SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/30215
college course on turfgrass management. We like it because it was written by an Iowa author who often reflects what you might expect from turfgrass in the Mid- west. Teaching in an applied science pro- gram, it’s nice to have textbooks that reflect the hands-on learning techniques we as fac- ulty promote in the classroom. This book like many adds lots of color images in the appendix sections and has industry-related photos that grab the students’ attention when reading the chapters. The book was also chosen because it’s an “easy read.” I believe that when you are in the field and need to reference back to a textbook you want something that has a de- tailed index that allows you to flip to the chapter/section of the textbook for a quick refresher and then back to work. This book does that really well. Other books I would recommend to turf managers: Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual, from the American Sports Builders Association; Mathematics of Turfgrass Industry, by Nick Christians and Michael Agnew; Practical Drainage for Golf, SportsTurf, and Horticulture by McIntyre and Jakobsen; and Poa Annua, by Vargas and Turgeon. BRANDON HORVATH, PhD, University of Tennessee For the introductory turfgrass lab course I teach I recommend The Mathematics of Turfgrass Maintenance by Nick Christians and Michael Agnew. Other texts I would recommend for a reference shelf would in- clude: Management of Turfgrass Diseases by Joseph M. Vargas Jr., and Compendium of Turfgrass Diseases, edited by Richard Smiley, Peter Dernoeden, and Bruce Clarke. JOHN STIER, PhD, University of Wisconsin Fundamentals of Turfgrass Science by Dr Nick Christians. It is complete and by far the best value for the money of any book available. University faculties are under tremendous pressure to reduce the cost of textbooks, both from the public media and from academic administrators. I like the book Practical Drainage for Golf, SportsTurf, and Horticulture, Chris- tians and Agnew’s book on turfgrass mathe- by Dr Nick Christians. It is complete and by far the best value for the money of any book available. University faculties are under tremendous pressure to reduce the cost of textbooks, both from the public media and from academic administrators. — matics, and Jim Beard’s 1973 Turfgrass Sci- ence and Culture. It’s dated but still the best book available beyond an introductory text. FRANK ROSSI, PhD, Cornell University I use Bob Emmons’ Turfgrass Science and Management from Delmar Publishing be- cause it is THE most practical text I have found. It lays an excellent foundation for students to know the basics. The problem with textbooks is that be- yond the basics things are changing so rap- idly that by the time a book comes out it is already 2-3 years old. Therefore I don’t rec- ommend texts as much as I used to for managers but instead recommend that they access the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) at Michigan State (STMA mem- bers they can access it free) for specialized content. I am very fond of Doug Brede’s Turfgrass Maintenance Reduction Handbook for turf management beyond the sports field. It is the only text I have seen that takes a pro- gressive look at where we need to be head- ing as an industry. GRADY MILLER, PhD, North Carolina State I do not teach our introductory course at NC State so I’m not 100% sure what www.stma.org SportsTurf 21 Fundamentals of T u rfgrass Science John Stier , PhD