Bartram Trail to unveil more durable greens

Bartram Trail Golf Club opened in September 2005. Five years later, the Evans golf course will have a reopening of sorts Friday when it unveils new greens to the public.

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The new greens -- grown with a strain of Bermuda known as MiniVerde -- were needed to replace the club's bentgrass greens, which died in June. Extreme, extended heat caused the greens' demise.

For about two months, the club went to temporary greens. Golfers played the rest of the course as normal.

"It's been a tough situation being on temporaries," head professional Robby Watson said. "Of course, the play has been down tremendously ... but if it was going to happen, I think it happened in the best year it could've happened."

Watson said the combination of heat and plenty of rain "contributed to the new grass coming in healthy."

Watson said the new grass will hold up better in the heat and won't be as susceptible to ball marks from approach shots as the bentgrass greens. In the winter, the grass will go dormant and the speed will pick up.