The grass at Super Bowl LVII has been years in the making

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Be warned: When you're watching Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, you might get the urge to take out your driver for a few swings.

That's because the grass that the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will play on inside State Farm Stadium will be the same turf on which you'd play 18.

The turf is Tahoma 31 and it's among the newer breeds of grass that have been developed with the funding of the United States Golf Association. Tahoma 31 is a mix of two types of Bermuda grasses and rye grass, and it was developed at Oklahoma State University under the watchful eye of Dr. Yanqi Wu. He started the process of creating Tahoma 31 in 2006, when he crossed China Bermuda grass and African Bermuda grass. A year later, the seeds were harvested and the grass was tested and studied all over the country until 2018.

The result was a grass that's good enough for the Super Bowl.

It's a high-quality grass that, compared to other Bermudas, has better tolerances for cold, drought (it uses 10% less water), disease, and wear, and recovers better from traffic, said Cole Thompson, the director of turfgrass and environmental research at the USGA.

For example, normal Bermuda grass would wear out to bare ground after the kind of foot traffic it would face in the leadup to the Super Bowl, said Brian Whitlark, an agronomist in the west region for the USGA. Tahoma 31 won't have an issue holding up to demands of being a Super Bowl field, he added.

When it was time to pick a sod for the game, Ed Mangan, the NFL field director, needed grass that could withstand a week's worth of rehearsals for the pregame, halftime and postgame shows.

«With that extra pressure comes extra things that we need to do,» said Mangan, who's working his 35th