Cover Story
Developing a Golf Course Nutrient Management Plan By Pete Landschoot, Ph.D., Professor of Turfgrass Science
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uperintendents generally do a good job of monitoring the nutrient status of turfgrass and soil on their golf courses. However, keeping track of nutrient requirements and fertilizer programs on large properties with different turfgrass species, management regimes, soil types, and micro-environments can be challenging. A nutrient management plan (NMP) can help organize all or most of this information into a single document that can be shared with staff members at your facility. It can also demonstrate to club members, neighbors, and community organizations that you are taking an environmentally responsible approach to turfgrass fertilization. A golf course NMP is a document that helps superintendents keep track of the nutrient status of soils and turfgrasses and provides a strategy for meeting the nutrient requirements of turfgrasses through proper application timing and amounts of fertilizer. Nutrient management plans can be relatively simple or complex depending on the goals of your golf course operation. The basic components of a NMP are: 1. A brief description of the topography, geology, and soil types on the golf course, and a map delineating soil types on the property. 2. An inventory of turfgrass species and management regimes, including maps designating greens, tees, fairways, roughs, and environmentally sensitive areas that may require different fertilization programs.
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3. A summary of soil test procedures, results, and recommendations for the different management areas of your course, as well as a narrative of your nitrogen fertilization program, including rates, sources, and application timings. 4. A means of recording fertilizer application dates, product names, analyses, sources of nitrogen, rates, and total amounts used. This article gives an example of a NMP that was developed for a golf course in central Pennsylvania. The plan has been simplified due to space limitations, but it provides a stepwise approach to implementing the basic components of a NMP.
Developing an NMP for Lost Creek Golf Club In 2017, Penn State faculty worked with Mr. Tom Troutman, superintendent of Lost Creek Golf Club, to develop a NMP as part of a Chesapeake Bay Programfunded watershed improvement project. The primary purpose of this project was to monitor nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer inputs and to stabilize eroding stream banks along Lost Creek. The grant also provided an opportunity to develop an example of a basic NMP for other golf courses in Pennsylvania. Lost Creek Golf Club is located in Juniata County, just north of Rt. 35 in Oakland Mills. The property is approximately 150 acres and is surrounded by
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dairy farms and some wooded areas. A unique feature of the golf course is Lost Creek, a Class A trout stream, which enters the northeast corner of the course, then proceeds south through a wooded area before cutting through mostly open areas on the southern portion golf course. Lost Creek is an important part of the golf course, creating interest, strategy, and impacting play on about a third of the holes on the course. Lost Creek floods on occasion, and, during periods of peak flow, some stream bank erosion occurs.
Step 1. Description and mapping of topography, geology, and soils The first step in developing an NMP is to describe and map topography, geology, and soil types on your golf course. Knowledge of land and soil features can help you identify environmentally sensitive sites and delineate areas on the course that may need different types and amounts of fertilizer. Soil survey manuals are a good source of information on topography, geology, and soil types. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service offers free internet access to soil survey information and map generation at Web Soil Survey https:// websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/ HomePage.htm. Generating a soil map of your golf course takes a little practice, but the Web Soil Survey website provides directions which are relatively easy to follow. Fig. 2 shows a soil map of Lost Creek Golf Club generated with tools on
