in the Philippines’ capital of Manila.
It has also been planted into site nurseries on the Schmidt-Curley-designed Myotha Mandalay Golf Course in Myanmar, as well as the
Bob Moore [JMP]-sculpted Bandung Parahyangan Golf Course under construction in Indonesia.
Schmidt-Curley and JMP are both members of the AGIF.