First, let’s start with a little introduction and explanation. The purpose of this report is to give you information that will make your buying decision a better one. We have seen, and continue to see, customers who buy the wrong products for their particular application. If that happens, you have two choices: 1. Live with the mistake or 2. Spend the money to buy the right product the second time.

No one wants to “live” with a bad decision on a putting green or lawn turf purchase. These products last a long, long time so if a bad decision is made, you may be living with it for years and years.

To address the second issue…. It’s extremely expensive to have to tear out an improperly installed putting green or artificial lawn grass. The cost ends up being more that twice as high because the owner must pay to have the old green or turf removed before the new turf can be installed. We see this all the time, people buying putting greens and then having them removed because they become ‘hard as a rock’ or ‘wash out’ or become so lumpy that they cannot be putted on.

Mistakes in the buying of putting greens and turf can be avoided with a little education. The industry is rife with dealers who buy ‘seconds’ and ‘end of runs’ at the mills and sell them to trusting buyers. This is especially prevalent over the internet. So our goal here is to give you the right questions to ask and to increase your education regarding some of the terms used and how to spot those people you shouldn't really do business with. Some of our competitors have no training for their sales people or their installers, so a little education on your part could actually make you more knowledgeable than they are.

Now to be honest, this report also sells a lot of putting greens for us as well as selling a lot of artificial turf and lawns too. This is because the better educated you are, as a consumer, the more likely you are to recognize quality products, quality installations and bargains too.

So let’s get started in your “Putting Greens” and “Artificial Turf” education.

The first thing you need to know is that there are some companies selling antiquated technology and products. There have been some significant advances in the manufacturing process for the putting green and turf products recently. As in a lot of things, when the manufacturing process is improved, the price of the products can actually go down. If you are old enough then you can remember when cellular phones were sold for over $3000 when they first came out. Today, with the volume increasing and the manufacturing processes getting better and better, you can get one for “free”. It’s not really free because you have to sign a contract but that’s another story. The point is that the putting green and artificial turf business has made some fairly dramatic improvements over the last few years too. A lot of it is cosmetic in that the greens and turfs made today look as close to the real thing as you can get. This was certainly not the case until just a few years ago. The look of the old styles were nothing close to real and you could spot an artificial putting green and/or lawn from ‘a mile away’. Not true today for the products using the latest technology. To make the products that have the “Real” look to it and the “real” feel to it, the entire manufacturing process had to be changed. That means that it literally costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for the plants to purchase and modify the machines needed to make the “real looking” and “real feeling” greens and turf.

Well, like anything else, not every company has the money needed to make the changes, so some companies are still selling the products that look and feel really fake.

You want the best looking, most real looking products available so be sure to buy a product that is made using the very latest technology. For example, we sell products that use a trademarked technology known as “Mira-Set”. It is a proprietary process that was very costly to incorporate into the manufacturing plants but the result is the most real looking, most real feeling (and for the golfers out there, the most real rolling putting greens) on the market today.

So how do you know if the products being offered are using the latest technology? Well the easiest way to know is if they tell you that their product is a ‘deep infilled’ product. If someone wants to sell you a deep infilled green or turf, then you need to run, don’t walk, away.

On to the second thing you should be aware of. Custom greens and lawns require some expertise in the installation of each type of product. They are not easy to install, they require a lot of expensive equipment to do it right and it takes a while to properly install a green or lawn. You cannot install a green or lawn over existing grass. We have seen it done, and after a while the green becomes ‘spongy’ and uneven. So when the ‘base’ of the green becomes spongy and uneven so does the lawn and/or putting green. Does it cost less to install it that way? Sure. Does it cost more when they have to come back and repair it? Sure.

In our part of the country, (that would be North Texas and specifically the Dallas/Fort Worth area) the problem is compounded by our naturally shifting soils. Did you know that there are more foundation repair companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area than there are in any other part of the country? And do you know why that is? It’s because the soils in our area are simply not stable. So what happens if you build a putting green on soil that is unstable? You end up with a putting green that is unstable too.

For our part of the country, the base must be stabilized. Stabilizing the base beneath a putting green and/or artificial turf is a multi-step process. First the grass must be completely removed. To do this properly an expensive ‘sod cutting’ machine must be used. This machine will remove the grass as well as about 2 inches of soil. Next the soil must be compacted using an expensive ‘plate compactor’. Once compacted, then a sub-base of “road fill” must be added. This is the stuff used below the roads and streets in our area. Then that must be compacted too. Then another type of fill must be added, known in the industry as “D.G.”. And then that must be compacted too. Then a fine fill is added to make the base really smooth so the green and/or grass has a perfectly smooth, but not necessarily a perfectly flat surface to rest on. At that point, the base is ready for the turf.

