The trees that surround Capilano Golf and Country Club provide a distinctive and stunning backdrop for this beautiful British Columbia course. However, the same trees that contribute so much to the ambiance can also make it challenging to grow high-quality turfgrass for year-round play. After years of aggressive tree management on the property, course conditions have improved due to the added sunlight that now reaches the turf throughout the entire year. What happens, though, if the trees that are causing problems are not on your property?
The seventh green at Capilano is located just north of a dense forest that is not on club property. Superintendent Stuart Sheridan reports that the seventh green is completely shaded from late October through early March. Turf conditions suffer to the point of the green being closed for most, if not all, of that time. Even when the green opens in mid-March, it is well behind the rest of the greens on the property in terms of turf health and density.
In 2020, Sheridan began exploring options for improving what seemed like a hopeless situation. Enter SGL Inc., a company known mostly in the stadium turf market for their grow lights. When Sheridan reached out to the Netherlands-based company, they were eager to see if their lights could help golf courses across the pond. By the time the grow lights were finally turned on at Capilano in mid-February of 2021, the seventh green was yellow and thin, as usual. The maintenance team at Capilano created four zones on the green and moved the lights to each zone every four days. The daily routine is to move the two sets of lights onto the green each morning, run them all day, then roll them off the green each evening. During heavy frost or frozen conditions, the lights are not used.
The results were visible after four weeks of using the lights last year, and the turf seemed to “wake up” according to Sheridan. They opened the green at the same time they normally would, but it was in much better condition and ready to be treated like the rest of the greens one month earlier than usual. Golfers were pleased with the results and encouraged Sheridan to continue testing the lights for another winter. This year, the lights were turned on in mid-January. Hopes are high that turf conditions will be even better this year with more time under the lights.
West Region Agronomists:
Brian Whitlark, senior consulting agronomist – bwhitlark@usga.org
Cory Isom, agronomist – cisom@usga.org