Infill for artificial turf system

An artificial turf system comprising:

• a turf carpet having a plurality of spaced apart synthetic grass blades attached to a backing layer;
• an underlayment layer defining at least one of a water channeling characteristic or a water permeability characteristic;
• and
• an infill material dispersed onto the turf carpet between the grass blades, the infill material including sand and a plurality of wood particles, at least a portion of the plurality of wood particles defining a length dimension oriented generally parallel to a grain structure of the wood particles, the length dimension in a range of about 1 mm to about 10 mm, and wherein the portion of wood particles maintains a water absorptive property that permits water to be retained by the portion of wood particles and released over time to disperse heat from the infill material.