Sustainable golf greens, the R&A, Poa annua and you

The R&A’s highly laudable drive toward best practices for golf courses uses a ladder as an analogy for showing progress toward a sustainable golf course, but do you know how high this ladder is?

A large part of this issue of Pitchcare (issue 18 April/May 2008) is given over to the much discussed and promoted subject of ‘sustainable golf’ and features organised, brave and forthright course managers who are striding up the rungs of sustainable progress.

More power them I say, I have never been in any doubt that firm, free-draining, true, fescue dominated stands are the only turf surfaces worth playing golf on. It is nothing new though, after all these keen sporting surfaces are as old as the game itself.