Got your sunscreen....on the turf (turfscreen)

Yes, that is right, we sprayed the greens with sunscreen this week.  A new product came out last year that has the turf industry talking.

As the story goes, a golf course superintendent was putting sunscreen on himself while standing on a green and he spilled some.  That spot on the green was healthier, greener, and stood up to more heat stress during the next week.  So sunscreen has been manufactured in a jug now with a small amount of green pigment.  The sunscreen and pigment is being called turfscreen, and university research trials has shown the applied turf areas to hold up to intense sun and hi temperatures than non-treated areas.  It also has been proven that with the pigment the surface temperature of the treated turf is 5 degrees cooler than non treated turf right next to it.  Last summer I did a couple test areas on greens and when we were really dry and intense sun with temperatures around 105, that turf was healthy, required less water, and did stand up to the heat better.  The issue with the turf screen is the same as sunscreen, you must re-apply.  As we mow the greens daily we are also mowing off the sunscreen.  We will continue to analyze it and see if it is something advantageous to add our to agronomic plan at LGCC.

Here you can see the front right portion on the green is less greens color, no turfscreen applied

Same area - middle right with no turfscreen