Polo ponies at Greenwich Polo Club make divots in the low-cut turf maintained byClark Tolles.

The Ultimate• Challenge In

Turf Management

12 Golf & sports TURF

Picture a rectangle of low-eut turfthe size of ten football fields. On it,imagine ten 1,200-pound thor-

oughbreds galloping at up to 40 miles perhour, pounding the turf with their hooves,cutting right and left, or skidding to a halt.Finally, visualize the state of the surfaceafter 45 minutes of all out play. The numberof divots is so great, spectators traditionallyhelp replace them after matches.

More than 250 groundskeepers in theU.S. live with such nightmarish field dam-age every day as they maintain polo clubsfor America's amateur and professionalplayers. "Polo, in my mind, represents theultimate challenge in turf management,"states Bill Triller, superintendent at SantaBarbara Polo & Racquet Club in Carpinte-ria, CA. "Players expect the field to be fastand smooth despite the pounding it takesfrom the horses. It's the most difficult con-dition to work under."

Expectations of players and "patrons"have risen dramatically during the pastdecade, says Clark Tolles, grounds superin-tendent for Greenwich Polo Club in Green-wich, CT. "During the winter, all the bestteams play in West Palm Beach [FL] orPalm Springs [CA]," he adds. "Those fieldsare sandy, bermudagrass, and fast. Whenthe teams start playing up north in thespring, the fields are wet, a mixture ofKentucky bluegrass and ryegrass, andslower. There is pressure on northern poloclubs to keep their fields in as good acondition as southern ones."

"A club's reputation depends on theshape of its fields, no matter where it'slocated," explains Allen Scherer, executivedirector of the United States Polo Associa-

tion. "Better knowledge of turf is requiredto keep clubs competitive. QUite a few clubshire consultants from the golf industry orgroundskeepers with a background in turftoday. Polo is a horse-related sport runlargely by horsemen. They are realizingthat the quality of play and the safety oftheir horses depends greatly on well-con-structed and well-maintained fields."

Scherer points out that polo, like otherhorse-related activities, has experiencedsizeable growth in the past few years. "Thenumber of clubs has grown by nearly tenpercent during each of the past eightyears," he reveals. "Polo is not restrictedto the rich. People of moderate means canparticipate, especially if they are good play-ers."

Part of the growth in the number ofclubs is due in part to a shortage of playingfacilities. "More people are starting clubsso they can play more," adds Scherer. "Thenew clubs open up opportunities for ama-teurs who may have taken up the sport incollege or on vacation." The number ofprofessionals is also increasing, many trav-eling to the U.S. from other countries. Justas Americans have fueled baseball and foot-ball, the British and Argentineans are gen-erating interest in polo in the States.

Triller was hired two years ago specific-ally to improve the three fields at SantaBarbara Polo & Racquet Club, just a shortmile from the Pacific Coast. The best poloteams in the world, as well as a number ofcelebrities, play there from April throughOctober. The club was founded in the '20sby Max Fleischmann of yeast fame. Itquickly became a sports and social centerfor movie and other industry moguls. The

Polo is played in six periods of seven-and-one half minutes each called chukkers.

The goal posts for polo are 24 feet apart. Photo courtesy: Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club.

walls of the clubhouse are lined with pic-tures of stars, visiting royalty, and powerfulbusinessmen.

Like other facilities, the club startedwith one field and added more as theamount of play increased. Over the years,sand from nearby beaches had been spreadon the common berrnudagrass fields alongwith composted manure from the stables.Eventually, heavy use, imprecise irrigation,poor fertility, and invading kikuyugrasstook their toll and the fields started todecline. The conditions were obvious sincemany of the teams and players also playedin West Palm Beach or Palm Springs dur-ing the winter. By the mid-'80s, the clubdecided to address the problem by lookingfor a groundskeeper with a background inboth turf and horses.

Triller is the type of person who letscuriosity direct his career. After graduatingfrom Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with abachelor's in horticulture and a master's inagriculture, he explored the worlds of land-scape contracting, nursery production, andorchard farming. He found himself teach-ing much of the time and decided to earn ateacher's credential. For five years hetaught science and vocational agricultureat the high school and junior college level.As part of his job, he organized equestrianevents in the suburbs south of San Fran-cisco. On the Side, he consulted owners oflarge estates in the community and wasintroduced to polo. He found polo an inter-esting combination of horsemanship andhorticulture.

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February, 1991 13

Polocontinued from page 13

Throughout his career, he kept in touchwith Cal Poly to satisfy his curiosity aboutdifferent occupations in the green industry.When Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Clubcontacted Cal Poly about their opening,Triller saw a new horizon to explore. AfterVisiting the club, he agreed to a three-yearcontract to renovate the facility.

"A polo field has to provide solid, reli-able footing for the horses, yet still beforgiving," points out Triller. "ks many as60 different horses may be used during amatch. Each team fields four players andthere are two umpires. They change horsesbetween chukkers [there are six chukkersof seven-and-one-half-minutes per match].These are valuable, well-trained animalsridden by skilled athletes. You simply can'ttolerate field-related injuries."

