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"Toolbox" could be ace in the hole
for golf courses
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Purdue Extension turfgrass specialist Cale Bigelow (left) and graduate research assistant Tracy Tudor have discovered that golf course managers can maintain attractive, playable greens with less work and at a lower cost.
Photo by: Steve Leer |
Below par looks great on the leaderboard but never when it describes the appearance and playability of golf course putting greens. Purdue University researchers are working to help course managers establish winning greens at lower cost and with less labor.
That's important at a time when many courses are struggling economically, said turfgrass specialist Cale Bigelow. "Managers are trying to strike a balance between the aesthetics of the putting green and turf health," Bigelow said. "They also have to think about player use. It can be extremely expensive to provide the right consistency across a golf course."
Bigelow and Tracy Tudor, a graduate research assistant, are developing a course manager's "toolbox" of recommended practices for establishing and maintaining putting greens. Two years into their research, they already have identified practices that could improve greens while allowing golf courses to realize cost savings of 5 to 10 percent a year.
Those practices include more timely and selective use of fertilizers and products that slow grass growth, help the turf retain moisture and minimize the encroachment of annual bluegrass—an enemy of most greens.
Bigelow and Tudor expect to release toolbox recommendations in time for the 2012 golf season.
By Steve Leer
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