EFFECTS OF GOLF BUGGY AND GOLF TROLLEY WEAR ON RED FESCUE SUBSPECIES AND CULTIVARS MAINTAINED UNDER FAIRWAY CONDITIONS

摘要

The effects of golf buggy and trolley wear on different red fescue (Festuca rubra L.) subspeciesand cultivars (57 Chewings fescue, 37 slender creeping red fescue and 40 strong creeping redfescue) were assessed under simulated fairway conditions. The wear treatments were appliedusing an E-Z-Go petrol-engined two-man golf buggy and a PowaKaddy compact electric trolleybetween April and September 2002. Additionally, simulated foot traffic was added to the trolleywear areas using the STRI differential slip wear machine. Differences among grasses were assessed using visual assessments of turf quality and reflectance ratio measurements (relative live grass cover). Strong associations between the two measurements were found under both types of wear. Graphs for these associations were used to show variation among grass types and cultivars. Comparison of the different subspecies showed that the strong creeping red fescues tended to perform towards the lower to middleof the range defined by all grasses. In contrast, the Chewings and slender creeping red fescues tended tohave overlapping ranges that were superior to the strong creeping red fescues. Within thesecomparisons, there also appeared to be more subtle differences between Chewings and slendercreeping red fescues. In this respect, there appeared to be a slightly higher concentration ofChewings fescues towards the top of the range for trolley-wear but more slender creeping redfescues under buggy wear. Variation within and among subspecies were investigated further using combined overall ratings for each wear treatment. Bi-plots comparing variation in cultivar performance for the two wear treatments and each subspecies are presented. These showed that cultivars of Chewingsfescue tend to be grouped in the above average to good range for trolley wear but define a rangefrom fairly poor to good for buggy wear. The strong creeping red fescues all fell below averagefor trolley-wear but some cultivars were rated above average for buggy-wear. The slendercreeping red fescues were largely grouped as good under both types of wear. It is concluded that this preliminary study identified unique subspecies variation for cultivars of red fescue under two different types of fairway wear. Within this, choosing cultivars of slender creeping red fescues would appear to be more straightforward than selecting cultivars of Chewings or strong creeping red fescue for fairway use. The better cultivars of slender creeping red fescue under one type of wear also appeared to be the best under the other. This was not found for the Chewings and strong creeping red fescues.