Disease is apparent on the green. Little spots of yellow-brown grass dot the front of the putting green at Blue Ocean Golf Club’s seventh hole in Sechelt. It’s fusarium, the costliest disease for West Coast clubs. Tristan Tuplin, Blue Ocean’s superintendent, wants to show it off. “When we’re applying pesticide, we’re applying it for the turf, not for the cosmetics.”
He then points out a few streaks of moss behind the putting green. “In years past, we would have fertilized everything back here.”
Now, Tuplin said he doesn’t look at moss as a pest. Instead, he focuses on cultivating healthier grass that will eventually outcompete the mossy patches.
Tuplin and other Sunshine Coast superintendents say their greenskeeping practices represent a shift away from mass applications of fertilizer and pesticides, which they say began in 2008 after the financial crisis.
Government policies are also changing course. Since July 1, 2016, all golf clubs in the province must submit their annual pesticide use to the B.C. Ministry of Environment as part of an amendment to Integrated Pest Management, a provincial program that regulates the sale and use of pesticides. Courses also must obtain a Pesticide User’s Licence to apply pesticides legally.
As part of these changes, the ministry inspectors began monitoring B.C. courses in 2017. The Sunshine Coast courses were the first to be audited, which involves an inspection of the new requirements under the IPM regulation and a questionnaire about the course itself. According to the ministry, in 2017 Pender Harbour Golf Club Society used a total of 4.1 kilograms of pesticide active ingredient, Blue Ocean Golf Club used a total of 60.74 kilograms and Sunshine Coast Golf Club used a total of 142.3 kilograms.
