Knowing what to expect from participation in university turf research can help superintendents decide whether collaboration is a good fit for their golf courses. We asked Shawn Askew, associate professor and extension specialist on the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech, to describe what’s involved in hosting on-course research.
What advantages do golf course superintendents receive from their participation in university research programs like the one at Virginia Tech?
Course superintendents who participate in research are more plugged in to the industry. They’re going to raise their own visibility and the visibility of their course within the profession. They’re going to have onsite expertise, including graduate students and professors who are conducting research. That’s a wealth of information.
Not only will they learn about the research being conducted; they’ll also have an open forum for questions about problems on their course. It opens them up to the entire university system. If someone has a question that I can’t answer, I’m attuned to specialists with that expertise, and I can lead them to those people quickly.
They receive on-course information about how a particular product, technique or turf grass variety performs. What better situation for figuring out what you want to do for future management than to have on-course research to steer those efforts? That’s one of the biggest benefits.
Superintendents have a lot of input about what type of research we do. We may connect with a superintendent because they have a particular problem they’ve been trying to deal with. That provides a perfect situation for us to test techniques or products designed to solve that problem.
Do researchers work only in their state or do they conduct research outside their geographic regions?
Let’s estimate and say that 99 percent of researchers work within their state, with occasional regional or state overlap across borders. In some areas, there may not be a university extension presence. Out west, where there are fewer people doing university research, some researchers probably have more of a regional scope. Researchers may go out of state by invitation. If so, they typically include their research colleagues in that area. The professional courtesy is to let the local specialist know what’s going on when you go outside your state.
What kind of obligation does a golf superintendent make when participating in research?
For my research, typically there’s no extra workload for the superintendent. When we show up on site, we respectfully ask for some type of work truck or golf cart—something we can use to load our small amount of materials and equipment.
We also need access to the site. Sometimes that can be an issue when there are security protocols. Some courses are situated on high-end real estate with high-end clients. I’ve been on courses where there was extreme concern that I might pull out a camera in view of the membership. We certainly bend to those concerns at every step.
The primary thing we ask is that there be no spraying of herbicides at the trial site, which is often 2,000 square feet area. We want them to treat that site the same as they would in every possible way—except that we don’t want any herbicides on it unless we communicate about it. Superintendents juggle enough as it is, so that can be a logistics issue for them. There are usually a limited number of people who spray, but it’s still challenging to make sure everyone on their crew knows.
Some superintendents assign someone to us when we are on site. That’s appreciated, but we would never ask for that type of support. We occasionally need to borrow equipment on the course. Some superintendents will volunteer labor or assign someone to help us collect data, and that’s awesome. But it’s never been an expectation.
What concerns do superintendents usually have about their involvement in research?
It can vary based on the type of research being conducted. In the case of weed science research, once the research begins, there are certain areas we must have as untreated control plots. So you’ll have these small plots in the turf, infested with weeds. That can be an eyesore, so we always try to find sites outside of normal play or sites that are less visible. Since the plots are so small, it’s typically not an issue.
If I were a superintendent, my biggest concerns would be: What’s going to happen to my turf? How is this going to look aesthetically? How much turf area do you need?
These are questions I’m asked all the time. We sit down and talk about the objectives for the experiment. We may seek out-of-the-way locations on the back of the driving range to avoid any aesthetic compromise. We won’t do anything that’s potentially damaging to the turf in areas of play.
