Golf Digest Names David Doguet as Top Innovator & Influencer of 2016 (Type: articles)

Golf Digest Names David Doguet, Founder of Bladerunner Farms, to list of Golf’s Top Innovators & Influencers of 2016

Improving Lies

Story by Ron Whitten

If the business of breeding better grass is a turf war, no one is more competitive than David Doguet. His complex in the San Antonio suburbs is called Bladerunner Farms, apropos of its sod-provider origins and sci-fi-like cross-pollination operation.

Doguet (pronounced dough-gay) has made zoysia golf’s new super grass. Yes, zoysia, once characterized by quarter-inch-wide blades that provided indestructible hairbrush lies but wouldn’t green up until early summer and reverted to tan at first frost. Traditionally, the coarse grass was used only for tees and fairways in transition-zone climates—where the winters were too cold for Bermuda and the summers were too hot for bent. Never was it the ideal choice.

But Doguet’s various crossbred strains—finer-bladed, more disease- and insect-resistant, less thirsty—have changed that. His latest creation, L1F zoysia, is a sensation. It has been chosen by Tiger Woods for the tees and green surrounds at his first American course, Bluejack National in Montgomery, Texas. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw used it for the tees, fairways and green surrounds at their new Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, a future PGA Tour stop. Gil Hanse planted it at the 2016 Olympics golf course in Brazil. But only the renovated Golf Club of Texas has used L1F on the greens, making the Roy Bechtol design the first all-zoysia course in the United States.

In June, Doguet will roll out M85 zoysia. He calls it the ultimate, a near grain-less strain suitable for fairways yet capable of handling the lowest mowing height any PGA Tour official might prescribe. It keeps its color without fertilization and is salt tolerant, so it’ll remain healthy despite poor water quality. Because its blades grow very slowly, Doguet predicts M85 fairways and greens will need mowing just once or twice a week.

Of course, the proof is in the practice, not the test plot. Doguet hopes the first course to try M85 is a low-budget public course, to demonstrate that quality playing surfaces can be achieved even with modest maintenance. If that happens, Douget might have won the war. —Ron Whitten

Read the full story in Golf Digest

Hole in 1 At Tiger’s Playground – Bluejack National (Type: articles)

March 3, 2016 – USA Today

Tiger Woods is upstaged at the grand opening of The Playground at Bluejack National when a child prodigy makes a hole in one! Could it be the excellent playing conditions of the Zeon Zoysia and M85 Zoysia that helped make that possible?

Sustainability: Zoysia Golf Course Adds to Biodiversity at Olympics (Type: articles)

February 26, 2016: Rio2016.com

Olympic Golf Course grassed with Zeon Zoysia improves biodiversity, green space, sustainability of the site of the 2016 Olympic Games. Positive report from Olympic officials praises the golf course, dispelling months of controversy.

The Year of Zoysia (Type: articles)

February 11, 2016: Golfdom

Ed Hiscock thought 2016 was going to be his year. Turns out, it’s the Year of Zoysia. Here’s why—4 of the most high profile courses in the world right now are all grassed with zoysia. And there’s more to come.

Zeon Zoysia Impressive, Great Lies says The Accidental Golfer (Type: articles)

November 18, 2015: World Golf’s The Accidental Golfer

The hook was that the fairways are Zeon zoysia, the same grass that will be used at the new Olympic course being built in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for 2016. (Bladerunner Farms in Poteet, Texas, is supplying the zoysia for the Olympic course and also supplied it for Cordillera Ranch.) I had played on this grass before, and it is impressive. It’s not like the Meyer zoysia you find commonly on courses in the middle of the country. This is a finer blade, but in zoysia fashion, is a stiff grass that perches the ball up like it was on artificial turf. If you like to pick the ball, you’ll really love the lies.

Celebrate 2016: The Year of Zoysia at the Golf Industry Show (Type: articles)

February 3, 2016

The biggest projects in golf this year are grassed with Zoysia. Find out why at the Team Zoysia booth at the Golf Industry Show in San Diego.

Celebrate 2016: The Year of Zoysia at the Golf Industry Show in San Diego

February 10, 2016

At the Golf Industry Show in San Diego (#GIS16), Team Zoysia celebrates 2016 as the Year of Zoysia at Booth #3657.  This year, the world’s most high profile golf projects chose zoysiagrass as their playing surface. These include: The golf course at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games; Tiger Woods’ first US course, Bluejack National; Trinity Forest, new home of the AT&T Byron Nelson; and The Golf Club of Texas, the world’s 1st 100% zoysia course.

Celebrate 2016: The Year of Zoysia at the Golf Industry Show (Type: post)

February 10, 2016

At the Golf Industry Show in San Diego (#GIS16), Team Zoysia celebrates 2016 as the Year of Zoysia at Booth #3657.  This year, the world’s most high profile golf projects chose zoysiagrass as their playing surface. These include: The golf course at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games; Tiger Woods’ first US course, Bluejack National; Trinity Forest, new home of the AT&T Byron Nelson; and The Golf Club of Texas, the world’s 1st 100% zoysia course.

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VIDEO: Hanse on Pros/Cons of Designing Olympic Golf Course (Type: articles)

October 2015: Golf Channel

Watch the Video: Gil Hanse, designer of the Olympic Golf Course, says “grass is coming on.” Talks details on the challenges and benefits of designing what will be soon the most famous golf course in the world

Bladerunner’s Zeon Zoysia Shines at Olympic Golf Course (Type: articles)

October 2015: USA Today

Olympic golf course, grassed with Zeon Zoysia developed by Bladerunner Farms, ready for the sport’s return in Rio Games

Ten months from now, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and the world’s best golfers could be battling on another links-style course. But this time Olympic medals will be up for grabs at a unique setting that is a compelling story in itself.