Page 16 - GreenMaster Fall 2023

Table 1: NYSPGC use of High-Risk EIQ products.
Table 2: High-Risk EIQ Active Ingredients.
In addition to product swapping and spot treating, NYSPGC superintendents use pest models such as the Smith-Kerns dollar spot model or Cornell NRCC pest models to properly time pesticide applications. Constant monitoring of these models enables superintendents to determine precisely when a pesticide application is needed to either maximize pesticide efficacy or help eliminate unnecessary applications.
Further pesticide risk reductions can be achieved through the continued application of the above IPM techniques. However, there exists one more high-yield IPM technique that would drastically cut pesticide use: GPS guided Sprayers.
An analysis was conducted to compare reported sprayed acreage of NYSPGCs with actual measurements of areas using Google Earth. It was found that on average, NYSPGCs over-applied products by 15%, a number within ranges calculated at other facilities. This is due to the slight overlapping and lack of individual nozzle control inherent with traditional sprayers. GPS
Figure 3: Utilization rate by NYSPGCs.
sprayers eliminate these errors thus reducing excess product application that occurs. While the price for GPS sprayers may seem large at first, reductions in both product usage and labor savings should be considered to calculate an ROI. In a case study with Skaneateles Country Club, an ROI of less than 2 years was calculated.
FACILITY PERFORMANCE RELATIVE TO GOLF MARKET
In recent years, the Cornell Turf team has partnered with the Pellucid Corporation to provide data estimating weather’s impact on the golfing potential for the season. They compute a golfing capacity, or the maximum quantity of rounds that could have been played at a given golf course considering the weather. These data can be paired with reported number of rounds from NYSPGCs to calculate utilization – the percentage of possible tee times filled by golfers.
Golfing capacity was up across all NYSPGCs last year by 7% compared to 2019, due in large part to favorable weather in the shoulder months of March and November. Regionally, this weather effect was muted for Upstate courses, and exaggerated for Long Island courses. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic halted golf operations in the Spring months last year which eliminated the ability for facilities to take advantage of favorable
weather. In addition, courses had to alter standard operating procedures, moving from 10-minute to 15-minute tee-time intervals. These COVID-19 protocols required adjustments to rounds capacity data to calculate valid utilization metrics.
Figure 3 shows the drastic increase in utilization rate, up 25% statewide, in 2020 after adjusting capacity numbers due to COVID. This was an industry trend due to golf being one of the few safe, outdoor recreational activities people could engage in. Regionally, the increase in utilization was more pronounced in the Long Island and Downstate/ East regions, likely due to higher population density and stronger golfing markets in those regions.
Two courses saw extreme jumps in utilization: Montauk Downs (+41%) and Rockland Lake (+48%). Montauk is a unique situation where people from New York City moved out to the Hamptons during COVID, increasing rounds substantially. Rockland’s increase is likely linked to increased conditioning stemming from a new irrigation system and tree removal.
RESPONSIBLE NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT
Water quality is becoming a growing issue in the public’s eyes. This growing awareness has made its way to the NY assembly where various fertilizer restriction bills have been proposed to limit fertilizer use on
16 • CGSA • GreenMaster