UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION GREEN SECTION WESTERN OFFICE P. O. Box 241 Davis, California Telephone: Davis 2492 CHARLES G. WILSON Western Director TVeat&w Icci^lettex Vol. 2 No. 4 July-August 1954 Good Grooming Is Important THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT There are those who will say: Aesthetic factors have no bearing on play of the game. We frequently hear stories of players who paint their golf balls red when snow is on the ground, and we know of remote areas throughout the world where severe handicaps like thundering herds of hippopotomi, and weird birds who mistake golf balls for eggs that have strayed from the nest, must be overcome before the foursome ever reaches the 19th hole. Some would say, facetiously, no doubt, that a rabid golfer would play barefoot on cacti if the thorns could be managed into an accept- able playing surface. Admittedly, one doesn't play on color alone, and greenness or the In carrying this reasoning one step farther, lack thereof should not unduly influence control of a properly made shot on a good stand of turf. we could also say that litter, dirty ball washer towels, unkempt lawn areas, ragged grass growth at the immediate base of trees, decaying piles of green clippings and ether miscellaneous items in the realm of good grooming are completely unimportant in their bearing on play of the game. This may bo true for a chap like Ben Hogan whose power of concentration is credited with eliminating all outside distractions. However, it would be our guess that the vast majority of gdlfers either consciously or sub- consciously find good grooming affects the way they play. We visit many courses where unjustifiable complaints have been registered concerning turf quality in relation to the game. Most of these complaints are tossed off as being caused by the loss of a close match. Who knows? Perhaps the missed putt on $18 was caused by a lack of grooming on $1 tee rather than imagined grain or an old aeration hole. We do know that at courses where good grooming is standard practice, the superintendent has less trouble from golfer complaints. Thus, we are inclined to believe that good grooming deserves every consideration, even though it may entail an additional expenditure of funds. By giving the golfer an enjoyable vista where he "shakes hands with the course", one can eliminate half of his complaints before he reaches in his bag for a club. Are Vie Missing a Bet on Color? According to William Penn Mott, Superintendent, Oakland Park Department, Oakland, California, in a recent address to the Northern California Golf Course Superintendent's Association, many of our Western golf courses indeed are "missing a bet" in their failure to appreciate and properly utilize mass displays of colorful flowering shrubs and trees. Bill likens color to groom- ing in its noticeable tendency to reduce player complaints. He further pointed out that recent developments in the nursery trade are being overlooked in favor of old standbys that may have outlived their usefulness. Naturally, green is our favorite color. However, we are inclined to agree In this day of increasing play from women golfers, considerably with Bill that reds, whites and pinks can set our grass colors off to better advantage. more emphasis needs to be placed on course beautification. Local nurserymen, landscape contractors, landscape architects and university scientists are your best sources of information regarding new and improved varieties of flowering shrubs and trees that will please the men as v/ell as the women. In the words of Mr. Mott, "the important point to remember is that the large scale we deal with on golf courses does not lend itself to single specimen plantings. shrubs in a single grouping) is needed to be a real eye catcher. Ihe big mass display of color (50 or more flowering trees or Gophers are Gourmets — Northern California TURF IN IHE FIELD Ellis Van Gorder, Superintendent, Stanford Golf Course, and JJSGA Green Section Committee Member, believes that preparing a tasty morsel for gopher bait has considerable merit over more convential methods of controlling this pest. Van has taken the trouble to capture live gophers for his experimenta- tions, and finds these vegetarians are as finicky as epicures concerning what they eat and how it is prepared. Van's favorite recipe with guaranteed extermination results under Stanford conditions i s: "Take one medium sized crisp lettuce leaf and garnish with zinc phos- phide powder. Place in hole, or preferably in a fresh run. Gopher does the rest. Other choice morsels in season would be milkweed, fillaree, or leaves of the tree mallow". USGA Research Support May Lead to Rust Control — Northern California