The new big challenges
Leatherjackets
In a recent industry survey, while common winter turf diseases were still the greenkeeper’s main concern, how they deal with problems such as leatherjackets and worm casts is catching up quickly…
Leatherjackets (pictured) are the larvae of cranefly. With milder winters becoming more commonplace, we’re not getting the cold weather that kills these bugs. Add in that the low-cost insecticide (Chlorpyrifos) used to treat the problem was taken off the market a few years ago due to its damage to the environment, and greenkeepers are now struggling to control the problem. There is just one preventative insecticide still available via emergency approval (Acelepryn). It’s not as effective as the old one and it can only be used once per annum at certain times and across a limited percentage of the course’s total surface. Not only do leatherjackets feed on grass roots and leaf tissue, which can lead to very pitted marks and bumpy green surfaces, but they are also a favoured food source for crows and other animals like badgers, who can then cause extensive damage.
Worm casts
Again, legislation now prohibits the use of any product that kills worms, and although only five types of worm come to the surface and create casts, the ones that do (including earthworms) are now creating a mess on our golf courses, particularly in softer conditions. Earthworms are regarded as a key organism, and any product put into the ground now has to be non-toxic to earthworms to be authorised, including soil conditioners.
“Courses should be trying to get play away from sensitive areas, green surrounds and tee complexes as much as they can,” says Woodham. Golfers, however, often have other ideas and some will always take the shortest route with their trolleys despite white lines or even ropes. “When we put traffic management into place here, I said, ‘They’ll never follow it,’” Stant tells me. “However, I’ve been quite surprised. You don’t want ropes and posts everywhere, so we painted dashed white lines around the greens and I must say, they were really, really good.” Sellick says Wenvoe Castle members are also pretty good, “but I’ve heard horror stories at other clubs of members cutting strings!”
Getting the message out
If cooperation is key, so too is communication. “We’ve seen a lot of social media asking golfers to carry, not to trolley, to take a pencil bag or half-set and to walk around the outside of bunkers, rather than in between,” says Jim Croxton, CEO of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA). “All these measures are important because I think golfers do understand they’re creating some damage, but we also have a few impatient people among us.”
“I think it’s all about communication,” Stant suggests. “We have a weekly blog that goes out to members and the ones who are interested will always read it and the ones who aren’t won’t – that’s fine. But we continue to communicate and emphasise that it’s their golf course, so it’s to their benefit. We try to explain why traffic management is so important in giving them the best course they can have from Easter onwards.”
All those I spoke to referred to a marked increase in winter play and many clubs do now have more active members than they did pre-covid. More play means more wear, and we should bear this in mind come April and understand the challenges facing our greenkeepers.
Indeed, with changing weather patterns and legislation on the use of pesticides (see panel), there’s a growing sense that golfers may need to realign expectations all year round and that further ‘education’ is required to better understand the evolving challenges facing greenkeepers. BIGGA is keen to play a role here. “In the past few years, we’ve produced Your Course, a free magazine available in golf clubs through 2018 and ’19,” Croxton tells me, “although we stopped during the pandemic because there was no one in clubhouses to read it. But we’ve accelerated our communications and the next phase for us is working more closely with Golf Monthly and others to provide you with that information so you can properly educate golfers.”
There will be more restrictions on products and resources for greenkeepers in the future and we will all need to look at things a
little differently. With regard to worm casts, for example, Woodham explains that “golfers will look at it and think it’s not what we had in the past. So, it’s changing expectations, recalibrating expectations in line with more environmental stewardship. We simply do not have the products we used to have to work with – the old products used to kill the worm in the ground, now we cannot apply those for good reason.”
“A number of greenkeepers we know who are entirely chemicalfree, one thing they’ve done is to educate their customers,” says Croxton. “For example, they might have disease scarring but it won’t necessarily affect ball roll. When you make a decision to go chemical-free, you are potentially deciding to educate your customers that there are good reasons for doing this and that it won’t really impact on their golfing experience, but may look different.”
“It’s definitely about getting the message out there and controlling expectations,” says Sellick in conclusion. “The one thing Covid has done is to teach us that we are able to change and adapt. I think a lot of the old traditional methods will come back to greenkeeping, which is a positive. We talk about sustainability now and change needs to happen. It was easy to switch on the water, it was easy to open the bottle of fungicide and the old skills and management were lost. Now, we’re kind of bringing them back.” Food for thought for us golfers not just this spring but also as we head on into the 21st century.