26 Nov Why Do I Need a Turfgrass Consultant?
Posted at 07:30h
in Turfgrass Management
Golf Course Superintendents aim to create an amazing experience on the course, with lush greens, pristine sand traps, and healthy soil for better landscaping. But a common hurdle many supers face is working within their budget. Many managers have to look at what’s necessary and what’s not, which means cutting costs, like rescheduling aeration, skipping topdressing and scaling back landscaping. It’s hard to do more with less!
As a superintendent it can be frustrating to have ideas about how things should be done to make things better and not have that vision shared by the people who make the budget decisions. You’re the boots on the ground and can see what’s happening every day, but these things aren’t always as obvious to the people who are making the financial decisions. Here are some guidelines to help in presenting your proposed budget requests and getting them approved. 
For the turfgrass on a golf course to be healthy and thrive, it needs four standard things: good soil, sunlight, nutrients, and most importantly, water. Having an irrigation system distribute the water evenly and frequently across the course helps managers keep up with that challenge. But when the irrigation sources are varied (which is common on any golf course), it can be tricky to protect the quality of the water. There are many elements that can easily get into it, and then cause costly problems when it’s regularly sprinkled across the grass. Therefore, it’s important for managers to regularly test it to stop any problems before they get started. 
Golf courses are a special animal. On the one hand, it’s a sport built in nature, designed to be played on long, emerald fairways. Golfers appreciate the natural elements – the grass, the sand, the water – it is vital to the art of the game. On the other hand, while golfers are dependent on nature to play their sport, they need that nature to be curated and controlled and nature tends to fight back. One of nature’s strongest armies are weeds. Course managers are waging constant battle on these persistent threats, often with chemical warfare, which can run contrary to a deep appreciation of nature. But, new research is showing nature may be able to fight itself in the form of fescue. 
Naturalized areas can provide a great complement to a well-groomed course. Whether it’s a field of wheatgrass or wildflowers, the stark contrast of intensely managed greens set against of field of native plants can leave quite an impression. I’m not suggesting we just let nature do its thing – which can lead to major weed management issues – but, controlled natural environments will help amp up the experience of your field. Here I outline some recommendations to incorporate native plants into your landscape.