If you're looking for a way to take a few strokes off your golf game, Mike Spillar, owner of Mid Atlantic Sports Turf, may have the answer.
Spillar's company does athletic fields, and golf course tee and green renovation. But in recent years they've been giving upscale homeowners an edge on the links.
They design and install professional quality putting greens for back yards.
Dr. Richard Mladick has one of Spillar's creations tucked into a corner of his waterfront property.
Mladick said he went from shooting around 90 in his twice-weekly golf outings, to around 83 after having the green installed.
"It's really helped my game," Mladick said. "The difference has been when I get on the green, I have not been three-putting."
But the green means more than a better score to Mladick. The green adds a dimension to entertaining at home - keeping men, women and children occupied for hours.
"We have grandchildren, and I thought it would be fun for the whole family," the doctor said. "We've had quite a few putting contests in the evenings. What a nice social thing. But they all claim I have home-field advantage."
Walking on Mladick's green may not rival a walk through Augusta, but the quality is astonishing, especially since it's artificial turf. You have to get down on your knees to tell it's not real grass.
Spillar has a degree in agronomy and worked for years as a golf course superintendent. The majority of his business is with real grass, but for a backyard green he said artificial turf is the way to go.
"I have seen backyard putting greens made of Bermuda grass and bent grass, and they're nice," Spillar said. "But what 99 percent of golfers don't think of when they say they want a putting green in their back yard is that they have to mow it every day. And then in the summertime the maintenance is extremely labor intensive."
With Spillar's greens, all you need is a broom, a blower and a couple of bags of silica filler material.
"It's maintenance free," Spillar said. "That's what sold me."
It's also what sold many of Spillar's clients. He's installed close to 20 of the private greens in the past few years, mostly in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. It used to be a miniscule part of his overall business, but it's growing tremendously.
And although most of Spillar's clients are high-income professionals, he has installed some greens for middle- and upper middle-income people as well.
The price ranges from $13 to $17 a square foot installed. It takes only two or three days for a typical installation. Mid Atlantic does the planning, grading and prep work, and then K&D Lawn Care lays the turf.
Source: The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
