Page 18 - GreenMaster Fall 2023

Comparisons between NYSPGCs and nationwide averages can be made thanks to data from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (table 5). NYSPGCs use lower fertilizer amounts than national averages across all surfaces, but most importantly on fairways where the greatest potential risk of nutrient runoff and leaching exists.
Table 5: NYSPGC fertilizer use compared to national averages.
With support from the Cornell turfgrass program, several NYSPGCs will begin measuring growth rate of putting greens. This process, known as clipping volume measurement, has proved an increasingly valuable technique to guiding fertilizer applications and cultural practices. It is expected that clipping volume measurements will further optimize nutrient management and increase surface performance on putting greens.
These BMPs help to limit the amount of fertilizer applied, and therefore the risk of fertilizer reaching water bodies. However, water quality testing is still needed to establish baseline levels that golf courses can monitor and address, if needed.
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
The Cornell Turfgrass Science program has been a national leader in developing golf course maintenance practices that mitigate climate change. Specifically, reducing fossil fuel emissions by creating areas that require less frequent mowing. NYSPGCs have created naturalized habitat and reduced mowing of 293
Table 6: NYSPGC Naturalized Area Analysis.
acres by 90%, since 2000. Conservative estimates show this has led to an average annual CO2 emission reduction of 5.8 tons.
When done correctly, naturalized areas can reduce maintenance costs and carbon emissions while increasing biodiversity, providing pollinator foraging habitat, and filtering nutrients and pollutants from runoff water. Golf courses present a unique opportunity to create natural areas. The majority of turfgrass on a golf course is rough, which is mowed generally at 3 inches and stretches to the peripheries of the course. While golfers frequently visit the rough, certain areas are beyond the bounds of normal golfer dispersion patterns. It is these areas where traditionally mowed turf can be converted to natural areas by reducing the frequency of mowing and allowing vegetation to grow to higher heights.
Approximately 10% of property area on NYSPGCs has been converted from mowed rough to naturalized area, totaling 293 acres or approximately 16 acres per course (table 6). This leads to an average annual CO2 emission reduction of 645 pounds per course, or 5.8 tons of CO2 per year by NYSPGCs.
TREE MANAGEMENT PLANS
The balance of appropriate tree placement on golf courses is delicate. Trees can create aesthetic and strategic value for golfers, but they also directly compete with turfgrass for valuable resources such as light and water. In the 1980s and 1990s, courses began a trend of planting trees to make golf courses more difficult, but this trend has manifested decades later in overgrown golf landscapes that create poor turfgrass growing conditions. In these cases, excessive inputs (water, fertilizer, pesticides) are needed to maintain healthy turf.
During operational assessments conducted by the Cornell Turf team, courses were rated on their growing environments. Two courses were outliers in their growing environment ratings: Rockland Lake and Chenango Valley (table 7). As a result, tree assessments were performed to identify trees on the course negatively affecting turfgrass maintenance and associated inputs. Trees were also assessed from a golf course design perspective with the idea of returning the landscape back to its original intent.
18 • CGSA • GreenMaster