FAIRWAYS4FUTURE: MANAGING HIGH QUALITY GOLF COURSE FAIRWAYS AND SEMI ROUGHS WITHOUT HERBICIDES AND LESS EMISSION OF GREENHOUSE GASES

PROJECT PERIOD: MARCH 2023 - DECEMBER 2025

FUNDING (kSEK)

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR / CONTACT PERSON

Karin Juul Hesselsøe, NIBIO Landvik, N-4886 Grimstad, Norway Tel: + 47 413 96 851 E-mail: karin.hesselsoe@nibio.no

CO-APPLICANTS AND COLLABORATORS

Anne Friederike Borchert and Trygve S. Aamlid, NIBIO Landvik Norway

Daniel Hahn, Independent Turfgrass Agronomist

Wolfgang Prämaßing, Hochschule Osnabrück, Germany

Project Objectives

• To investigate management strategies for fairways and semi-roughs (robotic vs. manual mowing, mowing height and fertiliser level) that result in high turfgrass and playing quality with the lowest possible inputs of energy and fertiliser.

• To determine the long-term effect of robotic mowing on soil physical conditions affecting greenhouse gas emissions from golf course fairways and semi-roughs.

• To investigate how the combination of mowing system (robotic vs. manual), mowing height and fertiliser rate affects the infestation rate of individual weed species and other aspects of turfgrass quality on fairways and semi-roughs.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Replacement of fairway and semi-rough mowers that burn fossil fuel with lightweight electricrotary mowers is an important step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from golf courses.

Besides eliminating fossil energy, N2O emissions may also be reduced by this change, due to less soil compaction. However, recent research shows that robotic mowing may lead to more white clover, and therefore reduced playing quality, on semi-roughs.

In the 2023 season, experiments using the new generation of GPS-controlled robotic mowers will be performed at our research facility in Norway and on golf courses in Scandinavia and Germany.