Last week the Indian Golf Union held their West Zone greenkeeping seminar at Ahmedabad. Delegates from golf clubs in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Pune attended this weeklong course. Our excellent host for the week was Gulmohar Greens Golf and Country Club. 

Mohan Subramanian from Rain Bird led a half day session on soil moisture and irrigation management, and then Antony Samy from IPI taught for a half day on safe operation of equipment, daily maintenance of equipment, and optimizing aftercut appearance. These technical sessions were coordinated by the Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF).

We studied many things this week in the classroom and on course sessions. Among other things, we discussed water movement in soils, grass selection for putting greens, how to deal with algae on putting greens, how to improve the reliability of putting surfaces, the importance of controlling the growth rate of the grass, calculations of fertilizer application rates, additional turfgrass educational opportunities, seashore paspalum management, and calculation of the leaching requirement.

Delegates also visited the new Kalhaar Blues & Greens, a Nicklaus Design course in Ahmedabad with Miniverde tees and greens and Tifway 419 fairways and rough. The irrigation water in this area has total dissolved solids (TDS) of about 1000 to 2000 ppm. We discussed what happens when salt accumulates in the soil and how that salt can be managed.

The South Zone programme was held at Mysore on 18 to 22 November. The North Zone and East Zone programmes are forthcoming at host clubs in Delhi and Jamshedpur, respectively. This IGU programme is supported by The R&A. The aim of this programme is to provide information to greenkeepers and golf clubs that will lead to improved playing conditions on golf courses in India.