Hawaii’s ocean users, including recreational boaters, periodically voice complaints about the potential runoff from Hawaii’s numerous golf courses of such chemicals as herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers, and their effect on the marine environment.
However when asked, golf course superintendents nearly universally are quick to say that with proper course management, there are no such negative effects.
“Quite simply, maintaining a golf course is a business,” one superintendent explained. “We just can’t afford to let expensive chemicals wash away, so we only use what can be absorbed by the plants.
“Our costs for nitrogen (fertilizer) alone is quite high,” he noted. “So about three times a year we have grass samples tested for nitrogen content and then use that data to determine the need for further applications.”
He went on to point out that any chemical used at the course breaks down quickly in the thatch layer of the grass so nothing harmful to the environment is likely to leach out of the soil or be consumed by wildlife.
The types of grass used by most island golf courses – Bermuda and its hybrid varieties, or seashore paspalum – usually choke out other grasses and both are vary resistant to insects. And in fact because paspalum grows well when irrigated with brackish water, plain salt is used instead of herbicides to discourage the growth of other grasses.
Even the term “runoff” made the superintendent smile and explain that water costs money so the ground is monitored for moisture and never overwatered.
“A golf course is a biomass of plants, trees and grasses,” the superintendent said in describing the nature of a golf course. “We try to keep it all in harmony. It’s the runoff from urban areas where you find pollution.”
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