Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Workers from the city of Salem remove plants Monday that had lined the ninth hole at the Salem Municipal Golf Course.

Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Bill Swain lines up his shot on the first hole at the Salem Municipal Golf Course. Swain and a golfing buddy tried out the new greens Monday.

Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Maintenance workers from the city of Salem measure the green on the ninth hole at the Salem Municipal Golf Course.

All the regulars have a tale about putting on the greens of the Salem Municipal Golf Course, where until recently, the holes were surrounded by an artificial turf that looked like the carpet on your grandmother's patio.

Those turf greens were impossible, they say. A golf ball never went where it was supposed to. A putt might trickle past the hole, make a U-turn and accelerate into the fairway. One fellow told of landing on the green in two strokes, then running up another nine just crisscrossing the turf.

"I don't know that I would ever admit that, but it could happen," Chuck Johnston, the course manager, said this week.

No more. A winter makeover has replaced the fake turf, a prime suspect behind declining attendance in recent years. In a return to course tradition and easier play, the old turf was torn up and replaced with packed sand.

The golf greens are once again golf browns.

Salem, which owns the course, is banking on the new, user-friendly greens to bring back the old crowds of seniors and beginners. More than 10,000 golfers came a year in the 1980s and '90s, the city said. Last year, an all-time low 1,973 played the course.

"If you can't make the putt, you just get aggravated and you don't want to come back," said Mike Tyler, director of the city's street and general maintenance department, which handled the renovation.

But sand for greens instead of for traps?

The revamped greens are actually a heavy cocktail of sand, clay and oil that resemble the infield of a baseball diamond. A similar mixture had surrounded the holes since the Salem course opened in 1919.

"Historically, they were fairly common because they're a lot less expensive to maintain than grass," said Darin Bevard, senior agronomist for the regional United States Golf Association office. North Carolina's renowned Pinehurst resort had sand greens until the 1930s.

But Bevard added he had never played, or even seen, a sand green. "In modern golf, it's very rare," he said. Afghanistan's only golf course, the Kabul Golf Club, also uses sand greens.

The turf arrived eight years ago as a replacement for the previous generation of sand greens that had become crusty and unpredictable from a lack of proper oiling. The fake turf was soon taking a toll on the scorecards, golfers said.

Johnston, who has run the par-34 course since 1990, said he shot his personal record of 28 on sand. His best on fake turf was a 33, and that was when the greens were brand new. The turf just got harder and faster as it aged.

The new sand greens offer consistency, Johnston said. Hit the ball straight and it goes straight. It even slows and stops predictably. Holes are situated neatly in the center of sand that was flattened with laser technology. Each one looks like the next.

Gone are the erratic greens of No. 4 and No. 9, a pair of pickles that could have stymied Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, Johnston said. "There were places I would have set out a bucket and said 'Have at it, boys.' "

Despite the upgrade, the course is still affordable. Kids, and that applies to local college students, pay $5 at all times. Seniors pay $8, adults pay $9 and both pay $10 on the weekend.

These fees might actually be considered a cover charge, because golfers can then play all day.

The regulars, by all reports, are pleased that the days of under par may return.

Monday morning, a pair of old buddies limbered up for a round. Bill Swain wore his Virginia Tech hat and warm-ups, Jerry Thompson wore his University of Virginia hat and warm-ups. The two retirees had known the old greens, and said they liked the new ones.

They teed off on the first hole, and shortly chipped onto the sand. Thompson's ball rolled within a few feet of the cup. It slowed. It stopped. Swain watched this from the fringe.

"Now, with those other greens, the ball would be over here," he said.