The point here is that a properly installed green and/or turf is extremely important and is not a very easy thing to do for our part of the country. A lot of companies have their generic installation process that they recommend for greens and turf. And I will guarantee that that process will fail over a period of time in our part of the country.

You have to know how to properly install the products and you have to know what must be changed and/or added to the process for the best performance in whatever particular type of soil you have.

So the lesson here is that if anyone tells you that they can install the green or turf over existing grass, they don’t know what they are talking about and under no circumstance should you give them any money. And you should ask what type of base they will be putting down beneath your green or turf. If they say you don’t need a special sub-base then you shouldn't do business with them. It’s that simple.

So what happens if you have a problem? Hopefully you will never have a problem but you need to know what happens if you do. People don’t buy new cars thinking that they are going to have problems but the manufacturers still stress the value of their warranties.

Did you know that some people are selling putting greens and turf without any warranty whatsoever? Be careful if the company that you are buying it from is the one that says they will warranty the product. So what happens if they go out of business? To protect yourself you should be sure that the warranty for the product is from the actual factory that makes the product and not the dealer. Dealers come and go but the manufacturer is generally the most stable entity. When you buy a new car, do you want a dealer warranty or a factory warranty? Right, a factory warranty. Well buying a putting green and artificial turf is no different. You want the factory to warrant their products from defects for as long as you can. The factory stands behind every product we sell and we give you a copy of the Factory Warranty with each job.

As a matter of record, the factory REQUIRES us to take pictures of every step of the installation process as well a picture of the final product. That is how they assure themselves that their product is being installed in the proper manner and that is how they can stand behind such long warranties.

Dealer warranties. Along with the product warranty from the factory you will also want a Dealer Warranty for the work performed. As a dealer we warrant our work, our sub-base installation and our seams and all other parts of our work. So should a problem come up (a rare occurrence) and the problem happens not to be factory/product related, then you are covered there too.

Be sure that you are receiving a Factory Warranty for the products sold and a Dealer Warranty for the work performed as part of the installation.

This is going to be a fairly short section about infill material. What exactly is infill material? You will see references to it on just about every website and every brochure you read. Infill material is a material that is put on top of the turf and then compacted or rolled deep into the fibers. In the new products (like ours) you should not be able to see the infill. Its purpose is to hold the fibers up straight so the grass has a very natural look to it.

Some companies still sell what is called a ‘deep infilled’ product. That means that the infill material is what the ball actually rolls on or in the case of turf, you need so much infill that you can barely see the grass blades. In their products, the infill material, (usually sand in their case) is added to their grass until it’s almost to the very top. If you are a golfer and you have played on greens that have just been ‘sanded’ at the golf course then you know what these greens look like. This product is an older technology and you will not be happy with the results over the long term.

On their greens with the sand all the way to the top, the ball will not ‘check-up’ on chip shots. And it gets worse, a lot worse. Have you every tried playing out of a sand bunker after a hard rain? If you have then you know just how hard packed the sand can get. Now in golf course sand traps, they can bring in machines that loosen up the sand. But that is not possible if you buy a deep infilled green or turf. The sand simply packs harder and harder as time goes by, so chip shots finally get to the point there is no check at all. And the putting speeds get faster and faster to be point that it’s almost like putting on asphalt.

Also you must buy a water roller and add new sand to the deep infilled greens. With sand that close to the top, it tends to wash out in our hard Texas rains. It’s bad enough that the putting speed is inconsistent, and the looks are not good…..then you have to perform maintenance by adding sand and rolling the green too. Some companies selling these types of greens actually state that their warranty is voided if you do not perform, and can prove that you have performed the required maintenance. And how do you do that? It’s easy, they sell you a yearly “Maintenance Contract” for hundreds of dollars so you can prove to the factory that your maintenance was done, just in case you ever have problems.

You want to buy a green and turf that looks real and doesn't look like a freshly sanded green. Not only that but you want the putting speed on your green to be consistent. Plus you really don’t want to hassle with maintenance and/or yearly maintenance fees either. If someone requires or suggests a maintenance contract as part of the purchase, then they are most likely selling deep infilled greens and you should avoid them.

Deal with someone who has some “skin in the game”. What does that mean? Well there are a lot of people coming into and going out of this business. Some creative people have put up some nice looking websites selling putting greens and artificial turf. Others, typically landscaping companies, have added putting greens and turf as a ‘side business’. If they can make some quick money selling turf and greens, they will. They usually just go on the internet and buy the cheapest products they can so their profit margins are greater.

