Deering Bay YCC

A lot of golf courses have promo videos, but it's refreshing to see that some put their environmental efforts front and centre. Arnold Palmer signature course Deering Bay in Florida has done just that...

"In order to protect and maintain our pristine natural coastal habitat, Deering Bay values responsible conservation. From the eco-friendly paspallum grass chosen for our golf course to our on-site garden, we strive to live in harmony among our protected mangroves and diverse wildlife. Our golf course is a member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, and our carefully balanced eco-system features Florida manatees, American crocodiles, and more than 50 varieties of local and migratory birds. Our Committee for Conservation regularly hosts special programs on topics such as recycling and energy, as well as bird watching walks, local nature outings, wildlife lectures with renowned experts, and more."

Fox News covers "Green Golf"

A basic review of solar powered golf carts, solar powered irrigation pumps and Dixon Earth Golf Balls.

NBC - Nullified Bird Calls?

You have to admire the guy who listens closely to ambient noises on golf telecasts. Is this a failed PR ploy to paint golf courses as wildlife sanctuaries? Sometimes trying to hard at the wrong thing will only hurt you.

Dixon Golf Commercial

Don Cheadle can now add "Dixon Golf Commercial" to his list of performances which includes Oceans 11/12, Traffic, Hotel Rwanda and of course his role as a cowboy porn star Buck in Boogie Nights. But of course this isn't Cheadle's first role where he is doing good for the earth, check out this video where he portrays Captain Planet.

#Turfchat, Vargas Videos and Snow Mold

I figured I'd post these videos of Snow Mold Prevention and Treatment by Dr. Joe Vargas of Michigan State University in anticipation of tomorrows #turfchat. Be sure to check out the conversation live at 1PM Eastern (12PM Central) on the Turf Diseases Livestream page.

How Smooth Are You?

The first question I get as a turf manager from members and visitors is 'What speed are they today?' and it's very true, speed matters a great deal to golfers. Golfers generally love quick greens. When have you ever heard a golfer say, 'Wow those greens were amazing, they were so slow!'. Not often I bet. However, for us turf managers, while speed is important (especially for bragging rights), smoothness is undoubtedly the key ingredient for top quality greens.

Personally, I hate slow greens. As a former decent golfer (yes, I used to hit a fairway once), if I went to play a golf course where the greens were sluggish I would be counting down the holes waiting for the 18th to get off the course. But far worse than this were quick, bumpy greens that you used to get in the English springtime with those northerly winds. A round in March when the greens were lightning fast but bumpy, would produce putting strokes where, if you watched carefully, you could just about see a backswing! So for me, even though I still detest slow greens, if they are true they remain superior to quick bumpy ones.

So now that we have established that smoothness matters and rates above speed, how do we measure it?

Microlawns

I love grass - bamboos, bents, blues, natives, creeping, clumping, climbing the list goes on. I love using them as tools in the landscape, employing their specific characteristics in the garden, the playing field and in the wild. But there is a point where the use of grass seems redundant. Where there are more inputs required to maintain the grass than what the function of the grass in-turn produces. Case in point, the Microlawn. These attempts to deliver beautification and utility to the urban landscape seem ass-backwards to me.

I recently came across a photo-blog called Microlawns.tumblr.com that seems to share my view. Curious to learn more I contacted the creator David Yoon to learn where the motivation for his blog came from:

Microlawns started because I was doing a lot of walking to work...pretty rare for a guy living LA. I guess walking gave me lots of time to notice all the little details you miss when driving, so I started carrying a camera and snapping photos of minutiae: flowers, sidewalk graffiti, and then all these weird little leftover lawn patches. As oddball remainders of property demarcation they remind me of vestigial railroad scar tissue, slashing out awkwardly unusable parcels of land across the city. Also they're inherently absurd, because you know it's someone's job to tend to them—mowing, watering and edge trimming these purely symbolic bits of landscaping. I figured they're mysterious and meaningless anyway, so why not start creating silly origin mythologies around them? Never thought it'd get picked up by the likes of Huffington Post, Metafilter or Reddit, but that's the Internet for you I guess.

David has allowed me to repost some of his photos here, but to see a larger collection of true ridiculousness in action go to his blog. If you'd like to contribute join the Flickr Group.

Video: "Green" Efforts of Golf Courses, Urban Tree Cover

Founded in 1911, the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York is the nations oldest and one of the most respected schools dedicated to the study of the environment. In their most recent edition of their regular video series they discuss a few of the most common "green" efforts of golf courses. These include naturalization and restoring brown fields mostly. The segment is about ten minutes long and is the first of three segments in this video. The third segment may also be of interest. Starting at 18:40, this segment looks at urban tree cover study that looks at the effect of changing this cover on a city.

