Page 17 - GM spring 2024

Be sure to attend the 2024 awards lunch to celebrate Canada’s best. Here is last year’s John B. Steel winner, Brian Youell, MS, accepting his award.
Precision Turfgrass Management, Chase Straw, Assistant Professor, Turfgrass Science, Texas A&M University
The turfgrass industry is under increasing pressure to improve environmental impacts by reducing management inputs. The concept of precision turfgrass management (PTM) is a viable strategy to achieve reductions by making management input applications only where, when, and in the amount needed. PTM currently relies heavily on new technologies, such as soil moisture sensors, drones, etc. for a more data-driven management approach. This session will introduce the concept of PTM for irrigation and integrated pest management, and then provide an overview of current trends and future applications of technologies for its implementation on golf courses, with particular focus on precision irrigation, pest control, and fertilization.
10 Things I’ve Learned About Clipping Volume, Dr. Micah Woods, President and Chief Scientist, Asian Turfgrass Centre
If we step back and consider what greenkeeping work is about, one way to define it is “managing the growth rate of the grass to create the desired playing surface for golf.” In 2013, I started to become interested in a simple measure of growth, by measuring the volume of fresh clippings in buckets after a putting green was mown. It turns out that this measurement has all kinds of utility, including with adjustments to playability, sand topdressing, mowing requirement, fertilizer inputs, plant growth regulators, and so on. In this
presentation, I will explain how this works and some of the exciting things that happen once one puts a number to how much the grass is growing.
The Reinvigoration of the Brantford Golf & Country Club, Keith Cutten and Stephen Hicks
The successful renovation of the Brantford Golf & Country Club, the 4th oldest club in North America was recently completed. After interviewing numerous architectural firms, Rod Whitman and Keith Cutten were hired in 2018 to create a Comprehensive Master Plan to assess the existing golf course and its aging infrastructure. In 2021, the WAC Golf team began the implementation of the approved plan with extensive renovations to several green complexes. Extensive tree clearing, a new bunker scheme, additional teeing areas, green expansions, mow line edits, drainage upgrades and a full new irrigation system were all delivered for $5,000,000. In the fall of 2023, work was completed across the entire property, resulting in a robust golf experience. Attendees will learn how to control renovation costs through the design/build process, low cost bunker renovation techniques and mitigating future risks with a fiscally prudent irrigation system renovation.
GreenMaster • CGSA • 17