The three most important words in real estate are: location, location, location. Arguably the three most important words in golf course maintenance are: drainage, drainage, drainage.

The time-worn real-estate adage is a cliche. The parallel saying to golf course maintenance, however, reveals a basic truth.

"Drainage is the key to turf management," says Scott Cybulski, superintendent at Falmouth (Maine) Country Club.

That goes for greens, tees and fairways.

Superintendents are looking for drainage solutions that are less-invasive.

That said, adding drainage to existing greens is a touchy operation that most superintendents seem to believe is best left to specialists. Britt Pollock, superintendent at Northwood Country Club in Meridian, Miss., knew he had to do something to the push-up greens at his 75-year-old course after they endured several consecutive wetter-than-normal summers. Back-to-back summers with many rainy days often meant several days between mowings and mowers occasionally sinking into greens. The course's green committee was convinced it had to add new drainage, although members did not want to go to the time and expense of shutting down the course and putting in United States Golf Association (USGA)-spec greens.

"I learned a long time ago that if you do not have to do a job like that in-house, do not do it," says Pollock, who contacted Marrero, La.-based Turf Drainage Company of America to complete the project. "It's too much trouble. It's easier to hire some good people to [do the job]."

Dennis Hurley, president of Turf Drainage, told Pollock that his company could remove the existing sod, add drainage, replace the sod and have a green back in play within 48 hours.

"We strip the sod from where the drain lines will be put in, mark each individual piece of sod [potentially hundreds] and estimate how much they might stretch," Hurley says. "We put in the drainage, replace the sod and the golf course can put the green back in play the next day."

Bud White, senior agronomist with the USGA's Mid-Continent Region, agrees that installing drainage on greens can be a tricky proposition.

"Ideally, sod should be lifted out carefully and then put back on greens in the same orientation it came out," he says. "Otherwise, the sod lines will always remain visible. They need to be aerified and topdressed to make them seamless with the rest of the green again."

Cybulski says he has repaired crushed drainage pipe on his 20-year-old greens but done little else in terms of drainage work to putting surfaces.

Many Northeastern U.S. courses with older push-up greens have contracted with specialized drainage companies. Six years ago TDI International, through its recently renamed subsidiary, XGD Systems of Stuart, Fla., added internal drainage to the fourth green at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, Conn.

"It turned our worst green into a very playable one," says certified superintendent Tony Girardi. "It took about four days to do one green. They worked off plywood the whole time. They [dug] down 14 to 16 inches with a trencher, excavated all the spoils and took them off the green. They laid down a special 2-inch pipe and back-filled with putting green construction mix.

"Then they laid the 7-inch pieces of sod they had carefully removed, numbered and rolled up on the side. They put them back in the exact same order and tamped them all down. When they were finished, you could cut a cup and have the green playable that same day."