Herb Graffis Business Person of the Year Award

I was reading the online version of Golfdom the other day and saw a few things I wanted to mention on Turfhugger. To begin, their special feature "Turf on Trial" provided some excellent testimonies on behalf of a number of industry professionals who debunked common accusations against golf. Turfhugger's own Chris Tritabaugh was featured to help illustrate that golf courses do not live by their own set of rules, and that many like Tritabaugh, go beyond the expectations of law.

Also in this issue, on the bottom of page six is a small blurb about how Golfdom is currently accepting nominations for the first ever Herb Graffis Business Person of the Year Award. As outlined briefly in the magazine and on their website the award is meant to recognize forward-thinking people in the business of golf. 

I began to salivate. There are not shortage of Superintendent centric awards out there, and that's a good thing, but small business in this industry (consultants, contractors, etc) produce some game changing projects, services or products that help to elevate the way our industry does business, this award is for them. 

So I've decided to contact Seth Jones, Golfdoms Editor-In-Chief, to learn more. Here's what he had to say...

Calibrating A Back Pack Sprayer

I recently posted an article on calibrating a spray rig and now I want to help people understand the procedures required to calibrate a back pack sprayer. Back pack sprayers usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to calibration. Many people like to mix a percent dilution rather than calibrate. What if you want to remove moss from your green and you don’t want to broadcast spray or you want to eradicate bentgrass patches in your ryegrass fairways. This is when proper calibration comes into play.

World Food Day Guest Post - Urban Artichoke

(This is a re-post from 1 year ago)
In an effort to promote sustainable and self sufficiency practices, Turfhugger is celebrating World Food Day by providing tips, tricks and experience of those who love growing food. Our first post is by Patricia Larenas, aka Urban Artichoke: Part-time technology worker, part-time urban micro-farmer in Silicon Valley California. Her mission is to spread the love of sustainable gardening and save the planet one garden at a time, in partnership with the local ecosystem.

 Flowers enhance edible landscaping and attract pollinators.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a "turfhugger".  But I couldn’t resist the invitation to submit ideas for multiuse purposes for golf courses. I applaud Turfhugger for his efforts to promote sustainable practices for golf courses, and I’m excited about the multiuse concept. Some of the well-known objections to golf courses are that: the large surface area of lawn is a monoculture lacking in diversity and results in loss of habitat that requires significant resources to maintain (water, fertilizer, etc.). Furthermore, the use of synthetic fertilizers cause problems when they leach and runoff into water systems such as streams, ponds or groundwater.

It’s an exciting challenge to think creatively about how to transform these negatives by substituting positive practices that allow for recreational use.  My own vision for such a multiuse course would be to incorporate edible landscaping, plus native and beneficial plants. Ideally these would be grown in “islands” throughout the golf course grounds.  With the right mix of plants these islands would have a mix of beautiful flowering plants that invite beneficial insects, birds, and restore diversity and promote ecological balance to the property. This vision demands organic practices because to nurture ecological balance and grow healthy, fresh food for consumption is not compatible with the use of herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizing methods.

Identifying Warm Season Turfgrasses

These two videos from the Institute of Applied Agriculture at the University of Maryland, reviews the structural characteristics of a number of warm season turfgrasses.

Video One:

Kikuyugrass -- Pennisetum clandestinum
Common Carpetgrass -- Axonopus affinis
Centipedegrass -- Eremochloa ophiuroides
St. Augustinegrass -- Stenotaphrum secundatum

Video Two:

Zoysiagrass -- Zoysia japonica
Bahiagrass -- Paspalum notatum
Buffalograss -- Bouteloua dactyloides
Seashore Paspalum -- Paspalum vaginatum
Bermudagrass -- Cynodon dactylon

Video One

Video Two

Identifying Cool Season Turfgrasses

These two videos from the Institute of Applied Agriculture at the University of Maryland, reviews the structural characteristics of a number of cool season turfgrasses.

Video One:

Kentucky Bluegrass -- Poa Pratensis
Annual Bluegrass -- Poa Annua
Roughstalk Bluegrass -- Poa Triialis
Perennial Ryegrass -- Lolium Perenne
Annual Ryegrass -- Lolium Mulilorum

Video Two:

Tall Fescue -- Festuca Arundinacea
Red Fescue -- Festuca Rubra
Hard Fescue -- Festuca Brevipila
Sheep Fescue -- Festuca Ovina
Creeping Bentgrass -- Agrostis Stolonifera
Colonial Bentgrass -- Agrostis Tenuis

Video One:

Video Two:

A Look At Kiawah Golf Resort

The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in Southern Carolina is a leader in sustainability in our industry. They have plenty awards for their numerous projects and have truly made an impression with environmentalists, local residents and their guests. Below you'll find many examples of their projects and how they communicate their actions to guests and community.

