SUPERINTENDENT CHALLENGES
The life of a golf course superintendent
or sports turf professional is made
up of challenges that have different
levels of importance or priority.
Many of these are driven by climate,
regulatory, staffing or budgetary
issues, and are managed on as needed
basis in conjunction with the relevant
club manager and Board. Many other
practices are driven by changes in
technology, and by expectation of
people who use or run a facility.
Sometimes this technology that
allows us to provide a certain option
to stakeholders for a period is taken
away from us by regulatory pressure
or other pressures out of our direct
control.
The golf industry, indeed the entire
professional turf sector, is facing one
of these challenges now, both here
in Australia and around the world.
Around 20 years ago some of the
world’s largest agricultural chemical
companies targeted and developed
products in an existing group of
chemicals that would remove one of
the turf industry’s significant ‘weeds’,
Poa annua (not all people see poa as
a weed!) from warm season grasses.
As a bonus, these products often also
removed some other problem grasses
such as ryegrass and fescue from
warm season grasses, which suddenly
gave the option of over-seeding of
these species in winter while the warm
season grasses were dormant. The
surface could be green and in great
playing condition all year by seeding
in winter then removing the ryegrass
or fescue in spring to allow the warm
season grass to thrive without weed
competition.
other facilities literally weed free warm
season surfaces to stakeholders as
the norm. As these practices became
commonplace it was accepted by all
stakeholders that this will ever be the
case. However, Mother Nature doesn’t
always play by the rules.
All herbicides are classified by their
Mode Of Action, which is basically
the method by how they kill plants
selectively or in the case of some such
as glyphosate, kill all plants. Scientists
have always known that these Group B
chemicals were relatively vulnerable to
developing resistance by plants after a
lot of use. Even with managed rotation
strategies as recommended there
has always been the risk of plants
developing resistance over time as
Mother Nature found a way to change
the plants genetic structure to stop
being harmed by these herbicides.
The best comparison is to think of
antibiotics such as penicillin and
amoxycillin for human use. In the past,
these amazing drugs controlled almost
any infection, yet as time passed and
use was increased (often needlessly)
nature has changed or mutated many
of these infections to the point where
new super antibiotics do not control
such strains of infection, and people’s
health can be at risk from simple
infections again.
This range of herbicides were absolute
“game changers” and for the first
time, turf professionals in sports
facilities could offer golf clubs and In the last few years it has been
common to see turf professionals
struggling to control grass weeds
such as Poa and ryegrass using a vast
range of chemical options, as clubs
have increasingly demanded weed
free surfaces. Aware that the results
were very poor, in the last few months
a group of progressive clubs and
superintendents from NSW, Victoria
and South Australia joined with the
AGCSA to undertake trials to ascertain
if indeed chemical resistance was the
issue, or was there other reasons.
Poa samples from many regions
of Australia were sent to Dr. Peter
Boutsalis of Plant Science Consulting
who screened the most commonly
used post-emergent herbicides.
Unfortunately, he has confirmed that
herbicide resistance to Group B’s (and
indeed glyphosate) is the dominant
issue. This has huge ramifications
in our industry because at present
there are no other chemical options
16 I
This group of chemicals that allowed
this massive change is categorised
as Group B Herbicides, commonly
known as sulfonyl ureas or SU’s. This
family of herbicides is also one of the
most widely used group of products in
agriculture, forestry and in industrial
vegetation management, which are
obviously markets significantly larger
than that of our global turf chemical
market.
I GOLF MANAGEMENT AUSTRALIA
WINTER EDITION 2017
to remove these problem grasses
from the preferred grass. The very
same issues are being experienced in
the agricultural sector, a huge issue
for grain growers particularly. R &
D based chemical companies are
spending billions of dollars looking for
new chemicals to address these issues
but it takes years of research and there
is no guarantee of success.
Our next step as an industry is to trial
the existing range of pre-emergent
herbicides available to check that
resistance isn’t present with these
other important tools in weed
management, and then developing a
strategy to protect their performance
and ensure we maximize the longevity
of these vital chemicals. Concurrently,
we intend to run an education
campaign alongside this work to
educate facility Board’s, Managers, and
all other stakeholders that the control
of these weeds which we have taken
for granted for decades may no longer
be possible as we know it.
We are seeking the assistance of
a range of parties for funding and
assistance to keep researching this
situation, but we must make all
stakeholders aware that their turf
quality expectations must change
until other options become available,
if they ever do. As an industry, and
this issue affects every member of
the sports turf industry from golf
courses to football grounds to hockey
pitches, we will explore cultural and
mechanical control options as well as
chemicals but I would ask you to talk to
your Board, Committee and members
with your Superintendent and explain
the situation. We need total industry
support from individuals, clubs,
associations and national bodies to
lobby for funding and other assistance
and this process will take time.
We will continually keep you and yo ur
organisations aware of happenings in
our research via newsletters,
www.agcsa.com.au and social media,
but if you need any information or
assistance please call the AGCSA office
on 03 9548 8600.