34 SportsTurf | April 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com
T
op quality turf is no longer just
a luxury for Super Bowls or
championship games. Many col-
lege and professional sports turf
facilities around the world now
demand high-end surfaces; one way they
get what they want is to custom grow
their fields at sod farms.
Grant Trenbeath, head groundskeeper
of the Arizona Diamondbacks, started the
trend of custom growing his own fields at
the sod farm before the team's 1998 inau-
gural season. As the first ballpark with a
retractable roof, Bank One Ballpark (now
Chase Field) needed to be prepared.
"It's important to me to have a fully
dedicated nursery at the farm that has the
exact sand base we have at the ballpark,
and that is what we did. That first year was
certainly a learning year. Of course we have
it down to a science now. I want to give the
grass we have in the ballpark every advan-
tage we can to succeed, but it is inevitable
that we need to replace areas throughout
the season. And with events during the off
season, it's necessary for us to replace the
field every year before Opening Day, which
for us is a big advantage," Trenbeath says.
"I can go out to the nursery and make sure
that the field is being grown exactly to my
specifications, and make adjustments if
I feel the need. We've had our own field
out there [at West Coast Turf] for years.
It's been such a success for us that I cannot
imagine doing it any other way," he says.
GrowinG their own fields: the
"new normal" for professional
sports turf facilities
FACILITY & OPERATIONS
■ By Joe Traficano, cGcS
Barney Lopas, left, of the Los
Angeles Angels, with the author, Joe
Traficano, CGCS, of West Coast Turf.
Editor's note: This article was written by Joe Traficano, CGCS, sales and
corporate sports turf specialist for West Coast Turf, Tempe, AZ.
