Research

Snow mold lessons learned from last winter

August 16, 2016 By Paul Koch, Ph.D

The winter of 2015-2016 can best be described as unusual, whacky, zany, goofy or any other words that imply it was abnormal for most of the northern United States. December had record-breaking warmth for most locales, and frequent heavy rainfall ...

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Indaziflam on warm-season native grasses in rough

August 1, 2016 By Michael Richard, James McCurdy, Ph.D. and Brian Baldwin

Native warm-season grasses are popular choices for low-maintenance rough on golf courses. They require minimal inputs to maintain but still require some maintenance. Annual grasses and invasive plants can be problematic within these systems, so herbicides often are needed for ...

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Golf ball lie, mowing height and shot execution

July 19, 2016 By Dan Strunk, Ph.D., Doug Karcher, Ph.D., Joey Young, Ph.D., Mike Richardson, Ph.D. and Aaron J. Patton, Ph.D.

Anyone who has played golf knows that shots from the preferred lies of the fairway are more likely to be successful compared with a similar shot in the rough. Players finding themselves in the rough can use a variety of ...

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What we know about bacterial diseases of turfgrasses

July 14, 2016 By Joseph A. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paul R. Giordano, Ph.D.

Concerns about bacterial etiolation (Figure 1) and decline exploded in the golf course industry more than five years ago. While etiolation had been observed for years, the abnormal elongation sometimes observed in putting greens usually was an unsightly occurrence that ...

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Chemicals control large patch, depending on deposition

July 7, 2016 By Jesse J. Benelli

Seasonal large patch (Rhizoctonia solani) epidemics are observed on zoysiagrass fairways in Tennessee each spring and fall. Golf courses with a history of large patch often will budget for two to three fairway fungicide applications. However, disease breakthrough commonly is ...

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Being proactive on protozoa

June 2, 2016 By Chip Howard, Ph.D.

A superintendent who hasn’t encountered protozoa-related sprinkler head plugging can count his or her blessings. I may have been the first to encounter the problem in 1986, when my employer wanted to pioneer the use of effluent for golf course ...

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