Having lived in the desert Southwest for three years now, I realize the importance of water conservation more than I did while living on the East coast. I have also come to realize even more than before that growing healthy turfgrass is an act of conservation! Very often as golf course managers we read articles or attend seminars that stress new technology. Irrigation systems and programming make watering more efficient. New products are created specifically to help the soil hold water or even allow the water to become “wetter” and help move the detrimental salts out of the root zone.
We take classes on personnel management as well, to help us guide our employees toward more safe and efficient practices. Although these innovations have been and often are extremely helpful in many ways, I believe nothing takes the place of a healthy plant!
When I try and help golf course managers troubleshoot problems and optimize course conditions, I look at all the facets of what it takes to make any grass as healthy as possible given the climate, soil and water we deal with here in Las Vegas and the surrounding region. There is no one answer to this issue. It takes several steps to solve the problem and even with that said, we may be dealt a hand to include an extra harsh winter (2006/2007) or an extremely hot and humid summer (2007). In order to conserve water and in turn save budget dollars, (or at least reallocate them to other important areas on the golf course) we must maintain the healthiest plant possible!
Some of the key factors in this process are maintaining proper soil air/water pore space, maintaining proper fertility, adopting proper cultural practices and having a good staff to carry out the task at hand. Just in that list, we see that above all we need well-trained people. If there is not someone to go out and determine when to hand-water or when to overhead irrigate an area, all our knowledge and expertise is not as valuable.
If we do not have the equipment to aerify the soil at different depths and in different patterns, things will not work as well as they can. Without a plan in place based on tee times and peak season events, it will be difficult to even get routine tasks completed. With a proper fertility program in place (my personal favorite) based on soil and water analysis, all the other key factors will when completed, will work to optimum expectations.
After recently returning from the recent Golf Industry Show in Orlando, FL and spending several hours looking at all the booths filled with things that can potentially help us accomplish our key goals, I realized that to expect one person to decipher the good from the bad would not be realistic. We are bombarded with so many options with which to grow healthy turf that it is hard to remember to do the basics.
If we can have the chemistry in the soil working correctly, we can create an environment that will promote turfgrass health. It is not unlike our own health; if we smoke, drink too much alcohol, eat fatty, greasy foods and don’t exercise we cannot expect a clean bill of health when we return from the doctor’s office. (In my case, like most men I am on an every four year check-up routine.)
So again we see there is no “silver bullet” to growing healthy grass. Performing basic agronomic procedures at our golf courses will in time lead to a good product for the golfers to enjoy!
When we talk about conservation, we can talk about conserving several things -- water, labor, time and money. If you think about it, these can’t be replaced – once they’re gone, they’re gone!.
A sound fertility program, thorough and regular aerification and deep and infrequent watering practices will make need for “guessing” which product or service will work go away. Even having some of these products independently analyzed is often useful.
We can determine whether or not our spray tank mix for the over-seeded ryegrass is giving us the results we need. We can look at monitoring our greens flushing program through collecting drain tile out-flow. These are all part of a conservation effort. During these days of increased fuel costs, rising commodity prices and demands on golf course managers to tighten budgets, knowing what to do and using the proper timing to do it works to accomplish or help solve these issues.
A healthy stand of grass will conserve time, money and water. Continue to look for ways to make your golf course healthy. In a time when “going green” is emphasized, golf courses all over the country are often looked at with extra scrutiny. We can be the leaders in conservation and still produce a product even better than before! Continue to make time to let your pro shops, starters, general managers, owners and golfers know what you are doing to conserve the vital resources you have been entrusted with.
Corey Angelo is a consultant with Soil and Water Conservation, Inc. in Las Vegas, NV. He can be reached at 702.457.6671 or cangelo6@embarqmail.com.
