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Spreading the green
Maintenance of roughs raises sticky issues.
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Growing demands from ownership and golfers for premium turf conditions throughout a golf course property have put many course maintenance programs at unwilling cross-purposes with industry conservation and environmental efforts.
It wasn’t so long ago, notably above the transition zone, that rough areas on golf courses weren’t watered or maintained in general, save for assists from Mother Nature. In many areas, that meant a lot of brown grass and other stressed plants before the summer season was over.
Nowadays, though, thanks to modern irrigation technology, an increasing number of venues are watering the rough along with everything else. As a consequence, maintenance practices have to be expanded, including chemical applications, to fairway- and greens-complex roughs.
The irony is, today’s irrigation systems heavily promote water-conserving efficiency, yet when the coverage of the big multiple-row systems is extended over an entire facility, water use often is markedly increased.
All this hasn’t been lost on the USGA’s many regional agronomists, who began addressing the looming specter of rough maintenance as an offshoot to discussions on water conservation.
“In the northern half of the country, no one ever irrigated the rough intentionally, except for a little carryover on the fairway edges. But now, it’s amazing how many wall-to-wall irrigation systems there are,” says Jim Snow, national director of the USGA Green Section, who points to a trend where golfers and owners want not just green grass, but uniformly conditioned turf in the rough.
“It’s become a costly part of golf course maintenance for something that we used to let go,” he says. “Now we’re using more water and more fertilizers and pesticides in the rough, while at the same time we’re trying to say we’re being environmentally correct. That doesn’t add up in my view. We’re saying one thing and doing something else. And it’s not the superintendent’s fault; it’s golfer demand.”
Snow recently sought input from the Green Section’s Turf Advisory Service agronomists regarding the level of rough maintenance in different parts of the country. Excerpts from several of the responses follow.
Darin S. Bevard, Senior Agronomist,
Mid-Atlantic Region
The discussion is kicked off by Bevard, who spent more than a year researching an article for the Green Section Record on rough maintenance. “The Rough Dilemma in the Mid-Atlantic Region,” featured in the January/February 2007 issue of the Record, focused on the challenge of establishing new grasses into existing rough and maintaining quality cool-season roughs in general to meet golfer expectations in the region that extends up the Atlantic seaboard from Virginia to Pennsylvania.
“I have some other thoughts,” Bevard says, beyond his article. “... When I first joined the staff, most courses, high and low budget, were being designed with double-row irrigation for better coverage in fairways and some coverage in the near-rough. Now there is demand for the rough to be green, dense and “fair” — no voids or clumps — from the cart path to the tree line on most courses. I see courses adding rough irrigation heads or using roller bases. Water use has increased because of this, especially on green surrounds and near-rough.”
Bevard adds that nearly half of the courses on his TAS visitation list make at least two fungicide applications during the summer to combat disease. Even venues with naturalized areas apply grub control, herbicides and broadleaf weed control.
“My feeling is that the demands for rough have increased everywhere, but the nature of the transition zone makes the pesticide issue more relevant,” he says.
Keith A. Happ, Senior Agronomist,
Mid-Atlantic Region
Happ echoes his region cohort, Bevard. “It’s a very significant trend at the courses I visit,” he says. “... It’s very common to see control programs used wall-to-wall at greater than 50 percent of the courses I visit, even municipals and state venues.”
Happ notes that most new irrigation systems are designed and used with the intent of covering the entire course-owned acreage, the idea being that sprinkler heads can be shut off where not needed.
“Also, with state drought regulations, it’s becoming increasingly more important to have the ability to treat fairway, green and tee turf separately from intermediate and primary rough,” he adds.
Stanley J. Zontek, Director,
Mid-Atlantic Region
“Most roughs are treated with insecticides, be it hot spots or out to the end of irrigation, and most need to be watered in,” says Zontek, a GCSAA Distinguished Service Award winner in 2006. “Most of the courses I see are on a basic, curative or semi-preventive fungicide spraying program based on the type of grasses they have in the roughs. ... Clearly, chemicals are treating more acres for disease, insects and weeds.”
