Tifdwarf green terminators: off-types

The golf ball had been rolling on the Tifdwarf greens since April 1965 when it was officially released by the U S Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station. Tifdwarf grass was born as an ‘offtype’ from Tifgreen (T-328) which itself is a 27 chromosome hybrid turf grass released in 1956. Tifdwarf was first discovered by an Agronomist James B. (Monty) Moncrief as a small circular patch from a golf green of Tifgreen which was under evaluation before its release. Since then Tifdwarf has been used extensively as warm season putting green grass around the world. However in older greens of Tifdwarf, issues of mutations and offtypes have always been associated with it. Also today new ultradwarf Bermuda grass varieties are available which claim to offer faster putting greens. This paper analysis the tendency of Tifdwarf grass mutation and its effects on the golf putting greens.