Balancing innovations and challenges will certainly set the stage for the USGA Green Section’s next century, but the team is already excited about what they believe will be a productive and ground-breaking next 100 years. The next century will feature new tools and technology, new grasses, and new concepts – all designed to link the agronomy, management, and sustainability of golf courses to the USGA’s continued goal of enhanced golfer experience.
“We have a very strong record over the last 100 years of supporting the industry and certainly, we’re going to continue to be a rock of stability for the next century,” said Green Section Managing Director, Matt Pringle, Ph.D. “It’s not easy to reduce the consumption of critical resources while also delivering a high-quality experience for golfers, but our team’s mission is to make sure that golfers are having the best experience they can have on the golf course,” Pringle added.
Pringle’s role will be to guide the leadership and implementation of the Green Section’s research, tools and technology, course consulting, education and outreach, and championship agronomy programs.
Already, those USGA programs are cooperatively intertwined, extending science-based, site-specific consultation to golf courses throughout the nation, while utilizing cutting-edge tools, data and agronomic options.
In turn, superintendents gain knowledge and techniques on how to make their golf courses more viable, while also better enabling their facilities to be viewed for stewardship and as a community asset by both golfers and non-golfers.
The Green Section’s education and outreach program delivers both technical and non-technical information. It publishes materials for superintendents to receive current updates on research, best-management practices, agronomic breakthroughs or information on such concerns as drought, aeration and disease.