Fusariummy

Organic is seen by most (by most I mean the uneducated public) as the best way to manage a golf course. Over the years I've tried to go down that road but found that there were too many problems with going "organic." Long story short, I think we can do better than organic. Putting labels on things has always bothered me. Committing to organic or vegetarianism or veganism or low carb is too limiting for me. Yes, they are probably good targets to work towards but if you commit to these ways of thinking you can hide yourself from other ideas that might actually be better than these restricting ideologies require. The environmental impact of my golf course operation is one of my main concerns as a golf course superintendent. I don't want to do things that negatively impact the environment and will look for ways to reduce this impact in any way I can. Of course in the back of my mind there are costs to be aware of and course conditions to maintain as well (who am I kidding...

Here is one point of view regarding irrigation and minimalism. I don't necessarily agree with it 100% but it's an interesting concept either way. When in-ground irrigation systems were first used on golf courses a single irrigation line running down the center of the fairways was the norm. This was due to the fact that the heads usually had to be manually connected and there just wasn't enough time or money to water everything. As technology progressed and budgets increased multi-row systems became the norm. Along with these multi-row or wall-to-wall systems came the ability to keep all of the fairways and rough green year-round. So naturally the design of courses changed to include thick dense rough all through the course. If we had the ability to do it then why not? Single row systems keep it green down the middle where it should be! Courses that were originally designed with single row irrigation systems were often upgraded to multi-row systems so that lush green conditi...