This is not your father's artificial turf
From putting greens to backyards, company offers synthetic grass
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/24/06
BY LARRY HIGGS
STAFF WRITER
RED BANK – Former pro-football player Phil Villapiano went from using a makeshift putting green in his basement to having a practice green big enough for six holes and a sand trap in his backyard.
"You'd think you were looking at a country club; it's the prettiest part of the yard," said Villapiano of Rumson. "I've got a nice little practice area. . . . I work out of my home office and go out and putt and chip on my lunch break."
The company that sold Villapiano his prized figure eight-shaped green in April is in nearby Red Bank and makes everything from personal putting greens to nine-hole executive golf courses to athletic fields. All are made with new synthetic grass that looks, feels and plays like the real thing.
Golf Greens Fore U, based on Shrewsbury Avenue, has franchises in every state and its headquarters in Red Bank.
Its products are not like the bright kelly green, plastic-doormat-like artificial turf your dad played on, says Joe Ali, president and chief executive officer of Golf Greens for U.
"It acts and feels like natural grass. With sand infill, it provides safety for athletes," said Ali, of Holmdel. "It rolls true like a natural putting green, and it feels like a natural putting green."
Unlike the old fashioned Astroturf, this synthetic grass doesn't absorb water, he said.
Ali believed in the product enough to buy the company in November 2005 and move the headquarters from Indiana to Red Bank that December.
"I moved it here because of the potential: it's a good area for the golf business," he said, noting the company has installed 25 golf greens in Monmouth County alone.
Ali's career started with copying machines. He worked as a sales manager and account manager for Xerox Corp. between 1993 and 1997. When Xerox outsourced its sales work, he formed Millennium Business Systems to do sales for Xerox, which he built up from three to 50 employees over eight years.
He sold that company after nine years and became a Golf Greens Fore U licensee in New Jersey.
"After that, I did the due diligence on the company, I met the owner and decided I'd be the right guy to buy the company from him," Ali said. "I figured it would be a perfect fit. I know both sides of the business."
The actual synthetic turf is made in Dalton, Ga., and also is suitable for tennis and bocce courts, lawns and athletic fields.
"I just knew there would be an explosion for synthetic grass in the western U.S., where it's difficult to grow grass, and on the East Coast, where schools and universities are switching from natural playing fields to synthetic grass for safety," Ali said.
To that end, Ali had a display at the recent New Jersey State League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.
"We're just scratching the surface locally on fields," he said.
The company has installed entire front lawns of synthetic grass at homes in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico — where grass can be hard to grow — and an entire front yard at a home in Staten Island.
Prices range from $10 to $14 per square foot for indoor greens to $16 to $18 per square foot outdoors.
Villapiano, a former linebacker for the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills, said he "made do" with a makeshift putting green and net in his basement during the winter, before the 900-square-foot green was installed in his backyard.
"These guys from Golf Greens Fore U are all golfers, and they know what to do," he said.
The payoff?
Villapiano said he placed second at a recent golf tournament at the Deal Country Club.