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Thinning the sward april
1. 42 www.horticulture.ie / April/May 2014
10
Eamon Kealy, turfgrass specialist and
lecturer in horticulture at the Institute of
Tecnology Blanchardstown, sets out a
concise strategy for managing areas of heavy
rough on Ireland’s golf courses
I
ncreasing pressure on golf course
budgets has made superintendents
reconsider how they manage their
heavy rough grass and out of play
areas. It is no longer feasible to
intensively manage all the grassland
areas on a golf course due to the
increased cost of diesel, equipment
and labour. Members and green fee
paying golfers expect challenging
conditions, yet enjoyable rounds of golf.
Unmanaged rough areas can spoil a
round of golf. They can frustrate players
due to lost golf balls or injuries caused
to golfers from playing heavy lies. The
ideal rough penalises a poorly struck
shot but does not prevent the golfer
from locating and advancing the ball to
some degree.
The heavy rough or deep rough on
a golf course is the most important
grassland habitat from an ecological
point of view. It is usually allowed to
grow throughout the season and only
cut once or twice annually. It provides
refuge for mammals and insects and
can form part of the broader wildlife
corridor throughout the course.
Greens, tees and fairways are all
intensively managed and provide little
protection for mammals. Collectively
woodlands, hedgerows, water courses
and heavy rough can be viewed as a
precious sanctuary for flora and fauna.
Poor management and maintenance
of these long grass areas can lead
to a general thickening of the sward
over time. Prolonged instances of
wet weather can have an undesirable
impact on the sward composition,
favouring grasses like Lolium perenne,
Dactylis glomerata and Holcus lanatus.
In such cases efforts to encourage finer
species can be to no avail.
In recent years, superintendents
have become proactive in developing
management strategies and plans
to reduce the density of the heavy
rough on the golf courses. Approaches
have revolved around reducing the
soil fertility by harvesting grass and
preventing the breakdown of nutrients
back into the soil, effectively starving
the coarser grasses. In 2009, a new
selective graminicide, Rescue, was
introduced onto the market targeting
Lolium perenne and other coarse
grasses. When used in combination with
cultural techniques it can reduce the
density of heavy rough areas. It can also
be used on Festuca spp. golf greens.
THE MANAGEMENT
The objective of a management plan
should be to alter the sward composition
of the heavy rough over a period of
time, by a combination of cultural and
chemical techniques. Encouraging
finer grass species and reducing sward
density should be a priority. When
developing a plan, areas along the
fringes of play should be prioritised,
as they have the most impact on play
and subsequently the speed at which
the game is played. Superintendents
must survey and record the species of
grasses in the areas to be treated. Any
subsequent treatments will be based
around their recordings. If the survey
reveals high levels of desirable grasses
like Festuca and Agrostis spp., then
the strategies should revolve around
maintaining and increasing these levels.
However, should the survey reveal high
levels of coarse grasses such as Lolium,
Holcus and Dactylis spp. then all efforts
should target reducing the prevalence of
these grasses.
Getting the ideal sward composition
doesn’t happen overnight. The
superintendent must have the full
backing of the golf club’s committee
or owners. Plans may need to be in
place for five to six years in order
to be considered successful. With
regard to informing the members of
the club, communication is key. Often
new management techniques can be
misunderstood by the golfing public if
they are not properly informed. During
transition phases, areas of heavy rough
can look weak and unkempt. It is at
these times that a good management
plan which has a solid basis in good
agronomical practices is worth its
weight in gold. There are a number of
approaches that a superintendent can
take regarding implementing a plan.
2. 2014 / www.horticulture.ie / 43
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The following management plan is an
example of a combination chemical
and cultural strategy, although I am not
implying that a cultural only strategy
would be less successful.
IMPLEMENTING THE
Surveying the Areas
Superintendents must have good
turfgrass identification skills to survey
and record the species of grass that
dominate the rough on their golf
courses. Applying chemicals to reduce
grass species that don’t exist in the
sward would be a waste of time, energy
and money. Two good reference
sources for superintendents and
greenkeepers looking to increase their
knowledge of grasses are: ‘Grasses’
by CE Hubbard and ‘Plant Material of
Agricultural Importance in Temperate
Climates’ by MA Farragher. Both contain
comprehensive identification keys for
both the vegetative and inflorescence
stages of the grass’s life cycle.
When carrying out the survey,
superintendents should use a quadrat
to sample the areas to be included in
the plan. Photographic records should
be taken of the quadrats in position and
percentage cover of both coarse and
fine grass species should be recorded
before any treatment takes place. The
locations of each quadrat should be
marked from two fixed points to ensure
that follow up surveys are in the exact
same position. Data collection is crucial
to the successful execution of the plan.
