PULLMAN,
Recently appointed course superintendent Todd Lupkes, a WSU graduate in turf management, said he has a strong desire to see the golf course operations integrated with the academic program. He studied under William Johnston, professor of crop and soil science, and worked at the turf research plots with Charles Golob, research supervisor. Currently they are sharing equipment when the needs arise, as well as creating learning opportunities for the turf students.
Students are working on the CourseCo staff that is growing in the turf on the new course. Turf Club president Dave Andrews is the irrigation technician responsible for programming the field satellites for the state of the art irrigation system. Other turf students are working on the staff mowing the turf and laying sod among other duties.
WSU students who wish to work on the golf course will have that opportunity, Lupkes said. Some golf course positions that are normally 40 hours per week are being broken down into two 20 hour per week positions to allow more students the opportunity to work on the course during the school year. Internships, which are a mandatory part of the WSU Turf curriculum, are also available.
WSU and CourseCo plan to have the new golf course certified as a cooperative sanctuary within one year of its opening, Lupkes said. Students will be involved with the construction and placement of bird boxes, bat boxes and owl boxes as well as the monitoring of these structures after they are installed.
CourseCo has 12 golf courses that have been fully certified by Audubon International as cooperative sanctuaries. This involves meeting best practice standards in water conservation, water quality protection, chemical usage, wildlife management and education and outreach.
Students will also be involved in testing water as it leaves the golf course. This is a normal practice intended to make sure that nitrogen fertilizer applications do not increase the level of nitrogen in the surface water that leaves the course.
The turf program has already started a turf plot experiment on the driving range that is investigating alternative uses for post-harvest residue coming from grass seed fields that in the past were burned. WSU also is studying a number of potential mulch and seed cover products on the driving range that will help address this problem. It is anticipated that more studies will be performed on the new golf course that will provide important real life research to the turf industry.
In June, WSU turf hosted a field day for the turf industry in the
It is expected that other departments at WSU will benefit from access to the golf course to study the protected Palouse Prairie Strip and the wetlands that have been created.
Additional resources:
– Key People in WSU’s Turfgrass Management Program, https://turf.wsu.edu/people.htm
– Washington State University Turfgrass Research, https://turf.wsu.edu/research.htm
– Palouse Ridge Golf Club, https://golf.wsu.edu/
– Raymond Davies, CGCS, director of Golf Course Maintenance and Construction, senior operations m anager CourseCo, Inc., 650-888-7120
