Industry partners fund Extension soccer field and research golf green at UGA

Bayer Environmental Science, Green Tee Golf, Sports Turf Company, NG Turf and Pike Creek Turf provided financial support for an Extension soccer field and a new research golf green at the University of Georgia (UGA).

“The industry partners involved and the university both benefit from this. With us using the state-of-the-art facilities, it allows us to collaborate with them and use their products for research,” Alfredo Martinez-Espinoza, a professor in plant pathology and Extension specialist at UGA, said. “With this relationship, it’s a win-win situation.”

UGA installed a 22,000-square-foot sports-field research and education area built as a soccer field with primary funding by Sports Turf Company. The area used UGA-developed Tifway bermudagrass, one of the most popular varieties ever developed at the university.

“We’re hoping with long-term research that it will allow turfgrass managers to have better managing tools and research to help improve their turf quality,” Martinez-Espinoza said.

The soccer field allows faculty and students to perform research and Extension activities as well as hands-on learning. Martinez-Espinoza noted that this is a way to translate work from the lab and academics to the field, serving as experiential learning for students. The field is also used by the campus and local community several times a week for pickup games.

“These projects allow us to create an up-to-date infrastructure that is state-of-the-art. These facilities give us the chance to develop, highlight and enhance research,” Martinez-Espinoza said. “The final goals of these infrastructure projects are to provide turfgrass managers with new and improved disease and physiological stress management tools and better turf quality in Georgia.”

Bayer Environmental Science also funded the construction of a 9,000-square-foot research golf green using a UGA-developed bermudagrass species known as TifEagle for the putting surface.

Martinez-Espinoza claims there are already several trials and outreach activities underway and more to come at the new sports fields at UGA.