Turf seminar for S.I.

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 26

Turf seminar for S.I.

Golf greenkeepers, greens personnel and golf club members from all over the South Island will meet this Monday and Tuesday at Lincoln College for the South Island Fine Turf Seminar. The initial idea for a conference was one of cost. Travelling to the North Island’s regular turf conferences became very expensive for the smaller golf clubs in the South Island. For this reason, the S.I.F.T.S. committee saw the need for more seminar-type educational opportunities for South Island greenkeepers.

This will be the second S.I.F.T.S. seminar to be held — the last one being in 1984 at Lincoln College. Nineteen-eighty-five and 1986 were missed because of the three-yearly Sports Turf Convention in 1985,

and the Golf Greenkeepers’ Conference in Dunedin last year. This year’s S.I.F.T.S. seminar will be the main educational seminar in the South Island. The theme of the 1987 seminar is modern trends in turf management — the first day being devoted to discussing mechanisation of golf course management. The main speaker for the seminar is Dr Noel Jackson of Rhode Island State University. He will speak about reviewing diseases of turfgrasses. His wide and varied experience in golf turf management as a researcher and an extension agronomist in the United States and United Kingdom is valued by many greenkeepers in New Zealand. Originally a Yorkshireman, he was the director of Biology with the Sports Turf Research Institute, at Binglez, Yorkshire, 17 years ago. He then moved to Rhode Island State University, where he is now Professor of Plant Pathology. He maintains an interest in golf turf management by providing agronomic advice to several golf courses in New York

State. Seminar participants will stay on the Lincoln campus in student hostels there where meals are provided in the cafeteria — allowing time for social interaction. All lectures and discussions amongst greenkeepers are held at the college. Monday afternoon will be taken up with a field trip to Russley Golf Club in Christchurch, where a trade exhibition and secondhand machinery sale will take place. “I’m pretty sure golf club members will benefit from this sale, as machinery of any kind is very expensive these days, especially if imported,” says Mr Bill Walmsley, the New Zealand Turf Culture Institute’s South Island senior agronomist. From a New Zealand point of view, Mr Alan Stewart’s paper on the development of turf ryegrasses should be warmly welcomed. "The improvements in fine turf ryegrasses have revolutionised the turf management industry and Mr Stewart has been closely involved with evaluating these improvements by experimenting with rye-

grass varieties for Pyne Gould Guinness, Ltd. An aspect of particular relevance to New Zealand greenkeepers will be discussion on the importance of lolium endophyte in ryegrasses. The significance of lolium endophyte, in giving insect resistance to turfgrasses, has only recently been realised and lolium endophyte is currently the subject of Mr Stewart’s thesis. Greenkeepers will be updated on the most recent developments in this area. Other topics covered in the seminar will be mixing chemicals, renovation of problem greens, soil testing, tissue analysis, autumn renovation, and management. of golf courses. The seminar is organised by the S.I.F.T.S. committee, a joint working party of representatives from the Canterbury Golf Association, Canterbury Golf Greenkeepers Association, and New Zealand Turf Culture Institute.

According to Mr Walmsley, the “driving force” behind the seminar is Mr Roger Gilbert, the chairman of the S.I.F.T.S. committee. “The first

seminar, in 1984, developed as a result of a meeting he convened between the four major bodies in the golf industry,” said Mr Walmsley.