In Fort Wayne, Lawn Bowling Green Coming Together

Rendering of Ft. Wayne Bowling Green courtesy of Steven M. Johnson, landscape designer, used with permission

A little over a year ago, Fort Wayne Curling Club announced its newest big initiative for when the ice melted: the Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club, with plans for a regulation bowling green on the grounds of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, directly across from the Parkview SportOne Ice House.

According to club members, lawn bowls (Don’t call it lawn bowling), which uses the skills found in curling, but transfers them to grass rather than ice, is a great use of the offseason as well as a way to engage the community.

Once completed, the facility will mark the first of its kind in Indiana.
 

In lawn bowls, players have to roll a weighted ball (also known as a biased ball) along the grass toward a target ball, known as a jack. The biased balls, called “bowls,” follow a curved path when rolled, similar to way a curling stone moves.

A bowling green is a roughly 120’ x 120’, extremely flat grass area surfaced in short bentgrass (that’s a cool season grass that spreads readily). Because the grass is kept very short (cut to just 3/16”), it has been compared to the surface of a golf green or a grass tennis court.
 

And, Craig Fischer, president and co-founder of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, told SDM last year, the curling club long had an unused grassy area behind its facility, although “we did not think it was big enough for a standard bowling green. Last summer, he noted, he and his wife measured the area and were “really surprised to find that we had the space.”
 

Building a bowling green, however, is not as easy as just using any grass area. Strict tolerances regarding slope have to be taken into consideration. 

Additionally, the green needs to be built to drain quickly and to be playable soon after a rain event. This means any area to be used must first be excavated and rebuilt with a stone layer to facilitate drainage and a sand cap to generate strong root growth.
 

Fundraising efforts, to cover the cost of construction of the green, began. On July 16, ground was broken.

Which brings us to the present. According to the club website, 75 percent of funding in place. A recent email communication noted that work on the facility was continuing:

• The parking lot area has been leveled.  
• Sprinkler heads have been installed around the green.  
• The fence was expected to go in soon.

Additional plans include concrete skirting around the playing area, lighting to allow for night play, the placement of patio tables, chairs and benches and a bar so that members and guests can enjoy drinks and snacks, as well as a maintenance shed for equipment needed to keep the bowling green in play-ready condition.

The Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club will operate as a division of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, offering lawn bowls from April through September each year, while curling will continue from September through April.
 

Ultimately, once its new venue is in place, it will be used as a tool to attract other lawn bowls events. 

Fort Wayne Curling Club already has extensive experience hosting bonspiels and other curling events and expects to use this knowledge to help its lawn bowls events run smoothly.

More information on the facility can be found on its website.