COMMON CENTS

The Washington State Golf Association hopes a little pocket change makes a big impact on turfgrass research.

MOST THINGS worthwhile in life require great patience, and that certainly is the case with turfgrass research.

While the USGA Green Section continues to fund dozens of research projects throughout the United States, every portion of the country features different problems inherent to that area, and therein lies part of the problem. While turfgrass research funding generally supports projects with a national impact, regional research is usually addressed with money raised by local turf associations, superintendent groups and the turf industry. In most cases, however, the amount of money raised is inadequate to conduct large-scale research for the local golf community.

So where can larger sources of funding be found? The state of Washington may have found an answer.

Starting with the new year, a small portion of the monthly dues paid by member clubs of the Washington State Golf Association will be set aside for turfgrass research that will most heavily impact problems native to the Pacific Northwest. The 50-cents-per-person allocation will match the amount the WSGA already supplements in its funding of junior golf, a contribution started eight years ago, and the Evans Scholarship Program, which it has supported since the early 1980s.

Preliminary estimates are that $43,000 will be raised in the first year, but that is not the extent of the funding available for regional research. For several years the turf industry has funded Washington and Oregon programs in equal amounts.

Besides regional environmental research, high on the list of projects on the Pacific Northwest docket are Poa annua putting greens, prevalent throughout much of the area, and the discovery of a non-chemical method to treat earthworms, a common problem.

"We have all this wonderful research on bentgrass," said Larry Gilhuly, director of the USGA Green Section's Western Region, "but not very much on Poa. Poa greens are common throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and California."

During the past several decades, turfgrass research in the Pacific Northwest has been allocated through grants from the Northwest Turfgrass Association and other organizations. Occasional grants from the USGA have also been received, but completing meaningful regional research with limited funding has proved difficult.

"This isn't a new concept for us," said Washington State Golf Association executive director John Bodenhamer. "But with the support of everyone involved, we were able to put together a package for what we consider a worthwhile cause."

It's somewhat surprising those most afflicted with a regional turfgrass problem wouldn't support previous proposals for research.

"We have to realize," Bodenhamer noted, "that the research conducted is going to be in areas that affect courses in this area of the country and nowhere else. If those problems are going to be solved, we have to do the research ourselves."

But now the golf community is behind the effort, and the reason is one to which Bodenhamer has attached a simple explanation: common cents.