Twelve years ago this week, I was working with the maintenance crew at Habu CC just east of Tokyo to overseed the bermudagrass fairways with perennial ryegrass. First we verticut, swept, mowed, swept, brushed, mowed, and swept the fairways to prepare them for seeding. Then we spread the seed. And we did all this without closing the course for a single day.

Immediately after dropping the seed we topdressed the fairways with sand. And then we turned on the water. As you might imagine, keeping the seed moist with frequent irrigation throughout the day was a bit tricky while the course was still open for play.

The results were good, however, and golfers were soon playing on beautiful overseeded fairways, a rarity in Japan where almost all courses have dormant zoysia fairways from October through April.