Zontek also points out that many courses that don’t have the wall-to-wall irrigation systems are adding heads to help improve the grasses in non-irrigated areas.
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Golfer and owner demands for consistent turf in the rough call for more irrigation and pesticides, which goes against efforts to conserve water — an issue the USGA is taking up. |
David A. Oatis, Director, Northeast Region
In the country’s far northeast reaches, Oatis sees three- and five-row irrigation systems with several heads for maximum coverage, but he believes the new systems’ efficiency offsets some of the consumption from extra coverage. He adds that fungicides are being used on a limited basis in roughs and usually not more than the step cut or a spray boom width at the most.
“Most courses do maintain a step cut despite my efforts to talk them out of it,” Oatis says. “These are tough to maintain — too low for Kentucky bluegrass and too high for bentgrass, so the turf doesn’t perform well and requires more intensive management.”
Oatis also notes that courses with naturalized roughs have a tough time with weeds spawned from irrigation, usually requiring aggressive herbicide applications.
James E. Skorulski,
Senior Agronomist, Northeast Region
“Overall, I have seen a significant increase in the use of pesticides with shorter intervals being used on primary playing surfaces and more attention being given to bunker banks, green surrounds, primary roughs and naturalized areas,” says Skorulski.
Charles “Bud” White, Director,
Mid-Continent Region
“Rough maintenance has definitely been the trend here and all driven by golfer demand wanting fairway lies 20 yards into the rough,” says White. “... I would say probably 60 percent of the courses I visit have increased herbicide applications in the deep roughs, but I have been trying to get superintendents to add aeration in roughs and many are not as receptive to that — just pre- and post-applications.
The Mid-Continent dips into bermudagrass country, and White says fungicide applications in the rough there are nil, but he has seen increased fertilization for density.
Robert A. Brame, Director,
North-Central Region
“I say 60 to 70 percent of the courses visited have increased their input of pesticides in the rough over the last 10 to 15 years, and 30 to 40 percent have expanded their water usage,” Brame says. “Normally, the incentive starts with the green surrounds and expands to key in-play areas along fairways.”
Chris Hartwiger,
Senior Agronomist, Southeast Region
“In the Southeast, the expectation at all mid- and upper-level courses is uniform, weed-free turf. Where we have seen changes is an extension of where the rough ends,” Hartwiger says. “Because bermudagrass grows poorly in shade, upper-level courses have expanded their maintenance well into the woods through the use of pine straw, mulch and sometimes cool-season grasses such as tall fescue and thermal bluegrass. This has added significant costs in terms of materials and maintenance — weed control, debris pickup and washout repair.”
Matt Nelson, Senior Agronomist,
Northwest Region
Nelson says increased maintenance of roughs is occurring throughout the West, and he attributes much of it to high-end construction projects that use sod to establish all the turf areas, along with wall-to-wall, hard-edge irrigation coverage. In turn, many courses have renovated their turf and/or irrigation systems to better compete aesthetically with turf uniformity.
“Beyond broadleaf weed control, pesticide applications to the roughs are rare here,” he says. “Some courses in the intermountain states may treat green surrounds preventively for snow mold and some courses in central California will occasionally treat green surrounds or other rough areas for summer disease or grassy weed prevention.”
“The big change out here, though, is with irrigation,” Nelson adds. “We have improved water-use efficiency with better design, control and components, but the fact remains that more area is being irrigated. Golfers, developers, realtors all want green, uniform turf right up to the edge of the native area or residential lot property line. In many instances this results in excess turf maintenance and a lack of resource conservation or utilization of well-adapted plant material suitable to reasonable golf conditions.
“Probably 30 to 40 percent of the courses I visit are irrigating more area, although it might be tough to say they are using more water compared with the poor systems of the past. But, these courses arguably are using more water than is necessary for a good golf course.”
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