Some golf courses look for a natural alternative to concrete or asphalt cart paths but often don’t pull the trigger because of concerns about dust or the risk of washouts from heavy rain. The allure of a natural path set into the beautiful landscape of a golf course is more appealing than the hard surfaces often used as cart paths, but dealing with dust can be a real challenge.
One way to manage this issue that I’m seeing at The Los Angeles Country Club during this year’s U.S. Open is to apply a specially formulated sprayable polymer to bind soil and stone particles and cut down on dust. How often this is applied depends on weather and use. For example, during the U.S. Open there is constant traffic so the material is applied nightly or every other night. For regular use on a golf course, the material might only need to be applied monthly to keep dust down, or perhaps on an even longer interval if there is rain.
Before you decide against decomposed granite or natural stone paths because of concerns about washouts or dust, investigate maintenance with a stabilizer. You might find that you can have your cake and eat it too.
Northeast Region Agronomists
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org