The problem is that if it becomes inconvenient for them to be in the ‘greens and turf’ business, they will just say “We don’t do that anymore”. That’s it. There goes your support and your warranty. The most unscrupulous of the group will buy ‘factory seconds’ and ‘end of runs’. Factory seconds are those products that don’t pass the factory quality inspection. These ‘seconds’ are sometimes purchased by third parties without any way of knowing where the product came from (the factory certainly doesn't want their name associated with that type of quality, or lack thereof). They want to preserver THEIR reputation.

But third parties buy these inferior products and sell them to unwitting customers everyday. The same goes for ‘end of runs’. These products are generally where the factory has a large order for several thousand feet of a particular product and may actually produce slightly more than they are contracted to sell. Since ‘end of runs’ are typically short lengths, the companies selling them will have to put two, or more pieces together to make a green or lawn.

The problem is that these pieces sometimes come from different dye lots, which means the colors will not match. They will be close but they will not match exactly. When a green or lawn is patched together using end of runs, it’s easy to tell. As you see them from different angles, the colors vary greatly and they can be pretty ugly. Companies that sell these products are pretty clever in that they usually make them so from the primary viewing position (like from the back door), they match them as close as they can. So sometimes, the customer doesn't even notice until after they have paid their last installment. Then it’s too late.

So the lesson here is to buy from a company that has something to lose (some skin in the game). If we, as a company, do not treat our customers well, install our products correctly and promptly handle all warranty issues in a timely manner, the factory can literally pull our license and put us out of business. And we spent a lot of money for our license so we have more than our good reputation to lose. We have a lot to lose, unlike some other companies that have nothing more than a website or who have decided to add this a side business of theirs.

For your own protection, buy from a company that specializes in artificial turf and greens and is an authorized dealer or a licensed dealer. At least they have shown a commitment to the business by investing money, sometimes a lot of money, for the privilege of marketing the products from the best companies.

If you wanted to add a room to your home and one of the companies you were getting quotes from was a lot cheaper than the other bids, you would most likely be suspicious right? You would wonder if they fully understood exactly what you were asking them to do and if they did, you would wonder why they were so much cheaper than the competition. And if you asked a few questions about their experience and they said “I’ve never done this before but I have read the book on how to do it”, I’m guessing you would not give them the job.

Well in this business there are some companies the literally train the dealers by sending them an “Installation Manual”, telling them to read it and they will be able to do the installs. Now your question should be “If they have never installed a putting green or artificial turf, do they really know what they are doing?” Good question. Now let me tell you how reputable companies do it.

First they REQUIRE their dealers to complete training, and then they certify that they have completed the necessary training. Then just to be on the safe side, they always have experts standing by at the ready to answer any questions and to even travel to the city and assist on the installation if necessary. Good factory representatives know that sometimes people are going to have some unusual installation requests. Like installing putting greens on ocean cruise ships, or installing putting greens on the rooftop of the Marriott hotel. Or maybe something as simple as finding an unusual amount of organic matter when excavating for the green or lawn. By having people standing by to answer any and all questions, as a customer you are assured of the best install because the dealer doesn’t have to ‘wing it’.

So be sure to do business with a company that has been REQUIRED to send their installation crews to proper training. You don’t want to have to rip out your green or lawn. Even if they do it under warranty, it’s still going to be a major disruption around your house and be an added eyesore for a while. Just don’t chance it.

This is the simplest lesson of all and it applies not only to putting greens and artificial turf but to purchasing anything else. If you instinctively feel that something is wrong or you get the ‘feeling’ that the sales representative is not being totally truthful. Stop right there and simply do not do business with the company. Your instincts are there to protect you, you should listen to them. Don’t fight the ‘feeling’ and don’t give them, or us for that matter, a second chance.

Well that’s it. Nothing complicated but you would probably be surprised at the number of people who could have saved themselves at lot of grief it they had used this report as a simple guideline when purchasing their greens or turf.

After reading this report we hope you will give us an opportunity to talk to you about your specific wants, needs and requirements. We are a dealer for the best products on the market, give the factory and a dealer warranty and definitely have some ‘skin in the game’.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report and we certainly hope you have learned a thing or two. Hopefully you feel better prepared to make your decision now. Putting greens and artificial lawn turf can be an expensive purchase and as we stated at the beginning of the report, an educated customer is our best customer.

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please let us know.

Please contact us at (817) 554-3403 or you can contact us here.

Thanks again, and we look forward to hearing from you.