The United States Golf Association has committed almost $47 million to the Mike Davis Program for Advancing Golf Course Management since 1983, and this year’s investment of $1.9 million will go toward grants for more than 80 research projects in 2022.
USGA investment saves the golf industry an estimated $1.92 billion annually, with the money saved coming from advancing irrigation estimates of turfgrass water usage, irrigation scheduling with soil moisture meters, and more efficient fertilizer and pesticide use. Recipients of the 2022 grants include over a dozen universities in the U.S. and cover both short- and long-term projects.
Specific examples include a nationwide evaluation of drought tolerance and water use of commonly used fairway grasses, a project whose goal is the reduction of fertilizer use with specific estimates of nutrient requirements, and turfgrass breeding programs.
“A core focus of the USGA is to ensure golf is not only thriving today, but is also growing in the next 20, 30, and 50 years,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “To ensure future success, we need to continually invest in efforts that can address challenges that our game will face long-term – like water scarcity, the cost of labor/resources, and the availability of land.”