Most golfers don’t pay too much attention to those grasses that don’t seem to belong to the rest of the grasses surrounding them. The reason being those grasses doesn’t usually impose themselves on the golfers’ score.  The operative word here is “usually”.  A great big hulk of a different grass on a fairway may disrupt a golf swing, or a tiny leaf blade of a different grass on a green may deflect a rolling ball on the green.  That’s when the children in the houses neighbouring the golf course would learn a few new words that they wouldn’t be allowed to repeat in front of their parents.  

What are these grasses?  How did they come to be where they are?  Why are they left alone?  How do we get rid of them? Should we get rid of them?  What are they called?

They are called – other than the colorful names some golfers use to describe them – weeds.

A weed is defined as a plant that grows where it is not wanted. So, because of the  definition, a rare black orchid growing in the middle of fairway 13 would be attacked by changkul-wielding workers before we can finish saying “Rare black orchid is a weed?” Similarly, a banana plant three feet from the pin at Green no 7 is a weed, never mind the nutritional qualities of a banana.

Weeds are transplanted in many ways. Assuming a particular golf course is constructed, planted and maintained to perfection (this would presumably be on Planet Krypton), weeds can be transported by wind, animals, water, humans or machinery.  Sometimes it could also inadvertently be transported by the maintenance staff when they borrow a machine or equipment from another place. This does not only necessarily mean from one golf course to another, but also from one hole to another in the same golf course.

Why Weeds Happen – During Construction.

You would think that no one would plant a weed on their golf course. No one intentionally would; but sometimes that’s what happens when the golf course purchases new planting material like seeds, stolons or sods. To cut cost the planting material might be purchased from the nursery that gave them the lowest quote.  Chances are that these nurseries may not apply the best management practices to ensure weed-free materials. How else can they quote so cheap?

What some nurseries do is to regularly mow their plots to keep most weeds down to the same height as the surrounding grasses.  And when they smell a potential sale, they do a hurried manual weeding job before the buyer’s representative arrives for an inspection visit.

Unfortunately this may be the same scenario if we get our planting material - especially in big quantities - from the award-winning golf course that our boss has friendly relations with.  You don’t think they will rip off their best greens and fairways to give us the stolons do you?  You might as well ask for their right arm.  We may get away with getting the stolons during their renovation works like hollow-tining or verti-cutting.  Just be aware that it’s almost impossible to be weed free on all 18 holes (we are not on Planet Krypton) and a verti-cutter machine going on a weed the size of the palm of your hand will create hundreds of tiny baby weeds waiting to sprout on the golf course.

Actually, the story can begin long before the first planting material is purchased.  It starts when the soil is being prepared for planting.  When the earth was pushed to make way for a golf course, or when the soil is expertly shaped waiting for the planting of the seeds or stolons of the chosen species of grass, it contains planting material of many different species of plants. Each and every viable seed is a potential weed waiting for the right time to sprout. 

There are, of course ways to treat the soil – from simply turning the soil over to expose the seeds to sunlight to the complex way of covering it with plastic sheets and injecting it with chemicals – which, by the way, should only be done by licensed applicators.

Why Weeds Happen – During Maintenance

As so often is the case, an ill-advised attempt at cost reduction is usually the root cause of many evils when aesthetics is one of the performance indicators.  You will hear me repeat this line often: nothing is free in this world; we will pay for it one way or another. Maintain the grass poorly, it will not grow well and, in this instance, will provide an opportunity for weeds to move in.  We will eventually spend money to remove the weeds from the golf course. This paragraph will still hold true when I write about disease or pests in the golf course in future articles.

In short; do not expect the Superintendent to cut costs to the point the grass’ health suffers.  Starve it if you must. But make it suffer it you mustn’t.

In the quest for being environmentally friendly, some golf courses used organic fertilizers to feed their grasses. Now, these organic fertilizers are good food for the soil as much as it is good for the grass, but if we calculate on the amount of nutrient it can deliver, it may prove to be quite expensive. Fertilizer made from organic products that are not properly treated may contain weed seeds. Chicken dung and other animal waste or even products made from plant waste may be contaminated at source or during the process to turn it into plant food.

There is a legend of how a Superintendent of a golf course placed an order of several tons of processed chicken dung fertilizer.  The purchasing clerk, who with good intentions, believes that all chicken dung are alike proceeded to buy the cheapest one available.  The cost of weeding the golf course in the months afterward probably is much higher than the savings on the purchase of the fertilizer.

The Cure

So now you know where weeds has its roots (pun intended) and you want to roll up your sleeves and ask your Superintendent on how you can help fight this scourge on the golf course. 

How does your Superintendent take care of the weeds?  He/she has quite a few things in his arsenal. First and foremost are the mechanical means, which includes sending an army of labourers digging up the weeds with small screwdriver-like implements. It works to a certain extent; at the very least it controls the population of the weeds. More often than not, the staff may miss out the small ones or neglect to dig up the roots which may sprout again. But if you have the budget, this would be one of the best ways to get rid of them.

Another option would be to use chemicals. And there are plenty of chemicals; ranging from those to be used before the weed seeds germinate – called pre-emergent – to those designed for use on living weeds – called post emergent. Most weedicides or herbicides, for this is the category the chemicals used to kill weeds is called, belong to the post-emergent type.

More often than not, your Superintendent will choose a ‘selective’ herbicide; these are the chemicals that may spare the golf course grass and kill a certain type or family of weeds. The danger is that if the wrong mixture or rate is used, it may kill the golf course grass itself.  The golfer might also note that even if it doesn’t kill the golf course grass, there may be a slight discoloration that will be visible for a week or two.  The opposite of a ‘selective’ herbicide will be a ‘kill-all’ herbicide, for want of a better word.  

 He can also choose to use either a contact herbicide that will kill the weeds it is supposed to on contact or he can choose to use a systemic one, which will be absorbed through the plant and start to kill from within. If he chooses a contact, he may need to use a reliable sprayer so that full coverage can be effected. Otherwise, the herbicide may only kill parts of a grass instead of all of it. 

Please be reminded that all the above information is only a fraction of a branch of knowledge used by Superintendents.  For more information regarding herbicides in particular or weeds in general; get in touch with your club’s Superintendent.

So a different grass species than what is intended to grow in a particular area is considered a weed. But what if it looks the same but you can tell that it actually is different? Or what if it looks different but you can tell that it actually is the same? Most observant golfers would see it on some Tifdwarf greens.  From 10 feet away, you can tell that the grass seems to be different from its surroundings. But take a closer look (and I mean real close, like six inches) and it really looks not much different from the surrounding grass. What is it?

From my experience, it could be one of three things: One, it could be ‘grain’ which is the direction the grass is leaning.  Bermudagrass has a tendency to ‘lean’ to a certain direction. When a patch of grass is moved from, say a nursery to the green, the grain may not be in the same direction.  It could even happen during the changing of pin position. Two, this grass could be from the same species but a different hybrid; perhaps the hybrid meant for the fairway. Or probability number three; this grass could also be the original species from where the greens hybrid has mutated from.  In short, the grass has mutated back to its original strain. The last two grasses would qualify as weeds; the grain would not.

So how do you tell the difference?  I am sure your Superintendent would know; that’s why he’s earning the big bucks. What?  He’s not earning big bucks? Well no wonder you have a weed problem…