Globe trotting golf courses

The summer of 2014 has been great for many superintendents, as the weather has been ideal for maintaining turf. For me, summer 2014 has been great because I’ve had the opportunity to visit golf courses on the other side of the world.

One common theme among the places I visited — whether it was Malelane or Bangkok, Hong Kong or Brisbane, Bay of Islands or The Gold Coast — people involved in golf course management have a love and dedication to improve themselves and the profession. And in everyday life, there is very little difference in people around the world.

Starting out in South Africa, I had the chance to visit Leopard Creek CC, located just outside of Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa (7,580 square miles). Leopard Creek epitomizes a golf course set in nature with spectacular views and an abundance of wildlife.

I learned during my time there that nature is not a friendly place. Here in the United States we often get lulled into looking at nature through rose-colored glasses, or what I like to call ‘Disney World Nature’ — a world filled with cute, friendly animals, birds and pretty flowers.

However, at the top of the food chain, like in Africa, nature is quite different, both exhilarating and dangerous. Hyenas and elephants walk down roads. Leopards rest in trees. Black mambas and pythons infest tall grassy areas like golf course roughs.

Each of these things brings a different perspective to a round of golf. And there is no such thing as “night golf” or couples evening leagues unless you have a death wish to be out when the animals emerge at dusk.

One particular instance that caught my attention was when I was getting ready to hit a shot over a portion of a lake. A hippopotamus emerged, and stared me straight in the eyes. Now in a zoo, a hippo is something you show your kids that makes them point and giggle. But in real life, knowing that hippos are the second major cause of human death behind mosquitos in Africa, I wasn’t giggling… I just stared back in amazement. It may sound like I was more worried about becoming an appetizer, but the beauty of Africa along with its people and rawness of nature is what I took away from the trip, and something I will always remember.

Moving on to New Zealand, I found a beautiful island nation with the second largest number of golf courses per capita in the world, second only to Scotland. The vast majority of golf courses were staffed by two to four people, including the superintendent. The conditions of the golf courses were exceptional.

I found many courses had greens with two cup locations for the purpose of efficiency. One cup would be the current pin location and the second would be tomorrow’s pin placement.

In Southeast Asia the temperature and humidity were much higher than my previous stops. There are two seasons in most of Southeast Asia; rainy and dry. It’s the rainy season, with the prolonged periods of low-light conditions, that can cause real difficulty in maintaining warm-season turfgrass. For me, coming up with how to maintain quality turf under these wet and low-light conditions was challenging. With the heat and humidity, insects like armyworm and mole crickets are also a problem.

Yet the golf courses, whether in the countryside or a city, are well maintained. Just look at Kaula Lampur G&CC, which hosts the BMW Malaysian Open.

I would like to acknowledge the following groups that made my summer travel possible: Talking Turf, New Zealand GCSA, Australian GCSA, South China Turf Managers Association, The Golf Course Management Association of Malaysia, Shriro, Jacobsen and Syngenta.

Illustration: freedigitalphotos.net / Salvatore Vuono