Search results for ""

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: […]