Front Nine | Sustainability
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IMPROVING SOIL CONDITIONS RESULTS IN A BETTER GOLF EXPERIENCE FOR ALL. BY BRIAN WHITLARK
Brian Whitlark is Regional Director, West Region, USGA Green Section. Since 2007 he has conducted 25 course visits annually in Arizona and approximately 100 annually throughout the West. We asked him to describe his job and how it affects the courses we play. One of my primary responsibilities is to visit golf courses and inspect what golfers see, including how the courses look, how they are prepared for a playing surface and the health of the turf in various parts of the course. To do that I check the turf’s foundation, which is underground. I use a soil profile tool and drive that down about seven inches into a green. When I pull that up, it allows me to look at the quality of the root zone; not only what the root depth and root health look like, but also what the soil composition looks like. Are there layers that may
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