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By John Hoyle, CGCS, Corning Country Club When comparing the nutrient, pesticide and water use inputs between various suitable fairway turgrass species and varieties, bentgrass is, in northern climates, head and shoulders above the rest.  This concept is impactful from an environmental perspective, but how does it impact other important factors i.e. budget, golfer satisfaction, etc.?  Significantly!  For example, reductions in irrigation and fertilizer requirements of creeping bentgrass (Jacobs & Gross, 2019; Dobie, 2020) as well as fairway fungicide use (Bekken et al., 2021) suggest that the ROI of installing creeping bentgrass can be as little as 1.3 years (Jacobs […]

April 17, 2020 by NYS BMP · The annual bluegrass weevil (ABW), Listronotus maculicollis, can have two to three generations per year and cause significant damage to many golf courses in New York.  But monitoring and managing ABW in an economically and environmentally sustainable way can be difficult. However, by using proper scouting methods along with a well-informed decision-making process, you can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of ABW management at your facility. ABW adults overwinter in leaf litter, tall grasses, and other areas with dense organic matter that provides a buffered environment from harsh winter conditions.  On a typical golf course, overwintering habitats […]

January 15, 2020 by NYS BMP · Do you have a stream on your golf course property? Interested in a way to measure water quality without spending a lot on costly testing, learn a thing or two and have some fun at the same time?  One method is to examine what is living in it – in particular the benthic macroinvertebrates. These insects live underwater in our streams and rivers, lack a backbone, and can be seen by the naked eye. The NYSDEC program called WAVE (Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators) is a project where volunteers collect, or sample “stream bugs” to assess water quality […]

January 13, 2020 by NYS BMP · For many reasons, management of annual bluegrass weevils (ABW) presents incredible challenges to golf course superintendents in New York State. These reasons include: 1) The small size (about 1/8 inch in length) and cryptic nature of ABW adults make monitoring difficult. 2) As the life stages progress and ABW transitions through the egg and larval stages, observing ABW becomes increasingly difficult because most stages occur within the turfgrass stem. Complicating things further, as larvae mature they emerge from the turf crown into the surrounding soil and proceed to feed on the crown and roots of the […]

January 7, 2020 by NYS BMP · Through a cooperative approach between the golf industry and friends and neighbors outside the industry, best management practices have been developed that benefit all parties. Because of limitations, such as budget, staff, clientele expectations, and management decisions, not all golf courses can achieve all of the best practices described in the 2nd edition of Best Management Practices for New York State Golf Courses. However, planning for improvements over time and making small changes that meet the goals of BMPs can be achieved. For example, while a sophisticated washwater recycling system may be too expensive for many facilities, […]

November 27, 2019 by NYS BMP · Golf course superintendents in New York State can now create their own facility-specific Best Management Practices plan using the 2nd edition of the Best Management Practices for New York State Golf Courses template. This 2nd edition, a revised, updated version of the first edition published in 2014, is incorporated into the GCSAA’s BMP on-line tool. Using the on-line tool, New York superintendents with a GCSAA log in can clone the state’s BMP plan and then use the editing features to modify as needed to create their own site-specific BMP plan. To help get superintendents started, the following are available: […]

November 19, 2019 by NYS BMP As a property that is pinched between two major highways in the NY/NJ metropolitan area, we constantly see expected and unexpected things show up in our bodies of water carried by surface water runoff. Our ponds were experiencing an algal build up and blooms in the warm months and we wanted to know – were we causing the problem or was it originating off site? Therefore, we began testing our surface waters to quantify the nutrient load as it entered and departed our property to answer the question. Around the same time, we began experiencing odor […]

November 18, 2019 by NYS BMP · When evaluating your property, don’t just focus on the grass. It’s important to think about all areas of your property that might be affecting the results you are trying to achieve! ISSUE –  Runoff from Highway 684 caused flooding of the 7th fairway on a regular basis, bringing along with it dirt, other debris, and contaminated water. RESOLUTION – Create a “retention area” to capture the first flush of rainfall as to not overtax the piping system on the golf course until most of the water can subside after rainfall events. This area has been recently seeded as well […]

September 9, 2019 by NYS BMP · Supplemental nutrient use is a critical aspect of a golf course Best Management Practice Program and embodied in the BMP Statement: Supplement soil with appropriate rate and source of nutrients to maintain optimum availability and minimize off-site movement. Specifically, the application of high rates (>0.5 lbs. actual Nitrogen per 1000 Square feet) soluble-Nitrogen (N) during cooler periods with less active growth conditions pose a significant risk to groundwater quality. In the Northeast, Guillard and Kopp (2004) from the University of Connecticut collected leachate under turf plots over three years where 1 lb of N per thousand […]