DIY Backyard Putting and Chipping Green

It’s always been a dream of ours to have our own putting and chipping green. We’ve wanted to put one in our backyard for years but never thought it would come to be. After lots of research and quotes from contractors and landscapers, we decided to do it ourselves. Through research we discovered there’s a lot of incomplete, incorrect, misleading and conflicting information out there on doing this. We decided to use the best possible information we found and make it our first big family DIY project. This video isn’t meant as a complete DIY guide, but rather shares and lays out some of the steps we took along the way.

Since we already had a good base to work on, we built the project on top of it instead of digging out the area first. This should also make for less of a drainage problem. The artificial turf we selected is from PreGra and is sold thru Costco. We chose them because the price was reasonable and they assure great customer satisfaction. All of the rest of the supplies were bought thru Amazon, Home Depot, a golf supply house and local rockeries.

A lot of planning went into the best way to minimize the amount of turf needed for cost savings as well as limiting waste since the green would be over 1000 square feet. We chose the PreGra nylon Bent Grass for the putting green and the PreGra Fescue for the surrounding chipping area. Both come in 15 ft. rolls so it was a no-brainer to make the putting green 15 ft. wide. By making the front 2.5 ft. and the back 5 ft. wide, we were able to cut one 15 ft. piece into four strips and have no waste with only a single seam along the length of the front and back (45 ft.). This method also made it easy and possible to keep the grain going the same direction.

The first step was to level the existing ground and framing. This was done mostly with a laser level. We built up a base of about 3 inches using recycled base rock from a local rockery that supplies material to most of the golf courses in the region i.e. Pebble Beach. Leveling the base was done with a string apparatus I made that would connect to the framing. We added about ½ inch of fines on top of that. We tried to create a surface with a variety of (undulations) breaks for the 5 holes and still have a general slope for drainage (mostly back to front). The desire was to have a challenging, yet realistic putting and chipping surface that was much more than a miniature golf surface.

A plate compactor is strongly recommended for this large of a surface. Watering down the base during compaction will greatly help as well as controlling the dust. We also used a hand tamper for some final touchup later.

We decided to round the corners of the putting green (hockey rink pattern) to give it a little shape, but didn’t add any other design that would sacrifice putting surface. This meant just a few extra cuts/seams though. Also, for these small inserts we used both adhesive and nails. The remainder of the turf is secured only with the 60D nails. A significant amount of time was spent on cup placements: marked by Frisbees, checking breaks, digging, setting, cementing and cutting the green for maximum play.

About one pound of sand per square foot was applied to the turf to keep it down and keep the grass blades standing up. We’re planning on adding some more, especially on the fescue to make it a little more consistent for chipping from both directions.

Our final task is to finish the landscaping around the putting and chipping greens. We included some low profile perennial flowering plants but still need to decide on the type of ground cover for additional aesthetic enhancement.

The contractors estimated it would take about 6 days with a full crew to complete the project. We completed it over a period of 15 days but we didn’t work full days in the 90-100 degree heat. The three of us did all of the work with a small amount of assistance from a couple of friends.

This DIY project was quite the challenge but worth all the time, savings, sweat and research. It gave us the opportunity to work closely together as a family on a project that would give us enjoyment, exercise, entertainment and practice. This addition also enhances our back yard and increases our home value.

We enjoyed sharing our project with you and hope you enjoyed it as well. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them and we will respond back as soon as we can.

Accompanying music used in this video:
Let’s Get It Started by Black Eyed Peas
Hard Workin’ Man by Brooks & Dunn
Dreams by Van Halen