Dorman C. Sumner, Agronomist, University of California at Davis, reports that Phygon-XL adequately controlled a bad attack of rust on his Merion bluegrass seed production trials this Spring. Ihe work was a pilot test comparing Phygon-XL with other fungicides used by our golf courses to control major turf diseases. now working with Merion bluegrass because quite a few of them have had trouble with rust disease during wet weather. Cur standard turf fungicides have failed to give proper control of this pest. It will be of interest to many of our Western courses Phygon-XL is a dichloro naphthoquinone commonly used as a seed treatment to prevent disease from soil organisms. Chemical Division of the United States Rubber Company. suggested for limited trial until research provides us with more complete detail on its effectiveness and limitations. It is produced by the Naugatuck Ihe material is It is interesting to note that a lead of this type comes from USGA Green Section sponsored work to investigate the seed production requirements of Merion bluegrass. Often our member clubs wonder why we do not confine all of our support to studies directly related to management of turf on golf courses. By so doing, the Green Section would limit its usefulness to its member clubs. Most experiment stations cannot confine their investigations to benefit only golf. We must always remember that today's research on castor beans may ultimately benefit golf. It is for these reasons that our member clubs need the ÜSGA Green Section to coordinate and correlate research investigations in all scientific fields. Only an unbiased, non-profit, nation-wide agency devoted solely to helping its member clubs with their turfgrass problems can accomplish this end. CAN OUR EYES DECEIVE US? It is human nature personified to blame or credit the last thing we do as being responsible for success, or conversely, abject failure. Thus, in trying new materials and tools, and even in relying on old standbys in our turf management work, we may be inclined to "jump the gun" in deciding that the use of "X chemical" or "X tool" resulted in marked stimulation, or com- plete loss of the turf. Because our human tendencies are so inclined, recognized research agencies treat their work statistically to eliminate the chance of human error. Plot work is randomized and replicated, and the accumulated data are treated mathematically. objective approach that we really know whether one grass*, as an example, is significantly better than another under a given set of conditions. It is only through such an In the past three years tremendous interest has been aroused in the use of soil conditioners to stabilize soil structure. Nurserymen, farmers and some superintendents believe in them thoroughly, and a few scientists have reported that they show considerable promise for certain soils and crops. Some of the answers to their future use on golf courses depends on (1) effectiveness in promoting early and vigorous seedlings, ( 2) effectiveness in alleviating soil compaction following turf establishment, and ( 3) rel- ative cost in comparison with the use of organic matter and amendments which are used to accomplish the, same .results. In the light of our present knowledge, we can say that the relative cost is high, and that we have insufficient information to know whether or not they will stabilize structure under constant heavy foot traffic where moisture is maintained at or near field capacity. It is with relation to effectiveness in promoting a better stand of grass that "our eyes deceived u s ". In one experiment on a clay soil our eyes told us that conditioner treated plots were far superior to no treatment or the use of a straw mulch. Had we de- pended on observation alone we would have been guilty of jumping to erroneous conclusions. Statistically treated data showed that ( 1) both conditioner and straw mulch plots were significantly better than the no treatment, (2) condi- tioner and straw mulch plots germinated at the same time, and (3) after initial establishment, the seedlings under straw mulch were twice as tall as on the conditioner treated plots. In this instance our eyes deceived us because the mulch was unsightly in appearance; it masked the additional growth of the seedlings; and it hid from view, although still protected, surface structure. Thus, before condemning or endorsing a product one must make certain that his conclusions are justified. VALLEY PRESS 707 2nd Street Davi«, Calif. This Is Your tOeàt&ui 7"mfiettvt USGA Green Section Sec. 34.66 P.L.&R. U. S. P O S T A GE 1 Vic P A ID Davis, California Permit No. 23 D r. G. W. Burton t G e n e t i c i st D i v i s i on of Agronomy Georgia Costal Plain experiment S t a. T i f t o n, G a.