Differences and Similarities Exist in the Divot Recovery of Bermudagrass and Zoysiagrass Cultivars.

Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) and zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.) are the most commonly used species for golf course tees and fairways in Arkansas.  Utilizing species and cultivars that have faster divot recovery will improve playing conditions on golf courses.  The objective of this study was to quantify the divot recovery of bermudagrass and zoysiagrass cultivars.  Five commonly used cultivars of bermudagrass and seven commonly used cultivars of zoysiagrass grown in Arkansas were divoted a total of four instances in the summers of 2008 and 2009 in Fayetteville, Arkansas to evaluate recovery rate.  ‘Princess-77’, ‘Palisades’ and ‘Riviera’ consistently had the fastest recoveries while ‘Zenith’, ‘Cavalier’, ‘Diamond’, and ‘Meyer’ had the slowest recoveries. The divot recovery of some zoysiagrass cultivars was similar to bermudagrass cultivars, however, the bermudagrasses tested tended to have faster divot recoveries.