Kingsbarnes
Kingsbarnes Golf Links
Fife, Scotland
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Kingsbarnes |
Stuart McColm does not like Poa annua on his greens or, for that matter, anywhere on his golf course. He is willing to go to great lengths to prevent its introduction, and he immediately attacks it with his knife wherever it invades. When he was given responsibility for managing Kingsbarns, he chose to go with a seed mixture composed of 70 percent fine fescues (40 percent slender creeping red fescue and 30 percent chewings fescue) and 30 percent browntop bentgrass. His grow-in fertilization program--beginning in 1998 and extending through 1999--provided only 20 kg nitrogen and 40 kg potassium per hectare per year, and no phosphorus. In 2000, he doubled the rates of nitrogen and potassium, but continued to withhold phosphorus in order to discourage any Poa annua from invading the turf. Only after receiving soil test reports for several greens showing very low levels of phosphorus did he finally include phosphorus in his fertilization program; this involved just three applications of a complete (N:P:K) fertilizer through which a total of 1.8 g P2O5/m2 were applied to the turf. The nitrogen and potassium rates were also increased to 45g and 90g per hectare, respectively, in 2001, and to 55g and 110g per hectare, respectively, in 2002. By the summer of 2003, his greens were predominantly fine fescue; however, despite measures to keep Poa annua out, small populations inevitably appear, requiring increasingly intensive efforts to physically remove them. Given the predominance of Poa annua on virtually all of the nearby golf courses, Stuart wonders if he can actually be successful in keeping Kingsbarns free of this pest.
One group will be assigned the responsibility for making a presentation containing the following elements:
A brief synopsis of the case description
A detailed analysis of the facts presented in the case description
A list of the issues emerging from the analysis
A broadly stated strategy for addressing the issues
A detailed action plan for implementing this strategy
This group should also prepare a report using the format that follows and submit
hard copies along with appropriate attachments to on the date shown in the course
schedule.
Download *Format* for Preparing Your Case Report
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