The Turf Guru

As time goes on and the city of Toronto gets bigger there are more and more permits and stakeholders when considering construction. This is proven at islington golf club located at the west end of Toronto. In Toronto now a days you have to get a permit just to cut down a tree and the quickest the permit can be approved is in six weeks. We had a class field trip there this past week. The superintendent and assistant superintendent really showed us how much work it is to make changes around the golf course and please everybody.

Throughout the morning tour they showed us changes that are going on and recent changes that have been done. They went through with us everyone that was involved in the changes and people that would have a vested interest in the final outcome of the project. It is almost crazy to think of how many people Robin the super. has to go through when he wants to make an improvement to the golf course. Robin brought us to the sixth green were they always had problems growing turf grass. This is because the green was surrounded by massive trees and the green wasn’t getting any sun. It took him four years just to convince the board they needed to get rid of the trees. After that he still has to get permission from the city to remove them which takes at least six weeks. And finally he has to convince the members that this will be for the best. Because the members might not want to remove them.

I come from a smaller course in a rural environment and things are done in a somewhat similar fashion. But once you make the board happy with your plans you can go out and do it. Personally I believe it is going a little far to make things even that much more difficult for golf courses in that area. Especially when the turf grass industry is already in tough times.

Oh a synthetic field, that requires no maintenance just have it installed and you’re good to go. That would be a sentence from an extremely ill informed individual. One of the biggest myths about artificial turf is that there is very little to no maintenance involved. But why maintain a so called maintenance free surface?  Well for a couple a reasons, playing performance, longevity,safety and aesthetics.  Though a synthetic field is very different from a natural field it involves just as much maintenance.  However the maintenance and equipment is quite different from that of a natural field.

One the biggest things in maintaining a synthetic field is brushing it. Why? Because the fibers will lean in particular direction or flatten with use and also keeping your infill level to ensure your field is consistent.  A synthetic field needs an irrigation system just like a natural field except for different reasons. A synthetic field needs an irrigation system to cool the high temperatures of the field, to lubricate the field and stabilize the infill.  Also synthetic fields need to be cleaned on a regular basis to make sure there no contaminants.  Leveling the infill should be done a regular basis to this done by removing debris, cleaning the area and brushing back into the field.  These are just a few of the areas of importance in maintaining synthetic fields.

I feel that it is important that people know that a lot of work goes into maintaining these fields.  If people are looking into getting or switching to synthetic turf they need realize that it is going to be just as much as a natural field.  And that it is a lot different then maintaining a natural field therefore someone that has never dealt with it before is going to have to be trained.