Conversion of Kentucky Bluegrass Rough to No-Mow, Low-Input Grasses

Abstract

Golf courses have become a large part of the environmental landscape today. The land area needed for golf is larger than any other sport and the United States alone has nearly 17,000 golf courses with the North Central Region having the highest concentration with 4,238 [6,11]. There are many scientific studies that have detailed the benefits of turfgrass. However, the use of water, fertilizer and pesticides in maintaining golf courses continues to come under fire for not being environmentally friendly and unnatural to the landscape. Golf courses and their turfgrass managers realize the need for continuing to decrease the inputs needed to run a golf course, not only from an environmental standpoint but also a monetary standpoint. Golf course superintendents have become highly educated professionals that continue to adapt their management practices in order to reduce the environmental impact of their golf course. Golf course rough is the largest percentage of maintained turf area of a golf course comprising 52% of the total maintained area [8]. Of this rough area, the most common turfgrass species planted in the North Central region of the United States is Kentucky bluegrass, accounting for 63% of the rough area. Under high management, Kentucky bluegrass is very aesthetically pleasing and provides a high quality playing surface that can recover from divots caused by golfers. However, inputs required to maintain playing conditions in golf course settings are often high. Kentucky bluegrass has a large demand for water to prevent dormancy from drought and a high need of fertilizer to maintain turfgrass color and quality [3]. Due to these high inputs of water and fertilizer, golf course rough generally needs to be mowed two times per week which increases labor, machinery costs, and fuel budgets. In addition, weeds are often controlled with herbicides adding to the inputs needed to maintain the quality of the largest area on a golf course. The combination of large amounts of established Kentucky bluegrass rough and inputs required to maintain its playing quality have prompted many golf courses to question the need for heavily maintaining their Kentucky bluegrass rough areas. Many golf courses are now considering the conversion of these high-input rough areas to no-mow, low-input grasses. There were two objectives to this study: (1) to compare several methods for converting Kentucky bluegrass rough to no-mow, low-input grasses and (2) to then determine the best turfgrass species for use in conversion. Conversion of Kentucky bluegrass rough to no-mow, low-input grasses is a relatively new topic. Although very few studies have focused on converting Kentucky bluegrass rough to no-mow grasses, some have focused on which species may perform well in low-input situations. Studies have found that fine fescues are more drought tolerant, require less fertility, have higher resistance to weed invasion in low-input situations, and have better stand quality in no-mow situations than does Kentucky bluegrass [1,2,4,5,7,12].