I know this seems incredibly self-serving (and I guess some of it is) but I want to highlight some of the great work my superintendent has been doing at my club. Mark Hoban and his staff are combining genuine research (a two year UGA turf trial whose data will be published soon) with a willingness to try new approaches throughout the property.
He has received great support and encouragement from people like Matt Shaffer at Merion, Dr. Gil Landry at UGA (an early skeptic who sees genuine promise in many of Mark's organics), Butch Gill, Palmer Maples, Randy Nichols, Dr. Clint Waltz, Dr. Brian Schwartz, Dr. Mussie Habteselassie, Dr. Paul Raymer, Dr. Tim Murphy, Emily Dobbs and too many others to mention here. (Now, we need more data and so we need more courses to be willing to try a more organic approach.)
This does not mean going 100% organic now or even ever, but it does mean considering changing the way we view the plant-soil relationship and looking at ways to incorporate more organics into the protocols. We are convinced this more holistic approach can lead to fewer synthetic inputs, healthier soils and ultimately far healthier plants.
This link is to an article about the first Organic Golf Day hosted at Rivermont this past Tuesday. There is a lot more research to do but early results are encouraging and I will certainly share the UGA complete trial report when it is done--I only have the executive summary now.
Golf has a great story to tell and part of that can and should be the positive impact courses can have on the environment.
http://www.turfnet.com/news.html/_/field-day-shares-experience-with-organics-and-native-grasses-r728