As golf course superintendent at Hyland Golf Club, Aaron Cape has played lab manager for one of the most significant experiments in Pinehurst area golf in years.

In that role, Cape has overseen the launch and early life of the region’s first Champion bermudagrass greens.

Champion is one of the newer generation of bermudagrasses broadly referred to as ultradwarfs, simply because they are shorter than their predecessors.

Being shorter they can provide better putting surfaces than the older varieties, although it’s generally accepted that they still can’t quite match the finer-bladed bentgrass — predominant in Moore County golf — when the bentgrass is at its best.

But under punishing heat like that experienced this past summer, bentgrass isn’t always at its best.

In fact, even in an average Sandhills summer, bentgrass tends to sag and wheeze come August as roots shrink and die off in the baking soil.

Under record-sustained heat this year, most bentgrass courses suffered significant decline and even loss of turf.

That susceptibility to heat is why superintendents and some golf course owners have been knocking on Cape’s door at Hyland since the course reopened in September 2009.

Everyone knows the Champion can handle the heat better than bentgrass, but what they want to know how well it can cope with the challenges outside summer.

“It has felt a bit like we’ve been in a fish bowl with everybody looking in,” Cape said.“It’s like all eyes were glued to the set. You know, like, ‘What’s going to happen to those guys out at Hyland?’ So far I think we’re very happy with how it’s performed.

“I enjoyed being part of doing something new in the area and it’s been exciting seeing how golfers have responded so well.”

Interest from other facilities was particularly keen back in spring when everyone — Cape included — wondered how well the Champion would survive what was a record-cold winter.

Continuous cold and windy conditions can kill bermudagrass even while it lies dormant during winter.

The trouble for golf course superintendents is they don’t know if they’ve lost turf until the ground warms and the grass fails to green up and grow.

It is easy enough, although expensive, to replace the dead areas with healthy sod on other parts of the course.

But on greens, sodding can be a finicky operation that compromises the green surface for a time, something everyone would prefer to avoid because spring brings golfers out of hibernation too.

Cape did have some trouble spots at Hyland coming out of last winter, but they were isolated and mainly confined to areas he had already earmarked as likely problems.

The sun’s lower trajectory in winter can greatly increase the amount of hours some areas spend in the shade.

That lack of sunlight coupled with the colder temperatures can be a fatal mix.

As a result, Cape performed some strategic tree trimming and removal to alleviate future stress on most of the trouble spots.

He will also use covers overnight on some greens this winter to shield against the worst of the cold.

Cape will paint his greens, probably after Christmas, with a vegetable-based colorant to give them some definition from the rest of the golf course through winter.

Historically, all putting greens in the Pinehurst area were bermudagrass until technology and resources advanced to a point where bentgrass was made to work despite the heat.

Now it is progress with bermudagrass varieties and maintenance practices that has a growing number of golf course operators considering a switch away from bentgrass.

For all the work and worry entailed in playing guinea pig with a new grass in the region, Cape is happy on several fronts.

The first is that he has been so ably supported by a team of assistants and crew members that are as new to Hyland as the greens themselves.

“It’s been a great team effort and we’ve already learned lessons that will help us improve this winter,” he said. “Living is learning and my goal is always to know a little bit more every day, although all superintendents know you can never know it all. There’s a lot for us still to discover as these greens mature, but I have to say I’m fairly much a believer that the ultradwarfs are the way to go.

“Certainly, I was pretty happy to have bermudagrass this past summer. My heart went out to the guys with bentgrass, no doubt.”

Contact Trent Bouts at (864) 414-3123 or by e-mail trentb@charter.net.