Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/46524
haven't been shown to do that. Golf- course superintendents use very small amounts of pesticides. So generally, properly used, it's virtually impossible to affect the groundwater, but "virtually" is not a 100-percent guarantee. And that's where the opponents were coming from. We had trouble with that argument because we could never say categorically that a pesticide would never get in the groundwater in quantities that would cause a problem. We couldn't absolutely guarantee that, so they didn't want it. Period. There wasn't going to be a lot of discussion about it. The opposition was so strong that they even wrote folk songs in opposition to the golf course. Even more outrageous, they were allowed to sing them to the kids in the schools on the island. Have you heard the songs? No, I haven't. I would give anything to hear a recording of them. But they were basically, you know, "The new Vineyard Golf Club is going to ruin the world." The opposition was very strong, emotional and passionate. Someone told us that we were deader than a snake in a wagon-wheel rut. The course was eventually given the go-ahead by the Martha's Vineyard County Commission, but only with several stringent conditions. Right. One of the biggest reasons that we were successful was that this land was permitted to be a 148-lot subdivision. And I think they just weighed the two things -- 148 houses and all that that brings and demands of the town, versus a 100-percent organic golf course. There was a condition that we had to have 125 low-cost memberships for islanders. We have our local high school golf team play here. We do charity events. We support the community. The golf club has done a lot to overcome the fears that this was going to be a very cloistered, private, stay-away place. It's very inclusive. And Martha's Vineyard is a very inclusive kind of place. [Note: Vineyard Golf Club is private. The initiation fee for the club's 290 members is $350,000 with annual dues of $12,000; the additional 125 island members pay just $400 a year.] How do you define an organic course? We need to get a set of guidelines and criteria for what organic golf really means, and we're working on it, but basically it means no pesticides or fertilizers or other products can be used whose active ingredient was synthetically produced. Did you have doubts that it could be done? When the decision was made, I remember having a meeting with the owners, and I said, "You know, nobody does this, organically, without pesticides. And I don't want to lead you astray." And they were like, "Oh, that's OK, we know you can do it." And I said, "No, you've got to understand what I'm saying here: Nobody does it this way." But they would not be swayed. To be honest, I was worried that I was setting myself up to fail. I had my doubts. What do you have to do to keep the turf in such good condition? For me it's been a lot of trial and error and a lot of experimentation. I decided I was going to limit the number of people I was going to listen to, because I found out very rapidly there are an awful lot of people who want to sell you their magic potion. All the products are new. And there's a lot of stuff that hasn't hit the market, because the demand isn't there yet. For instance, we have a white grub here, an oriental beetle that gives us a lot of trouble. There are nematodes -- almost microscopic worms -- that are very effective against the white grub. They attack them from the inside and kill them. But not that many people are relying on nematode applications to control white grubs -- most would just use a synthetic insecticide. So we get products at really early stages; we beg for stuff to use on a trial basis, a lot of times before it's been released. I imagined you were boiling up some big organic-compost soup to put on the golf course, but you're buying products. Are they made by the same people who make the traditional pesticides? Yes. Everybody seems to be moving in that direction. Since 2002, when we opened, the number of products available has greatly increased. There's a lot of movement toward lower use of pesticides. I think the chemical companies are just looking ahead. What else do you have to do? The products are a big part of it. The second part is cultural practices. For fungal diseases, for example, the big issue is leaf wetness. I do whatever I can to minimize the duration of leaf wetness. We don't use that much irrigation. We use wetting agents to remove dew, sand top-dressing on greens; we whip greens and fairways [whisking away dew]. And the third piece of the puzzle, as important as the other two, is communication, working with our members and explaining this idea of great playability versus visual perfection. We take the focus away from having every piece of fairway and rough perfectly green. The members have to be on board, or the superintendent wouldn't last too long. Have the members been positive, or have there been some grumblings? Oh, you have grumblings. That comes with the territory. But that's where the com-munication comes in. Generally speaking, the club is hugely supportive. I give these people a lot of credit. your biggest challenge? It's evolved over six years. When I started, it was the fungus diseases that were the most problematic. With our cultural practices and the organic fungicides that we use, the disease severity is a lot less than it was. We also think -- not proven, totally anecdotal -- that there's some natural selection going on. We think the grasses are beginning to adapt. It's survival of the fittest -- disease-resistant grasses occurring naturally. We've seen some areas over the years that have got really hit hard with dollar-spot fungus one year, then in subsequent years we don't see it at all. We've seen it even in greens. Kind of interesting. By not spraying with traditional synthetic fungicides, you're saying that perhaps you're allowing the grass the chance to heal itself. An analogy would be using penicillin constantly and compromising your body's natural immune system. It's an interesting thought. Ten years ago or so I remember hearing a story about some bent-grass research plots where they were testing for various fungal diseases and different fungicides. Then the research ended, and they closed the field down and just let the plots go. They didn't do anything to them for a year. And when they came back, all the plots where they had been spraying fungicides had dollar spot all over them like you can't believe. But there was a control plot that during the research they didn't do anything to. And when they came back, the control plot was fine. The ramifications of that would be huge. Yes, they would. OK, so you have grubs like the oriental beetle, you have fungal diseases like dollar spot. What else? And then you have weeds. Weeds are a problem. Weeds are tough. Today, there is not a lot of organic product out there that can kill plants. An organic selective herbicide that really works, I haven't come across. We're using one product that's developed out of New Zealand called Waipuna. It's an environmentally friendly way to kill plants. It's a machine that heats water to 5 degrees below boiling point and then adds a wetting agent to create a foam. You put this hot foam out on the weed with a machine that looks like a carpet cleaner. The foam Continued On Next Page