Less turf + better turf = better for golf
Below are excerpts from an article that originally appeared in Golfdom.
In an effort to make golf better for the budget and better for the golfer, courses take a close look at where the green goes.
The California drought, thankfully, is over.
And so is a state program that rewarded California golf courses with thousands of dollars for removing irrigated turfgrass. But that program has still inspired a wave of critical thinking on the way golf courses possibly can save water, labor, energy and money.
“It’s interesting to have these (water reduction) discussions in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in the Midwest, when I’m used to having them on the West Coast,” says architect Andy Staples, ASGCA, Staples Golf Design. “There’s no question, reducing water has resonated with the courses I’ve worked with.”
“In golf, everything is site-specific — no two golf courses are the same,” says Jay Blasi, ASGCA, Jay Blasi Design. “But the general idea or concept of only watering turf because it’s in play? That translates anywhere. Scotland and Australia figured this out a long time ago. More golf courses are closing than opening. Finding better ways to keep courses irrigated is paramount to the success of the industry.”
Less is more
Los Robles Greens Golf Course in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is known for the mighty oak trees that line the fairways (“los robles” translates to “the oaks” in Spanish). But those out-of-play areas under the oaks were a stumbling block for course Superintendent Ron Kerley.
“When I came here in 2006 we started maintaining it as xeriscape, first leaf litter, then wood chips,” Kerley recalls. “The customers complained that the wood chips were too big, so then we went to bare dirt for three or four years.”
California was in the throes of a drought, so Kerley was looking for a way to make these areas attractive, playable and drought tolerant. It was at the 2015 Golf Industry Show in San Antonio where Kerley met Gary Peterson, president of American golf construction at American Landscape Inc., and plans for a formal renovation starting bouncing around.
Added inspiration came because the course qualified for a turf reduction rebate — barely. The money for privately owned properties already had dried up. Because Los Robles is owned by the city of Thousand Oaks, a municipality, it still was able to apply for a turf-reduction rebate. Kerley and his team submitted the paperwork at 9:30 p.m. on the final day of eligibility. Their project was accepted, and they went to work the next day.
The course, managed by Arcis Golf, applied for a 25-acre rebate, but the metro water district approved only 21 acres. By the end of the project, with the help of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, the course removed 30 acres of turf, primarily out-of-play areas under trees along fairways.
They scalped the turf with a flail mower, applied pre-emergent and installed new irrigation according to new landscaping lines. Brian Broderson of Broderson Association Landscape Architecture and his team spent a month coaching Kerley’s crew on how to plant the new native grasses, a mixture of California Native Fescue and Melic grass (cool-season) and Sporobolus airiodes and Muhlenbergia rigens (warm-season).
The crew had to push hard — much-needed rains caused multiple delays — but the project finished on time. Last fall, a nifty check arrived in the mail.
While the project is complete, work to maintain these new native areas is ongoing.
“Anybody who knows anything about kikuyu grass knows that you can dump gasoline on it, light it on fire, and it’ll still come back,” Kerley says. “Guys who have been through this before have told me it takes two or three years. We try to minimize our chemical use, but sometimes we can’t help it and we put down a pre-emergent.”
The course keeps a nursery of native grasses and continues to put out new plantings. Kerley says the native grasses look best as the seasons change and they go in and out of dormancy. A native Midwesterner who has worked on golf courses coast to coast, he believes courses outside California could benefit from projects like the one they completed.
“I’m from Evansville, Ind. I have some family friends who own a share of a golf course back home,” Kerley says. “I was out there just last December for Christmas and we were driving the course together. There were areas that would be perfect for native areas. I think projects like this could benefit courses anywhere.”
Click here to read the full article on golfdom.com.