Editor’s Note: Today, we think of Pinehurst as a golf paradise, and its famously sandy soil as one of the key attributes that allowed the game to flourish there. In fact, as this excerpt from a 1921 article explains, growing quality turf for golf in Pinehurst seemed very much in doubt early on. The difficulties described, and the challenging process of trial and error to make improvements, highlight just how timely it was for the USGA to establish the Green Section in 1920. American golf needed scientific information about growing turfgrass and a way to share knowledge widely so that courses could learn from researchers and each other. It’s thanks to the hard work of countless people in the golf industry, and their willingness to share experiences and knowledge for the betterment of the game, that we no longer have to worry about seeing cattle penned in the fairways of Pinehurst in an effort to grow grass.
The first thing we discovered was that our soil at Pinehurst, N.C., – wretchedly poor sand-hill land – was not made for growing turfgrasses. Our early experiments with Bermudagrass in our fairways were so unsuccessful that it was seriously considered by some of the well-known golfers that it would be better to keep the fairways clear of grass and keep the sand smooth by the use of rollers. Frankly, it looked to me as if that was about the only solution. We did not, nevertheless, abandon our efforts with Bermudagrass at this point, but started in to use a mixed fertilizer and on some of the greens we applied clay which we shipped in from the Piedmont section, into which the fertilizer was mixed; this was on the advice of the State experiment station and Federal soil experts. We also used the local clay (which is 75% sand) with the soil, and we hauled 6 inches of what is known as “muck” here onto some of the holes. The grass slowly improved under this treatment, but it was far from satisfactory.
Our first real step forward was the application of nitrate of soda. We used 200 pounds to the acre, in two applications during the summer, and the course began to improve. After a few years, however, the turf went back again, notwithstanding these applications. We discovered then that the grass roots were very close to the surface. We next started in with applications of barnyard manure, plowing it into the turf, and we found that after two or three years of treatment in this manner and continuing the use of the nitrate of soda at the same time, we would get a fair stand of grass; during the first one or two years, however, the crabgrass took everything, which, dying in the winter, would leave bare sand spots.
We selected one piece of land for an experiment with extraordinarily heavy applications of manure, thinking that thereby we could make it so rich that subsequent fertilizing would be unnecessary. We manured this very heavily for three successive years, plowing it under, but after three or four years it was in no better condition than plots we had manured only once in the same length of time.
While conducting our experiments in manuring and plowing, we discovered that we could obtain nearly as good results with very heavy applications of cottonseed meal before plowing. We then began the application of cotton-seed meal as a topdressing, which we now use, alternating it with fish-scrap. If in spite of this treatment a fairway gets weak, we fence off a small area, perhaps an acre of the fairways, and in the enclosure put about twenty head of cattle for a month, feeding them heavily. In other words, we make a cow-yard of the fairway. We drag-harrow this yard every day so as to spread the manure. The cattle are fed and watered in this yard, their feeding places being moved frequently. We thus get an even distribution of fertilizer, without any litter, and at the same time the cows keep the weeds and grass down so that in a week or so after the cattle are removed the grass comes back in excellent shape.
To summarize, I might say that in this wretchedly poor sand-hill land we find that Bermuda is the only permanent grass, and that the application of barnyard manure, with plowing and continued harrowing, gives a very good turf within one year, and an excellent turf within two years. Two or three applications of cottonseed meal and fish-scrap during the summer, alternated, holds the turf fairly well; but making a cow-yard does better. Small applications of balanced chemical fertilizers are valueless. Large applications of nitrate of soda have not been successful. Applications of clay and muck have not produced results. Harrowing with a cut-away harrow has been useless. Watering, except occasionally in very dry time, is of no value. So we have decided that we cannot make this poor sand-hill land support turf unless it is fed heavily and often in the manner above stated.