The R&A Golf Course Committee is funding two projects looking into sustainable course management.

Bermuda grass turf laying on a US golf course

One is investigating the firmness of putting surfaces and fairways. Using the Turf Thumper, a device developed by the USGA, at six courses in the UK, the aim is to produce guidelines on the acceptable ranges of firmness for links, heathland and parkland courses. Participating clubs are Royal Troon and Renfrew in Scotland, Conwy in Wales, Trentham, Ganton and Alwoodley in England. The STRI is managing this project and will report on findings next autumn.

The other, longer term project, closely examines the process of developing firmer, leaner greens.

Five clubs in England – Cold Ashby, Farnham Park, Knowle, Leek and Wilmslow – will initially have species composition of selected greens analised by the STRI and then again at the end of a three year programme of maintenance which will include overseeding with fescue and browntop bent.

The purpose of these projects, says the R&A, is to provide technical support to course managers and it is intended that, on completion of the research, the results will be written up and posted on its Best Practice website – www.bestcourseforgolf.org which now has over 2000 clubs registered as users.

As part of its ongoing research into course maintenance, the R&A recently took part in a two-day conference on the subject in Madrid hosted by the Royal Spanish Golf Federation. It also conducted a fact-finding trip to Florida, Maryland and Virginia to see first hand how US courses use alternative water sources for course irrigation and to investigate the relative merits of a variety of warm season grasses.