In this season of caring and joy, it seems appropriate to offer good wishes to Golf Digest. Magazines like Digest can be our best friend when they occasionally run articles promoting the role of the superintendent. Unfortunately, they also can be our worst enemy when, with the best of intentions, they run articles that will come back to haunt us.
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Last May, Digest published a piece called “How Green is Golf” that was basically a recap of the ongoing and largely pointless discussion that’s been going on between golf associations and environmental groups for the past 15 years. Bottom line: Golf has bent over backwards to fix many of the problems we had two or three decades ago, and environmental groups have bigger fish to fry but will constantly demand more changes from our industry if given a megaphone (like Digest) and a chance to raise money.
Then, earlier this month, Digest published a sequel to the May article. It was penned by our old friend Ron Whitten, who has been one of the best advocates in the “mainstream golf media” that superintendents have had. Ron actually worked at the GCSAA years ago and has tremendous respect for superintendents. He gets it. Or, should I say, he usually gets it.
The new article, “Golf’s Green Teams”, highlights three (count ‘em, three) golf courses in North America that are essentially chemical free.
One is the well-documented Applewood Golf Course in Golden, Colo., which sits over the aquifer used by Coors to brew its beer. Basically, Coors owns the golf course and has mandated no chemicals be used because it doesn’t want a tiny hint of a perception its “Rocky Mountain Water” is tainted in any way. Good for them. I’d do the same if I was Peter Coors.
The second course is the Vineyard Club in Martha’s Vineyard (the superintendent there is Jeff Carlson, whose entire career has been built around avoiding pesticides). The third is some track in Canada I’d never heard of before that’s managed by an “owner-superintendent” who’s a transplant from Switzerland and is using a witch’s brew of organic stuff to attempt to grow grass. Please note: Organic products are just as likely to ruin groundwater or surface water than anything else. Need proof? Go check out the nearest cattle feed lot or chicken coop.
This brings me to the crux of my problem with Whitten’s article. Toward the end of the piece, he makes a couple of pretty sweeping statements I’m sure our industry will hear echoes of for years to come.
I quote:
“Based on these courses, my conclusion (admittedly not scientifically based) is that it doesn’t matter where the course is located.”
Arrrgghhhh! Sure, feel free to go organic in Long Island or Chicago or St. Louis. Have fun! Your pink slip will be waiting at the door for you in about six months.
“What matters is who is in charge. To reduce dependency on chemical applications, to become mostly chemical free or to go entirely into pure organics takes a special superintendent, one who is imaginative, open minded and willing to experiment. And it takes a supporting group of tolerant golfers (customers or club members) willing to accept a few weeds, a few brown spots and conditions that change with the seasons.”
I’m sure any superintendent in the world would sign up to work for a facility with a “supporting group of tolerant golfers.” You say there are a grand total of three of them? Jeez, you just have to beat out the other 16,000 guys applying for those jobs.
“What makes their programs work is that Rusch, Thevenaz and Carlson are grass whisperers. They know that healthy turfgrass, like a healthy human body, has plenty of internal defense mechanisms. They know that chemicals don’t necessarily trigger or beef up those mechanisms and sometimes suppress them. These guys monitor their turf constantly, pushing and prodding it into natural, healthy states.”
I know a ton of guys in this business who are “grass whisperers.” Like doctors, they understand that the key to fighting infection or disease is good overall health. But, like doctors, they don’t reject the idea of using proven, tested and safe drugs to combat a health problem when it arises. Arguing that a different point of view and lots of tender loving care will cure everything that ails a golf course is like arguing in favor of Scientology … it’s a fun exercise, but there’s this little thing called reality that gets in the way.
Again, Ron Whitten is a tremendous guy, a fabulous writer and a friend to superintendents everywhere. He probably deserves an Old Tom Morris Award at some point for everything he’s done for the profession. His assertions were well-intentioned, but you know what they say about good intentions and the road with which they’re paved. GCI
