How does Dooley Field stay so green during heavy rain at Sanford Stadium?

As the calendar inches closer to the start of College Football season, I pondered how local football stadiums are keeping the grass pristine for collegiate play.

I talked with UGA Professor and Turfgrass Specialist Clint Waltz about how his colleagues keep Dooley Field green despite the daily downpours in North Georgia.

Q: What kind of grass is growing at Sanford Stadium, where the Georgia Bulldogs play?

“It’s Bermuda grass, and it’s mowed about three times per week during the growing season. It’s a very orchestrated process when they get ready for games. It starts a week out, getting the field conditioned and painted. There’s a lot that goes into getting that field ready for high caliber athletes on a Saturday afternoon in the fall.”

Q: Does the rain ever ruin the field?

“Not at Sanford Stadium, it’s a sand-based system. It is designed to be able to take a tremendous amount of rainfall, withstand that and move the water through it, get it into a pipe, get it out of there, and keep it as a stable and safe playing surface under those situations.”

Q: What is a sand-based system?

“The field, and grass, is actually established on sand. Kind of like a golf course putting green, it’s about a 12 inch depth on sand that may overlay a gravel layer. It’s very much an engineered system to move water throughout it and to permit air movement through that system. Roots like air, and water -- you have to give them a nice combination of both. That sand system delivers both.”

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