A putting green is not a lawn area with shorter turf on it. The surface is a different product, the base is built flatter and harder than a lawn base, and the contours are shaped in the ground before any green material is unrolled. Cup positions and the fringe around the green get decided at the same stage, because moving them afterward means opening up work that was supposed to be finished.
It is worth being clear about expectations, because this is where turf marketing gets loudest. What you are building is a practice green that will get used constantly for putting and short chipping. It is not a maintained bentgrass green and it will not behave like one. Speed shifts with infill level, brushing, temperature and debris on the surface. Most people who set that expectation up front are very happy with the result. People sold a course green are not.
Size, shape, where you will putt from, how much break you actually want, and whether you plan to chip into it. That last question changes the fringe and the surrounding area more than people expect.
The area is cut out deeper than a typical lawn area and the drainage route is built first, because a flat surface will not shed water on its own once the green is finished over it.
Aggregate is placed, compacted hard in lifts, then shaped and refined to the contours you agreed on. This stage takes the longest and it is what you will feel in every putt afterward.
The putting surface goes down and is seamed and anchored, cups are set, fringe is installed around it, then infill is worked in and rolled until the speed settles where you want it.
Greens price on complexity more than on raw size. A small green with a few cups, two subtle breaks and a fringe collar involves more shaping labor than a large flat lawn area ever will. Excavation depth is greater and the base has to be built and compacted to a tighter standard, so material volume and labor both climb. Drainage is a real line item because the surface is nearly flat. Then the number of cups, the amount of fringe, how much infill the surface takes, how much seaming a curved shape forces, and whether a machine can get material into the yard or a crew is wheeling it in.
Faster or slower depending on how the installer builds it and maintains it. Infill level is the main lever, with brushing and rolling behind it, and surface temperature and debris change it day to day. The useful move is to putt on a sample or a finished green the installer built before you commit, rather than trading adjectives about speed over the phone.
Short chips, yes, and most people do. Understand what happens: repeated chipping into the same landing area displaces infill and marks the surface there, so it needs brushing back more often. Full swings from distance are a different matter and worth discussing honestly with the installer, along with where a mishit ball is going to end up.
More than a lawn area, in the sense that speed drifts if you ignore it. Brushing keeps fibers upright and redistributes infill, and topping up infill restores roll when the green slows. Leaves and debris have to come off or they affect the roll immediately. None of that is heavy work, but a green rewards attention in a way a lawn area does not.
Less than you are picturing. A green with one or two readable breaks stays interesting for years and is still usable for straightforward practice. Severe contours look impressive on the day it is finished and then quietly stop getting used, because most of the cup positions become novelty rather than practice. Ask your installer to walk you across the shaped base before the green goes on.
The most common request, and the one where base work decides the outcome. Excavation, compacted aggregate, grading that moves water off the yard, then turf laid so the seams and edges do not announce themselves a year later.
Learn more →Built for drainage and cleaning first. Dogs use the same spots over and over, so the base, the infill and your rinsing habits matter more here than anywhere else in the yard. Done well it holds up. Ignored, it holds odor.
Learn more →The part nobody photographs. Excavating to depth, compacting aggregate in lifts, setting slope so water leaves the area, and deciding where it goes once it does. Most turf that fails did not fail at the turf.
Learn more →Opening seams, wavy low spots, edges pulling loose, matted blades, melt marks from window glare. Some of that is a patch or a re-stretch. Some of it means the base was wrong and the area has to be rebuilt.
Learn more →Get an installer who talks about the base before the product.
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