27/03/2012
Cowgrass
In the beginning there was Cowgrass on the fairways in Malaysia. It was relatively easy to maintain and hardy in its own way. It did not grow quite like the other grasses with their stolons and rhizomes. It could withstand wet weather, had no major disease problem and only cows find them palatable. Perhaps that’s why it’s called ‘Cowgrass’? If the weather is too dry, it just goes dormant and when the rain comes, it comes back to life.
In Malaysian turf industry; ‘Cowgrass’ is the local name given to either Paspalum conjugatum or Axonopus compressus. A search on the Internet gave me three scientific names for ‘Cowgrass’ and one of them wasn’t even a grass but a species of herb called Trifolium pretense; used for traditional healing. If you asked me, I would go for Axonopus compressus, but some literature argues this is the Latin name for Tropical Carpetgrass.
How does it fare among golfers? Well if properly looked after; it can be good to play on. Proper feeding and regular mowing will make it grow dense and hard. On the other hand, due to their toughness, courses planted with Cowgrass sometimes tend to give them less tender loving care compared to courses planted with foreign grasses. For instance the mowing may be less regular, because unlike on imported grasses, this will not cause the Cowgrass to grow long and wild. More often than not the fertilizer program for Cowgrass is not followed strictly because the colour of Cowgrass will remain dark green even when not fertilized and it won’t thin or die out, at least, not immediately. So the tendency is to hold on to the fertilizing a bit. But both these practices will mean the grass won’t be strong enough to hold the ball and it will be like hitting off the rough even when you are on the fairway. Plus weak turf will allow weeds to thrive.
In my opinion, if Cowgrass is given half the cost of fertilizing usually reserved for Bermudagrass or Zoysiagrass and regular mowing is carried out with the same kind of reel mowers used for imported grasses; you could end up with one heck of a golf course.
Another less known advantage of Cowgrass is that it is more shade tolerant compared to most other species of grasses. Did you notice that in most of the courses where the fairways are Bermuda or Zoysia, the rough under the trees are almost always Cowgrass?
It is not without its weaknesses too; if invaded by other local grasses as weeds, any herbicide used to control the weeds will hurt it too. It has shallow roots, which means that even a short period of no rain will start to show an effect.
There is a new grass in town called the Pearlgrass, I am told that it is a cultivar of Cowgrass. It grows very close to the ground and the way it’s spread out, it may not hold the golf ball in the golfer’s favour. So I don’t expect it to be used on any fairways soon, but it does look good on a lawn.
