Editor's notebook: ‘Environmentalists at heart’

‘Environmentalists at heart’

Golf course architect Michael Hurdzan lauds the conservation efforts of superintendents.

By Rick Woelfel

Dr. Michael Hurdzan has devoted much of his life to the turf industry. Today he is one of America’s most respected golf course architects. Last month, he participated in a USGA symposium on golf course architecture along with fellow architects Gill Hanse, Robert Trent Jones II and Forrest Richardson.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hurdzan has been the managing partner of Hurdzan Golf Design since 2012. Prior to that, he had a 15-year partnership with architect Dana Fry. His design credits include Erin Hills (Wis.), the site of the 2107 U.S. Open Championship, along with the renowned Militia Hill Course at Philadelphia Cricket Club, which will host the USGA Four Ball in 2020.

Hurdzan graduated from Ohio State and worked as a superintendent before deciding to make architecture his career. He is proud of the golf industry’s environmental record.

“There’s no question that almost all superintendents are environmentalists at heart,” he says. “They went into the business because they want to be outside. They want to be around nature and they have no interest in destroying it.”

Hurdzan is quick to point out that the industry has always been ahead of the curve on environmental issues. Even during his undergraduate days at Ohio State, he was reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which warned of the dangers of pesticides. Hurdzan notes that in the 1950s products containing arsenic and lead were routinely used on golf courses; they were eventually outlawed.

Today, the issue is water. And with the summer of 2015 fast approaching, the golf industry is actively seeking ways to use less of it.

“Golf course have really led the way in developing the technology to save water,” Hurdzan says. “Everything from more efficient irrigation systems to the grasses that we use, to soil sensors There’s no question that living plants need water and golf courses are able to do more with less compared to home gardeners and people that have irrigated front lawns.”

Hurdzan notes that today’s strains of turfgrass need less water and nutrients than many golfers realize. “A plant is a pretty adaptable thing," he says, "and it can get by with a lot less water, fertilizer and pesticide than we think that it can if we simply put it in the right condition."

That will certainly be the case at Erin Hills, which opened in 2006 and hosted the U.S. Amateur five years later. Like Pinehurst last year and Chambers Bay later this year, Erin Hills will dispel the notion that a golf course must be green to be great.

“At Erin Hills, we simply put in a two-row irrigation system,” Hurdzan says. “Everybody else was putting in four rows. The middle of the fairways and everything else is going to go brown. We didn’t disturb the soil; all the grasses we used were fine fescue grasses that need less water and fertilizer. We didn’t till the soil. We simply killed the weeds so there was no loss of topsoil. Erin Hills is a good example of where you can apply all those principles and come up with a good golf course.”

This approach is getting a mixed reaction from the golfing public, which is not entirely surprising; Americans tend to prefer their golf courses lush and green. Hurdzan concedes that persuading golfers to accept turf conditions that are less than pristine isn’t easy.

“That is the challenge, frankly,” he says. “If you were to leave it up to the superintendents and the architects and the people who are administrators of the game like the USGA, there would be no problem. It’s just that golfers expect the golf course to be green. There’s some love affair with green and people are starting finally to come to the realization that water is a resource that we need to use carefully and one of the ways to do it is not use it in places where it’s not going to do any good. Golfers are our greatest challenge in being able to reduce the amount of water we use.”

Rick Woelfel is a Philadelphia-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.

 

A new nematode mindset

The prevailing approach when battling nematodes was to hit them with one or two treatments a season and all would be well. However, as some superintendents can attest — often when the damage is already done — this method isn't always the most successful or sustainable.

Nematodes are hearty little buggers capable of withstanding extremes of both heat and cold, but they are manageable, says Syngenta's Dr. Lane Tredway.

"This mindset needs to change because today's (nematode control) products don't have very long residuals," he says.

Tredway proposes a season-long approach to controlling nematode populations and mitigating their damage to turf. He likens this new philosophy to managing fungicide pressure on a course.

"There are a lot of similarities," he says. "Even the best fungicides won't eradicate disease from the soil. Nematodes are the same way."

Turf is most susceptible to nematode damage at the root, especially when under environmental (heat, drought) or cultural (aerification) stress. Tredway suggests incorporating a fungicide product into the program to combat root stress and help protect the plant.

“When the root is wounded, the plant is more prone to infections,” he says. “Along with this root damage we see a lot funguses — Bermudagrass decline, pythium root rot — come in behind. A product like Heritage (a systemic strobilurin) performs the same function as Neosporin on a cut.”

From the feed

We didn’t just ask select superintendents about preferred fairway mowing patterns for a feature story beginning on page 44. We asked our Twitter followers their preferences as part of our #Toro101 spring prep program.

Chris Tritabaugh @ct_turf
my preference is one direction tee to green. Can’t always make it work though. Then half&half. @ToroGolf

Joshua Hicks @AlexandriaSuper
I prefer stripes but on Bermuda that doesn’t work well...half and half works nice at our place

Matthew Wharton @CGCGreenkeeper
If had resources & time prefer one direction like @TheMasters. Currently half-n-half @CGC1929. #oldschool #Toro101

Matt Wagner @Wigg1es
Straight, left to right, right to left, repeat. 50/50 when you need to save time.

Phillip Vines @PhillipVines
@GCImagazine @ToroGolf Aesthetic: 1 direction, tee to green, with border mowed from green to tee #contrast. BMP: alternate mowing directions

Scott Wiiki @p0aanua
one direction, tee to green. #nostripes

Join the conversation on Twitter @GCIMagazine!