Dottie Pepper

Dottie Pepper has seen and done a lot as a player and commentator throughout her 35-year professional golf career.

In 17 years on the LPGA Tour, she recorded 17 wins, including two victories at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She also played in six Solheim Cups and won the Vare Trophy in 1992 for having the tour’s lowest scoring average.

For the past 18 years, she has been sharing her knowledge and observations as a walking reporter. She’s been a part of the CBS golf team since fall 2015.

Pepper has an interest in and appreciation for golf course maintenance and agronomy, one she acquainted from the late George Pulver, her longtime coach, mentor and friend. Speaking with Rick Woelfel on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast, Pepper recalled one of her first encounters with Pulver when she was 15.

“He was out taking soil samples at Brookhaven (New York) Golf Club,” she says. “He was out there with (his wife) as they were walking and playing holes. He was taking soil samples, so I guess that sort of sparked my interest in agronomy and, ultimately, I think architecture as well.”

The art, science and technology of agronomy has evolved considerably over the course of Pepper’s life and career, but she wonders whether technology has gone too far, particularly with the use of water.

“Just because technology is available doesn’t mean you have to use it,” she says. “I think in some situations we’ve overused the technology that’s there. I say that because everybody wants to put water everywhere. Look, I’m a green thumb and I like having water at my disposal in my yard, but not necessarily everywhere on every golf course is it a great environment.

“I remember distinctly being at the Safeco Classic my first or second year on tour in Seattle. And Seattle has its fair amount of rain. But they were putting so much water on the golf course. It was mudball, after mudball, after mudball, and I finally got hold of an LPGA official and said, ‘What the heck are we doing?’ I’m staying in private housing on the golf course and the sprinklers are going all night long and we’ve had nothing but rain. What are we doing?’ And, he said that ‘green was good.’

“But, at some point, you’ve got to stop and I think that’s where we are. By hook or by crook, we’ve come to respect the bounciness of the terrain, and sand capping, and being able to monitor water. What I don’t love are the green speeds because I think it limits us a little bit and that’s where I say the agronomy … just because you have it, doesn’t mean you have to use it.

“I think we’re getting back to the space where we understand that air movement and drying conditions. If we have to lose a few bad trees, it’s OK. If we can make the turf conditions good on their own where Mother Nature can be a friend rather than a foe, we’ve done a great job. I think that’s where the biggest change in those 35 years for me has been. Everybody just wanted to run the water, now we’re realizing that it’s not all that healthy all the time.”

During the podcast, Pepper spoke to the superintendents who volunteer their time to assist their peers hosting major events.

“That regular staff at a golf course that’s holding a tournament can’t possibly maintain that golf course to tournament standards, especially if there’s weather,” she says. “So, there are interns and there are volunteers and there are superintendents from the area that come in to help. If there’s an ounce of a delay, unless you have a huge staff and people from really everywhere helping, you don’t get back on the golf course.”