Low input species on high end golf courses


By Emily Braithwaite and Alec Kowalewski, Oregon State University

View of a golf course overlooking water
Figure 1. A view down the creeping red fescue/colonial bentgrass fairway at Chambers Bay taken in late summer.

Fine fescue golf courses are a staple of the Pacific Northwest.  Director of Agronomy Eric Johnson has been managing fine fescues on golf courses since 2001.  He began at Bandon Dunes, but has spent the last 8 years at Chambers Bay in Washington (Figure 1).  When he first arrived, the course was wall-to-wall fine fescue and colonial bentgrass.  But in the last two years, he has transitioned his greens over to annual bluegrass.  We had a chance to sit down with Eric and talk about the repercussions of this change, what goes in to successfully managing a low-input turf species in a golf course setting, how fine fescues compare to other species, and some of the social barriers to adoption that he has encountered.

You’ll find several species of fine fescue around Chambers Bay: hard, sheep, Chewings, and slender creeping red fescue (Figure 2).  As has been discussed in previous blog posts on this site, each species is suited to different conditions.  From a management standpoint, Eric has found that moving from fine fescue greens to annual bluegrass has really increased his annual budget.  Before, his primary concern was Microdochium patch (Microdochium nivale), but now he faces a litany of diseases, and his fungicide budget has tripled.  He relies on his early roots managing annual bluegrass to adjust his management practices to combat year-round diseases.  The crew work hard to keep the surfaces as firm as they were with fine fescues, so now he’s verticutting and topdressing greens every two weeks to match the fine fescue surrounds.  As far as fertility, he was at 1.5-2.0 lbs N/M per year with fine fescues, and has now increased that to 3.5 lbs N/M annually. 

A golf course overlooking water with crew working
Figure 2. Fine fescue fairways and rough, and the early morning crew set-up for the 2015 U.S. Open tournament at Chambers Bay.

Eric noted that fine fescues on golf courses perform better under low-inputs (low irrigation, low fertility, higher mowing, and low traffic).  As you start to increase your maintenance, you shift the balance to favor other species.  To manage fescue the right way, you need to keep the course on the dry side, which mean some areas are brown/dormant in the summer, and limit or eliminate heavy traffic.  It’s something many golfers in the United States aren’t familiar with.

At first glance, a fine fescue golf course should be an attractive option, considering increasing social pressure to reduce inputs.  Yet, a key component of our project, Increasing Low-Input Turfgrass Adoption through Breeding, Innovation, and Public Education, is understanding barriers that exist that are preventing the adoption of more fine fescues.  This is something Eric knows firsthand.  Golfer perception played a large role in the transition away from fine fescue greens.  When quality putting surfaces with 100-year-old Poa greens are only a stone’s throw away, changing the mindset of a golfer who has a perception of how a course should look is a hard challenge to take on as a superintendent.  The rest of the course still consists of fine fescues and colonial bentgrass, and provides a unique golf experience.

Fine fescue golf courses are a great option in the Pacific Northwest and are successfully used on a wide variety of golf courses, from 9-hole municipals to highly ranked resort courses, but there are still limitations.  Our project is focused on improving fine fescue traits identified as important to stakeholders, and working to discover solutions to barriers preventing more widespread use.