Frost Education

Its that time of year, and if you haven't posted on your blog or the bulletin board why there are frost delays, here's a few resources to help.

Who's The Boss Of The Moss?

One of the hot topics (as well as hollow coring) this summer has been moss. In particular moss on greens. I've visited lots of courses this season, speaking with many turf managers and a very high percentage have had a huge battle with moss this season with silver thread moss being the chief culprit. However, my own course, a wet, clay based parkland course surrounded by trees, has been totally free of any type of moss for the last five seasons. Why? By rights, my course should be perfect for moss to invade. I do the same as most other greenkeepers. I aerate and sand dress as much as other guys, but the two things that some greenkeepers may not be as aggressive with are my very tight height of cut (2mm) and weekly spoon feeds. Could this be it?

Golf Dispute Resolution

Here at Turfhugger we like to bring to your attention other blogs that deal with the crossroads of golf course management, the environment and sustainability. One of these intersections that I rarely touch on myself is the legal aspect of allocation of resources, land disputes, environmental infractions, etc. Which is why it's a good time to introduce Turfhugger readers to Bob Harris and his insightful and amusing blog Golf Dispute Resolution. 


Rob Harris is an attorney who advises golf-related and other business clients on contractual matters and ways to minimize litigation risks. Rob’s practice includes issues pertaining to the rights and obligations that exist between owners, principals, contractors, suppliers and employees of privately held businesses. When disputes arise, Rob represents clients in litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings. Rob also serves as an arbitrator and mediator of contractual, construction, employment and financing disputes.

Rob doesn't give legal advise through his blog, instead he reviews quirky disputes with a connection to golf. Some posts that I think Turfhuggers would like include:

• Golf Course Held Hostage
• Thar She Blows
• As The Wind Blows
• And I Thought Golf Was Bourgeois
• Not In My Backyard
• 18 Holes, River View
• Judge Rules In Battle Over Battlefield Golf Course
• Weeds Are Gone, But So Are The Trees

With Robs permission I've included here his post entitled "OK, I’ll Bite…Tell Me What Happened" from September 13th, 2011.

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Occasionally, I have an opportunity to inform you about misfortune befalling wildlife at the hands of golfers. Today’s post brings you such news from upstate New York’s Fox Valley Club, an ironic name indeed, given the most recent animal story posted here. But I digress…

Imagine you find yourself in a tournament foursome with 69 year old Bob X, a club member. You are in the middle of the fairway assessing your upcoming approach shot, when you notice that Bob is over by the pond with what appears to be a sand wedge raised high. Since Bob is farthest from the hole, you wait for him to hit. He swings powerfully, once, twice. You come closer, just in time to see Bob lift by the tail the 22 pound snapping turtle he’s been pummelling, and swing the hapless creature against the side of the golf cart until dead.

You respond as follows (pick one):

• You ignore what happened, feeling honoured to be observing a secret club ritual.
• You assess Bob with a two stroke penalty for grounding his club in a hazard.
• When you see Bob loading the turtle meat into his trunk following the round, you call the cops.

If you guessed (3), you’re a winner. Fast forward…. The police arrived. The story is related. They are befuddled. With what, if anything, can they charge Bob? After all, the New York legislature has ordained a hunting season on snapping turtles that runs from July 15 to September 30. Unfortunately for Bob, however, he had no hunting license. And, while state law permits turtles to be killed with firearm or bow, a golf club is not a permitted weapon. So, confronted with an airtight case, Bob pleaded guilty to both charges and paid a fine. The turtle meat was taken from his freezer and was suspended from the club for thirty days.

Commenting on the event, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Conservation noted that the turtle’s death was “unusual and unfortunate” and “not something we see commonly.” I’ll bet.

Except for a bit of poetic license—we don’t know the specific play-by-play, or who ratted out Bob or why—this is the story as reported in the Buffalo News, and as related in this video from WIVB news.

DEC: man killed turtle with golf club: wivb.com

You can access Rob’s professional profile here and the Golf Dispute Resolution blog here.

Greens Performance - Are You Measuring It?

One of the biggest complaints from golfers is that their greenkeeper does all this work to their greens and the greens never seem to improve. A greenkeeper can be out there spiking to their heart's content, but if the surfaces don't improve, make no mistake, they will be under pressure.

Smooth putting surfaces are crucial to getting the golfers on your side!