Many golfers have come to expect lush, green and manicured courses as sometimes portrayed by televised professional tournaments. This form of aesthetic preparation requires large budgets and can only be sustained for short periods of time. It also relies on chemical treatments and intensive management regimes. Aside from the economic cost of such an approach, excessive use of pesticides, fertilisers and water will have severe negative consequences for local ecosystems, which, in turn, is likely to adversely affect relationships with local communities. Growing environmental awareness, coupled with increasingly stringent legislation and budget limitations, suggest that such an intensive approach is unlikely to remain possible, sustainable or permissible in the future.
There are many benefits to be realised from turning attention towards environmentally sensitive course management, which is both socially responsible and economically viable. This alternative approach will, naturally, have an impact on the way your course looks and plays. Objective measurement can demonstrate that standards of playing performance are not being sacrificed by this change. The appearance of the course, its colour and its playing characteristics may well alter with the seasons, or variation in weather. Golfers have to be prepared for this. If you are to gain their acceptance and support it is critical that you communicate that:
- golf courses do not have to be lush and green to be challenging and fun to play
- economic and environmental costs of intensive management routines might not mean good value for money
- a natural and seasonally variable appearance can prove to be a major attraction to golfers
Unless your climate is so severe that brown turf is dead turf, allowing grasses to go slightly off-colour when nature dictates induces short-term dormancy as the grass ‘switches off’ through potential periods of stress. This situation need not cause undue concern, so long as traffic pressures are effectively managed and appropriate action is taken to break dormancy if levels of playing performance begin to deteriorate.
Developing and maintaining dry, firm and healthy conditions across the golf course will always:
- favour good shot making
- give the golfer a choice of how to play shots
- introduce variety and more fun into the game
- provide a different challenge for the golfer throughout the year
- give a more natural look to fairways and greens
- provide an interesting and visually pleasing backdrop.
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The Open Championship 2006 at Hoylake showed the fun and challenge offered by dry, running conditions on healthy turf.
Firm and dry conditions enable a clean contact between club face and golf ball, resulting in better ball control.
Sustainably managed surfaces will naturally vary in colour throughout the season. For those managing in transition zones, this may mean a notable change from the green of the main growing period...
... to the brown of winter dormancy. Both can provide excellent playing performance.
Footprinting to overly soft surfaces impacts on the smooth roll of the golf ball, and indicates unhealthy underlying growing conditions.