John Mascaro is President of Turf-Tec International
These square areas where no turf is present on this university
recreational field is the result of wear. This particular Tifsport ber-
mudagrass football field is the exact size of a regulation football
field and it is open for recreational use to the students during the
spring and fall semesters. It hosts tremendous amounts of intra-
mural and competitive clubs sports programs but it also serves
as the University of Georgia's Redcoat marching band's practice
field. The field went unused aside from a very small amount
of recreational play during the summer. During the first week
of classes the campus received 3-4 inches of rain. This field is
native soil and has no subsurface drainage; therefore, it was
saturated from all the rainfall. However, the marching band con-
tinued to practice. After only a week or so of their practicing for
about 4 hours a night, the foot traffic patterns from the marching
band became more pronounced due to the saturated conditions.
The Sports Turf Manager encourages the turf to grow as much
as possible in the mid-spring and early summer with 1 lb./1000
N, and then he spoon feeds as needed. During this down time,
they also will core aerate at least twice, and aerate once using
solid deep tines. They also topdress with soil and then sand to
fill the craters that form where the band leaves these depres-
sions by marching in place.
Photo submitted by Chase Straw, graduate research assis-
tant in Turfgrass Science at the University of Georgia. Joe
Morgan is the Sports Turf manger and Groundskeeper III at the
UGA Facilities and collaborated on this story.
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz
www.stma.org November 2015 | SportsTurf 35
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro's Photo
Quiz please send it to John Mascaro, 1471 Capital Circle NW, Ste #
13, Tallahassee, FL 32303 call (850) 580-4026 or email to john@turf-
tec.com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All
photos submitted will become property of SportsTurf magazine and
the Sports Turf Managers Association.
Answers from page 24
