(photo courtesy: syngenta professional products)

The calls for less pesticide use on golf courses have been loud and clear outside the industry. But those same calls have become increasingly loud and clear inside the industry, especially in light of the current "green" movement.

Why?

It's not as if golf course superintendents are using arsenic and DDT to control pests on turfgrass. This is 2009, not 1959, and superintendents use pesticides that are more environmentally friendly than their predecessors.

"These are not the same products that were being used in past years," says Dave Ravel, Turf Market Lead for Syngenta Professional Products in Greensboro, N.C. "They're more targeted than they've ever been."

"Most of the products we introduced 25 years ago wouldn't even be considered for release now," says Tom Hoffman, vice president of commercial sales and product development for Kansas City-based PBI/Gordon. "Our standard of safety has risen over the years."

When he began working in the industry about 30 years ago, Hoffman says there was a public outcry to make pesticides safer. "And in the last 30 years, we've done that," he adds.

Some of the proof is in some of the newer pesticides' active ingredients. Several companies have released pesticides with the "reduced risk" classification by the Environmental Protection Agency, which means they have a low-impact on human health, low toxicity to non-target organisms (birds, fish and plants), low potential for groundwater contamination and lower use rates, among other attributes. Other proof is the fact that superintendents use the products according to EPA label restrictions — in other words, responsibly.

David Ffrye of Valent U.S.A. says active ingredients have more favorable environmental profiles.

Still, plenty of people in and outside the golf industry say courses would be better off with minimal or no pesticide use because pesticides are harmful to people and wildlife.

Such thinking frustrates people like Chuck Silcox, the global turf and ornamental product development manager for DuPont Professional Products, who had a hand in creating Acelapryn, the company's virtually non-toxic insecticide released last year.

"It was a significant advancement to bring this product to market," Silcox says. "But in some people's minds, it's the same as (banned synthetic pesticide) DDT. And that's a shame."

While chemical companies are creating products with substantially lower use rates, many people aren't taking notice, Silcox says.

Do they realize ... ?

Surprisingly, some of the people who want courses to use fewer pesticides are people who work in the golf industry. But do they realize what they're saying when they say "the golf industry needs to use less pesticide?" Do they realize many of today's pesticides — thanks to millions of dollars spent on research and development and a watchful EPA — are less toxic than they've ever been?

Golf course maintenance employees dress appropriately to mix pesticides. Is the day coming when workers don't have to wear any protective gear to mix and apply non-toxic pesticides?

Do they realize what a golf course green might look like if a superintendent doesn't spray it to combat pythium blight on a hot and humid July day?

And if golf courses use fewer pesticides, what will become of the companies — many that offer financial support for the education efforts of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, its chapters and other organizations — that manufacture and market pesticides?