Visit with Italian Turfgrass Scientists

Auburn University Turfgrass Management — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:45:11 +0000

We had a great weekend visit with two Italian turfgrass scientists from the University of Pisa– Drs. Marco Volterrani and Simone Magni. It was a great chance to visit on the similarities of Alabama and Italy turfgrass management. Here are some of the highlights of their visit.

We started off on Saturday visiting with Eric Kleypas, Head Athletics Field Manager for Auburn University. They were immediately impressed with high quality of Auburn Universities athletic fields and had many questions regarding the challenges of managing several different sports venues. Eric also showed us some of the problems that all football fields have– paint build up in the soil profile.

Drs. Volterrani and Magni with Eric Kleypas.

Blue paint accumulation in the soil profile at Jordan-Hare Stadium

On Sunday we headed off to Birmingham to do a whirlwind tour of three of the best golf courses in the country– Shoal Creek, CC of Birmingham, and Farmlinks. At Shoal Creek we visited with Head Superintendent Jim Simmons and at CC of Birmingham we visited with Head Superintendent Lee McLemore. One aspect that became apparent on the tour of both of these courses is that high quality golf courses do not have to overseed. This is important because a perception of many in Italy, and also in the US, is that brown turfgrass means dead turf. But brown turf can be more environmentally friendly because of the reduced need to irrigate, fertilizer, and mow. We also need to change the name of dormant turf, it is not brown, it is blonde.

Dr. Magni, Lee McLemore, and Dr. Volterrani.

Soil profiel of greens at CC of Birmingham.

Lastly we visited Mark Langner, Brian Thompson, and Blake Garrett at Farmlinks Golf and Research Facility in Sylacauga. Farmlinks is a unique facility because of all the different turfgrass species and management practices. Farmlinks is also unique because it has many companies who conduct research and training at this facility.

Dr. Magni, Mark Langner, and Dr. Volterrani.

We also attempted to export horseshoes to Italy. I do not know if it is going to take.

Thanks to all who aided me in tour of Alabama turfgrass and to others of the Auburn Turf Team who aided in hosting our guests.

Scott McElroy, PhD

Twitter: @auburnturf @malherbologist

http://auburnturf.com

http://auburnweedscience.com

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Auburn University Turfgrass Management — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:13:49 +0000

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