The croquet project started in the fall of 2021 with the stripping of sod from the site. The sod was to put to use on both golf course and on several areas of the club lawns. While there was significant labor involved it still was a great savings to use house grown sod and we restored many bunker banks, cart path ends, and other worn areas.
Court set up from the United States Croquet Association.
In the Spring once the ground thawed out we went to work leveling the field. The goal was to provide a level surface for the new sport and also a better place to erect tents for weddings while using only the material present on site. After rough grading was complete we layed out our courts using the parameters for golf croquet (105’ x 84’) we choose to do our side by side utilizing one shared line.
Once the location of the courts were determined and marked with stakes we began grassing. For the croquet lawns we used aeration cores from the greens, approaches, and tees of the 18-hole course (a mix of poa annua & creeping bentgrass). We spread the cores and then drop spread 007-bentgrass seed on top of them. Grassing in April was not necessarily ideal, spring grow-ins are often easily infested with weeds because of heavier pressure from annual plants when compared to the fall season. Temperatures can be less than ideal in East Hampton for germination during that time of year. The ocean is a blessing in the fall keeping the temperature moderate until late November with warmth from the summer sun. In the spring it is a cold cruel mistress that can hold winter’s cold until early-May. The other challenge was a lack of irrigation, this grow-in was ‘old school’ with hoses and sprinklers. The rough around the courts was seed with a mix of fescues. Both areas were given a dose of pre-emergent for weeds and a organic starter fertilizer.
We started mowing the court regularly just after memorial day, and had nearly full coverage by the middle of June. To prepare the surface for play we sodded the few remaining bare spots, core aerated, and amended the soil with sand and organic fertilizer. The recovery after this phonomial and we opened the courts in late-July. The sport became extremely popular with clinics selling out regularly. One evening I even put on my “whites” and played the challenging yet fun game.
The first season came to a end in mid-September when after a wedding there was significant turfgrass damage. Mostly due to rain before/during the event setup we hope to mitigate this type of damage in the future by amending the soil and adding drainage, grass maturity should also help. We had good weather for germination of seed in the damaged areas and look forward to a successful 2023 croquet season.
