What Lies Beneath: 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 restrict water movement or root development? Are there different color changes in the soil that may indicate salinity challenges or anaerobic conditions? A black layer can indicate overwatering and layering in the soil.

Top Level Findings

I also focus on the top eighttenths of an inch underneath the green. The composition of that layer has a huge influence on agronomics and playability. It can indicate how water moves into and through the green. If I see a dark organic matter layer there, oftentimes it means that there’s a spongelike zone at the surface that you can kind of squeeze water out of. That’s always a bad sign. It means the course probably needs to do more aeration or sand topdressing.

Most golfers think aeration just makes holes in the greens. But a typical aeration event only touches about six percent of a green’s surface due to spacing between the tines that punch holes into the turf. So approximately 94 percent of the green remains untouched during that process.

Only In Arizona

That top level has such a big impact on how the golf ball interacts with the surface. If that level is black and there’s too much water, then the greens are probably going to be quite soft, ball marks are going to be deep, and the greens are more likely to be bumpy. I also send samples to a lab and compare the results to thousands of greens the USGA has tested nationwide. That helps me give a course guidance on cultural practices, like aeration, sand topdressing and nitrogen inputs.

Typically we test three to five greens on a course during a visit, taking about 10 samples from randomized areas on each of those greens. We try to do that about the same time every year because the variables change from month to month. In Arizona, overseeding plays a big role in course maintenance. I don’t want to test right before or right after overseeding, just because things are changing so much during that time.

Another unique factor in Arizona is that a lot of the water used for irrigation contains elevated salt levels, and that is certainly something that I test for on fairways, tees and roughs. The golf industry is always seeking access to reclaimed water because golf facilities are committed to minimizing use of potable water or groundwater.

Everyone would like to see more of that done in Arizona, but courses usually don’t have the plumbing needed to access that type of water. That’s really a big deal. The downside of the reclaimed water is that it does contain elevated salts, but golf course superintendents are extremely knowledgeable, and they can implement strategies to deal with that.

After every site visit I produce a summary report that is organized into observations and recommendations for each topic that was discussed during the visit. At some courses we spend a great deal of time talking about bunkers; at others it may be about the cart paths or a new maintenance facility. It’s not just turf health and playing conditions — it’s every aspect of golf course maintenance operation.

I love going to golf courses, discussing their challenges, and coming up with solutions. In turf management, it takes two years to three years for golfers to really see improvements in many cases. There are so many golf courses in Arizona where the soil is extremely compacted and poorly drained, so that is a significant challenge for almost every facility in the southern part of the state. That’s why so many courses here employ aggressive sand topdressing programs and multiple aeration events annually. Those processes can disturb golfers, but they ultimately will have a big impact on soil health, which translates into better turf and playing conditions.