7 Ways to get your Lawn Like a Golf Course.

For years I have wanted a perfect lawn like a golf course fairway. I have paid many people to plant, fertilize, and mow my lawn in the process. Last year I had the worst lawn in the entire neighborhood. This year I have one of the best. I would even say that my lawn looks better than a lot of the municipal golf courses in town. I spent a lot of time researching lawns this spring to figure out how to make mine better. This is what I’ve come up with:

1. Fire Your Lawn Service Company

This may not make a lot of sense to most people reading this. Last year I asked my neighbor with the best lawn in the neighborhood who his lawn guy was. I quickly hired that company expecting drastic results. Several thousand dollars later my lawn was still dead and the only thing that looked better was his pocket book. I am sure if I would have stayed with him my lawn would have looked better eventually. My neighbors lawn still looks great. What I realized is that the lawn company only comes around once per week to look at your lawn and mow it. For the other 6 days a week my lawn continued to have weeds and look dead.

Now I mow my lawn several times per week, do all of the fertilizing, weeding, and watering. For a high income professional this may seem like a waste of time. It actually keeps me from going to the golf course on occasion. However I’ve found that working in my yard is one of the few other things besides golf that I actually enjoy doing regularly. Invest time in your lawn and follow these tips to get your lawn to look like a golf course.

2. High and Tight works for your Hair, Not your Lawn

There is a reason that even most golf courses struggle to keep their grass green. Cutting your lawn too short is a sure way to kill it. I spent years thinking that I needed my lawn be the length of my country club’s fairway. Despite everything I read to the contrary I continued to mow my lawn as short as I could. I had a very short lawn last year that was brown and patchy. It seemed more like a landfill than a lawn.

This year I’ve followed expert advice and mowed my lawn 3” in the spring and 3.5” now that we are in the summer. If you mow it much longer than fungus can start growing in your lawn from what I’ve read. These heights seem to work great it Washington State. In reality golf courses can go with the high and tight method for their fairways because they have industrial lawn mowers that cost $15k + and mow their lawns everyday. If you have the money and time to do this then you probably aren’t taking the time to read this blog.

3. Fertilize, Fertilize, Fertilize

My lawn service companies in the past would fertilize 7-8 times per year. I downloaded the Scotts My Lawn app this year which advises I fertilize six times per year. It is a bit confusing to know when to fertilize but the Scotts My Lawn app has helped me a ton to know what to put on and when. It is now July and I have fertilized my lawn 5 times so far this year (despite the My Lawn app’s recommendation of 3 times by now). In between my recommended fertilizations I have fertilized twice with Scott’s Green Max which has really improved the color of my lawn.

4. Dethatch and Aerate Yearly

Nothing is more frustrating than the couple weeks each year that your local golf course is aerating their greens and fairways. I figured if they were doing it though then I should start doing it. This is a laborious job that may not be worth your time to do. Hire it out if you want. Last year it cost me $800 to hire this out with overseeding. This year I did it myself.

I spent $200 to rent equipment and buy grass seed and then several hours of manual labor. In the fall I am going to buy an aerator so I don’t have to rent it anymore. In reality if you want your lawn to look to like golf course lawn, and they aerate twice a year, then you should too. Consider by a dethacher/aertator like the Sun Joe one below. It gets amazing reviews. I will be buying one for the fall.

5. Ditch the Bag and Mulch

A friend told me two years ago that I was an idiot. He told me that because I was fertilizing then throwing away all of my fertilizer money awyay by bagging my lawn clippings. I had lent him my lawnmower and when he brought it back the bagging apparatus was bent and the bagger didn’t close well. I never heard how that happened. He likely was just trying to cover his tracks by telling me it was stupid to bag my lawn. This year I decided to ditch the bag and mulch. If you mulch your lawn then it will naturally fertilize itself by recycling the fertilized grass clippings. Golf courses mulch their grass. You should too.

6. Rachio

This by far was my greatest investment of the year. This is a sprinkler controlling system that you can operate from your phone. I used to never take time to adjust my sprinklers because I hated running back to the garage every time I had to turn my sprinklers on or off. It is easy to install and operate.  Adjusting my watering now is super easy and has helped a ton this year.

7. Give it Time

You won’t turn your lawn around in the middle of the summer.  I learned this the hard way last year when my lawn was dead and the professionals couldn’t even revive it.  After a year of proper care it seems to have recovered nicely.  It is not perfect by any means but I’m happy with the progress so far this year.  My lawn is currently a bit longer than I would ideally prefer it to be.  It plays more like a thick rough then a fairway for sure.  I’ve realized that for the time and money I am willing to put into it, a nice looking thick rough is better than a patchy, brown looking fairway.

About the Author

I am a husband, father, ER doctor, and an avid golfer.  With a handicap of 3.2 I have a fairly legitimate claim to be among the Top 100 Physician Golfers in the United States.  You can read more about my story on my about page. Feel free to contact me or follow my sites on social media