The Golf-Course Superintendent: Jeff Carlson

Where is the impetus coming from in America toward more organic practices? Is it the golf-course owners, the superintendents or the golfers?
Interestingly enough, women members are beginning to become a bit of a driving force. The women members here are hugely supportive. They like the idea that there are no pesticides. I don't mean to generalize, but you hear it enough here to make you think it's a driving force. I think superintendents would like to use less pesticide if they could. They would be more than willing to do it if they wouldn't lose their jobs from doing it.

The synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that golf courses conventionally use today, do you consider them to be safe?
Yeah, I do. With any pesticide, you can run into trouble if it's misused. You've got to be a licensed applicator, know what you're doing. There are some products out there where the test results are of some concern. There could be something out there that we're using that's really bad. It doesn't appear that that's the case. The testing is very elaborate. But a lot of people take the same stance that our county did, and that is, if there's any possibility of any danger, they don't want to use it. I can see why there's some concern about some of this stuff.

This is a true story. Back when I first started we still had some heavy-metal-based fungicides. Cadmium-based, mercury-based fungicides. I was at a little golf club, 1979, no longer exists. This was a small operation, no pesticide shed. I was mixing pesticides, a mercury-based powder, out back of the clubhouse and right next to the house that I lived in. It was just my wife, Kathy, and I; we'd just gotten married. My wife is a redhead, and she has a beautiful, thick head of hair. And in the middle of the summer, her hair started to fall out. Large pieces of it. And this had never happened before. And she was flipping out. So she went to the doctor, and they did a bunch of blood tests, and they told her she had heavy-metal poisoning. So I stopped using that stuff. But most pesticides today are really quite safe.

If they're safe, why is there this move toward using less of them?
I guess because of that absolute -- because we don't know they're absolutely OK. Because I was told in the 1970s that mercury-based fungicides were safe. So, they were wrong. And maybe there are some pesticides out there that aren't good. Insecticides do kill fish. Anything that kills something, in the wrong concentration, can be a problem. You never know. So if you can use less, it's got to be better. The reality is, that's the way things are going. Plus I'm just so surprised that so much of our golf course is unaffected by not using pesticides. To see a course without any at all is something I'm really proud of.

What kind of pressure do superintendents experience?
The pressure is to produce Augusta-like conditions no matter where you are. When we first started getting insect damage and disease, we measured the extent of the problem on one tee and found that 98.8 percent of the tee was perfect. But if you looked at this tee, you'd fire the superintendent. So this is what we're working with. The level of expectation is extraordinary now.

Does that work against the organic movement? The superintendent thinks, You know what, my job's on the line, I don't care, I'm going to use as much pesticide as I can.
Absolutely. The movement gains momentum only if the golfers support it. Superintendents would be totally supportive of it. I've noticed a tremendous interest in managing golf courses more organically, especially among younger superintendents. They'd do a great job. The golf courses would be terrific, but they'd have some visual blemishes. Well, right now they'd all be unemployed. Unless the golfer begins to have a change of perception and begins to accept those blemishes, and has that same mentality as when he goes to St. Andrews or Hoylake, and accepts those conditions and finds them charming and has a great round of golf. Then you can do it. The professionals and the tours and golf's hierarchy have to embrace that, too. The guys who are driving the bus.