PSD Agronomy visit Denmark and discover that Fescue’s FINE but don’t forget the putting surface ...
PSD AGRONOMY Ltd would initially like to extend a thank you to Ian Tomlinson, Course Manager at Rungsted Golf Klub, for arranging a short tour of selected clubs in Denmark. In addition, to ‘the Sons of Golf ’, a group of Course Managers who meet to discuss and debate the development of fescue turf, for allowing us to visit their courses. Interest in this subject was aroused following a meeting at Harrogate earlier in the year and an increasing awareness within the industry of the work being carried out by Ian and his colleagues in Denmark. The R & A have launched articles on their website, and numerous papers written in the press, extolling the virtues and success of the programme so far. It was therefore decided that Jay Dobson and Andy Cole, PSD Agronomy Ltd, would visit a few courses to see this work first hand. The following has been put together for the benefit of greenkeepers looking to develop more fescue in the future, but also raising a few questions, which require further debate.
THE reasons for the golf clubs in Denmark adopting this policy of fescue
promotion has been well documented, but just to re-cap in simplistic terms:
1. Fungicides are not available for the treatment of disease on the golf course. Severe attacks of fusarium patch disease, readily attacking the meadow grass, can be disfiguring and disruptive to the putting surface without treatment. What grass species is considered least susceptible to disease? FESCUE.
2. Alongside the heavy tax imposed on nitrogen-based fertilisers there is also a desire to reduce the level of chemicals applied to the golf course. What grass species requires a minimum amount of fertiliser to maintain good condition? FESCUE.
3. In the ‘good old days’ before popup irrigation, what was the dominant grass species within golf greens? FESCUE.
Without going too far you can see the logic behind the trend towards promoting more fescue for the long-term sustainability of the golf course under an enforced regime of turf management. Ian arranged an excellent tour of six golf clubs.
FALSTER Golf Klub, built in 1970 and coming out of what appeared to be a lapse in the ‘programme’. The greens were rather soft, an obvious result of the Graden and hollow tine works recently completed to reduce the accumulated thatch which had built up at the turf base. There was a degree of variability within the greens, the more exposed supporting a higher proportion of fescue compared to those shaded by the trees and, where the putting surface was a little bobbly, exacerbated by the inconsistency in the blend of species composition i.e. fescue, bent and annual meadowgrass and dry patch. Flat and procumbent growth on the bent was noted though within our discussion. It was confirmed that in the regime to promote more fescue, there has been a decline in the level of verticutting, which was reported to have been counter- productive.
MARIELYST Golf Klub, with nine holes built in 1995 and a second nine in 2000, was a gem. Relatively small greens, the turf supported a first sward of predominantly bent, fescue and small areas of meadowgrass, related to the size
Graden and hollow tine aeration to reduce accumulated thatch at Falster Golf Klub. Localised turf thinning and dry patch issues.
Ian Tomlinson and Andy Cole at Falster Golf Klub
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