Following a survey of the areas, in
late summer/early autumn existing
vegetation is cut and harvested to a
height of 50mm. Ten days later, Rescue
is applied at a rate of 1.0 l/ha when
the grass is actively growing. The next
spring, the vegetation is once again
cut and harvested by March. Rescue is
applied at a higher rate of 1.33 l/ha. The
following autumn, the grass is collected
and harvested again to reduce fertility.
It should be noted that a maximum of
two treatments of Rescue should be
applied per annum.
Depending on the amount of
undesirable grass in the sward,
overseeding with finer grass species
may be necessary after treatment to
help the areas recover quickly. The
area can be treated with a plant growth
regulator such as Primo Maxx or Clipless
before germination takes place. The
plant growth regulator will give the
germinating grass a better foothold in
the first few weeks.
After the initial targeting of small trial
areas across the golf course in the
first two years has been deemed a
success, the management plan can be
fully rolled out across the course with
confidence.
Continued monitoring and surveying
by staff will be needed to ensure that
the sward does not regress. The plan
may need to be modified to adjust
cutting times, rates of chemicals and
harvesting plans should regression occur.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO
The heavy rough and out of play
areas can make up a large portion of
the entire golf course. Tackling large
areas requires machines capable of
cutting at low heights of cut (50mm)
“Increasing pressure on golf course
budgets has made superintendents
reconsider how they manage their heavy
rough grass and out of play areas”
ABOVE LEFT: A DEMONSTRATION OF THE AMAZONE GROUNDKEEPER AT NAAS GOLF CLUB IN MAY 2012
ABOVE RIGHT: DESIRABLE ‘WISPY’ FESTUCA SPP WITH EVEN CONSISTENCY THROUGHOUT
3. 44 www.horticulture.ie / April/May 2014
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and harvesting the material. Many
golf courses hire local agricultural
contractors to carry out this work,
as staffing levels are inadequate
to complete in-house. Care should
be taken to ensure the ground is
sufficiently dry to take the weight of
such machines and all access routes into
and out of the course should be clearly
defined to prevent damage to areas of
high value turf.
When implementing the plan on a
smaller scale, combination machines like
the Amazone Groundkeeper would be
sufficient. Equipping the machine with
scarifying blades to clean out the base of
the sward will encourage the finer grasses
to prevail once nutrient levels have been
decreased. Such equipment also has the
capability of harvesting grass clippings
which can then be composted on site if
the facilities are available.
In Scotland, some links courses
have brought sheep back to maintain
Sites of Significant Scientific Interest
(SSSI’s). In such areas invasive species
are kept under control and rare plants
can flourish. In future, Irish golf course
superintendents may revert to using
sheep for grazing the heavy rough,
thereby reducing the reliance on the
use machinery.
POTENTIAL
Bracken: Heavy roughs can often
have issues with invasive plants, such
as bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).
Asulox (a selective herbicide for
treatment of bracken in grassland)
was withdrawn from the approved
pesticide register in December 2011
with a use by date of December 2012.
However, a temporary licence was
granted for emergency use from 19th
July 2013 to 16th November 2013.
Bracken is extremely hard to control
due to its reproductive mechanism.
It spreads by underground creeping
stems (rhizomes) and spores.
Chemical treatment alone has varied
success. Crushing of bracken is a
method of control that has been
used by land managers for decades.
Crushing of the bracken plant has
been shown to reduce the overall
vigour of the plant by up to one third.
The crushing of the bracken causes
the plant to bleed sap for a number
of days. This reduces the plants
photosynthetic vigour and ultimately
causes the death of the plant.
There are many beneficial effects
of having bracken on the golf course.
These include habitats for birds
and cover for ground flora such as
bluebell and violet. Dead bracken
fronds provide cover for plants
that otherwise could not compete
with grass competition. Bracken is
also used by badgers as bedding.
However, from a golfing point of view,
it is unsuitable due to its invasive
characteristics.
ABOVE: A DEMONSTRATION OF THE AMAZONE GROUNDKEEPER AT NAAS GOLF CLUB IN MAY 2012.
ABOVE RIGHT: YOUNG BRACKEN PLANTS IN EARLY APRIL ON THE GOLF COURSE
EAMON KEALY
M.Hort.Sc is a lecturer
in horticulture,
specialising
in sportsturf
management at the
Institute of Technology
Blanchardstown. ITB
offers part-time and
full time courses in horticulture.
For more information see www.itb.ie
or email info@itb.ie
IN
CONCLUSION
For any plan to be successful it
must be implemented in full and
supported by staff and members
alike. If the golf course is dependent
on contactors for harvesting of
material, a good relationship should
be developed with a contractor
who understands the quality of
work required on the golf course.
Along with economic benefits,
implementation of this type of
plan can also have the following
advantages for a golf course;
The speed of the average round
of golf decreases as golfers spend
less time looking for golf balls in
the rough.
Biodiversity increases as flora and
fauna flourish.
Time spent cutting heavy rough
areas decreases throughout the
growing season.