Growth Regulators on the golf course

 Two weeks ago when we applied our growth regulator to the golf course I had several people ask what the "little white dots" were all over the golf course in the morning.  The "dots" are actually marking foam we use to see where we have made an application.  Using foam to mark our pass is much more economical than using the green dye we use on our greens.  As the temperature rises the foam disappears.

Mitch Sivley applying Legacy to the driving range

So why do we use "growth regulators" on the golf course anyway. Using growth regulators helps to suppress topical growth of the plant while redirecting the growth of the turfgrass plant to lateral and root growth.  Suppressing the topical growth of the turfgrass plant means faster and more consistent putting green surfaces throughout the day and on fairways and roughs means less clippings which in turn means we don't have to blow clippings as much. We have used Primo Maxx growth regulator on our greens for many, many years and we have used Legacy growth regulator on our fairways and roughs for the past couple of years.  Use of growth regulators on the roughs and fairways also means that we can go from mowing fairways three times per week to only mowing them twice with no reduction in fairway quality for the golfer.  This helps to save manhours, fuel, and wear and tear on our equipment.

Willie Hamby applying Primo Maxx around the putting green
and clubhouse grounds

Some areas on the golf course are too small for us to apply the growth regulators with our large, ride on sprayers so we have improvised and use our walk behind sprayer for these areas.  This is the same sprayer we use to paint the greens in the winter but it does a great job around the putting green and the clubhouse grounds.