Kinsale GC opens following successful grow-in on sand

Kinsale Golf Club in Naples, Fla., roughly 800 yards from the Gulf of Mexico, opened for play on Nov. 1 following a grow-in project in collaboration with Plant Food Company (PFC).

Gil Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner designed the course. The two first met Rusty Mercer, director of agronomy at Kinsale GC, while at Streamsong Black in Bowling Green, Fla. 

When Mercer and Jordan Nemitz, southeast director of sales for PFC, started discussing plans for the grow-in, they were optimistic despite the challenges ahead, according to the company. 

In typical construction, there is plenty of soil matter to move around, but the Kinsale site was a swampy floodplain. Because of this, the first task was raising the site about four and a half feet across the board. The team achieved this by digging out several ponds now on the property. 

When the play corridors are straight sand, growing turf becomes quite challenging and the ability to capture nutrients is crucial for creating soil matter. Mercer opted to apply SEA-E-C with chicken manure to give the sand a viable base. 

“Those two things together are something everybody should consider,” Mercer said. “What we’re seeing now and what we’ve been seeing during the grow-in is like a hyperactive microbial activity in that top inch to inch and a half.”

According to the company, Mercer expected the growing method to work but didn’t expect it to be one of the fastest, most successful grow-ins he’d ever done.

Now that the grow-in is finished, the objective moving forward is to continue applying SEA-E-C to escalate maturity while tempering the turf’s accelerated growth rate.

“I am completely convinced at this point that if you’re out there on your own trying to do this all by yourself, you’re going to fail,” Mercer said. “You’ve got to build a network of people around you who will tell you the truth. Good, bad, or indifferent. And then help you work your way through that.”

Plant Food Company is a third-generation, family-owned fertilizer manufacturer for the sports turf, agriculture and lawn industries. According to the company, it uses independent soil testing, field studies and university research to find innovative solutions based on its customer’s needs.

To learn more, check out this interview with Mercer from Plant Food Company.

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<p>The post Kinsale GC opens following successful grow-in on sand first appeared on Golfdom.</p>