At the same time, he explains, the turfhas to support the small, three-inch diame-ter plastic ball (formerly made out of bam-boo root) so it can be hit cleanly by a malletand smooth and fast enough for the ball totravel far and straight. Divots must be re-placed or repaired quickly to maintain adense, well-knit stand of grass. High-wearareas of the field, such as the center and infront of goal mouths, must be constantlyrenewed.

The most pressing challenges of polofield care are controlling soil moisture,compaction, thatch, fertility, low-cut turf,and density. "You must encourage tilleringbut eliminate long runners," Triller adds."A strong root system is essential. Toachieve that you need excellent drainage,precise irrigation, and a complete fertilizerprogram. You want to mow frequently andkeep an eye on thatch."

Triller quickly came to the conclusionthat Santa Barbara needed a more manage-able turfgrass, Kikuyu runners werespreading throughout the common ber-muda. Annual bluegrass was invading barespots in the winter. The resulting patch-work of turf also suffered from ring spot,which he suspected was caused by theprevious use of manure compost.

He decided to attack the problem onefield at a time, starting with the stadiumfield. In October of 1989, he sprayed thefirst field with glyphosate to kill all theexisting turf. IIWe then removed the oldturf and almost two inches of thatch with asod cutter," Triller says. 'This was followedby scraping it level with the help of a laser.You learn from experience. We lost severaldays using the sod cutter when we could

14 Golf & sports TURF

Two of the Greenwich fields are irrigated with Ag-Rain travelling sprinklers.

A Jacobsen HF·15 is used to mow the fields at Santa Barbara.

have scraped the turf off. Turns out weneeded that extra week once we sprigged."

After working an inch of sand into thesurface, Foster Turf from La QUinta, CA,sprigged the ten acres with Santa Ana, ahybrid berrnudagrass developed for South-ern California by Drs. Vic Youngner andStan Spaulding. "We got good establish-ment and root growth, but the weather thatwinter was cooler than normal," Trilleradds. "In March, with one month beforeplay resumed, I was concerned about thedensity of the field. The Santa Ana neededa kick. We put the entire ten acres underplastic. That did the trick. In a matter ofdays, we had a strong root system and thickbermuda. It was a miraculous transitionfrom the old turf."

Triller prefers using a pair of Bauer

travelling rain guns to conventional irriga-tion. The sprinklers generally run once aweek following the Sunday match. Thefields are closed to play on Monday to givethem time to dry down. From Wednesdayto Sunday, one or two matches a day areplayed. "I can get an inch of water down onSunday night," remarks Triller. 'That usu-ally gets us through the week."

While he waters just once a week, hemows and sweeps every single day. Divotsare replaced or dressed with a mixture ofsand, humus, and fertilizer after each game.The reels on the club's HF-15 (Jacobsen)are set between one-half and five-eighths ofan inch for the Santa Ana and an inch-and-a-half on the older turf. All the fields aremarked with a white latex turf paint weekly."I switched from chalk to paint because it

stays sharp and won't drift. We also changethe configuration on two of the fields lo-cated side-by-side to distribute the wear,"says Triller.

Every week one of the three fields isaerified with a drum unit with hollow tines.In the fall, he rents either a Verti-Drain,Howard Renovator or Turf Quaker to aerifydown eight to ten inches. This is followedby verticutting and sand topdressing.

During the winter Triller applies cal-cium nitrate, Par-Ex, and extra phospho-rous to promote consistent growth and budinitiation. Potassium is added during theplaying season to improve wear tolerance.He keeps nitrogen levels down in the winterto discourage invasion of broadleaf weeds.A pound per 1,000 square feet is normalduring the rest of the year.

This winter Triller is in the midst ofrenovating the second field. "The SantaAna has done extremely well this winter,"he comments. HWewon't need to cover thistime. Everything looks great!

"The thing that makes me feel the bestis that we didn't lose a single horse tofield-related injuries this past year," boastsTriller. "The players are very pleased withthe new turf and say they look forward toplaying here. That helps team patrons at-tract the best professionals and gets spon-sors interested in supportingtournaments."

In addition to the three fields, Trillermaintains seven acres of stick and ball(practice) fields, a track, and warm-up area.The barns at the facility hold up to 350horses during the season. HAllhorses haveto be exercised every day," he remarks."This is a busy place seven days a week.And it has to look especially nice on Sun-days, when up to 3,000 spectators come towatch the match and picnic."

Nearly 3,000 miles to the east, ClarkTolles handles the massive task of keepingGreenwich Polo Club and White BirchFarms in shape. Tolles helped build thepolo club which today is the centerpiece forthe exclusive equestrian community just anhour's drive from New York City. Many ofthe residents of White Birch Farms ownhorses, play polo, or have teams. Some playas amateurs in West Palm Beach during thewinter.

The club and community were the ideaof Peter Brant, a publisher and paper com-pany owner. In 1981, Brant purchased thel,500-acre horse farm in Greenwich withthe intent of subdividing it into 15- to20-acre residential parcels for horse-lovingexecutives. Ironically, part of the land

Aerial view of the stadium field at Greenwich Polo Club.

planned for the new polo fields was a golfcourse when he bought it. In Brant's mind,polo took priority over golf.

Tolles, who devoted five years to study-ing architecture, has renovated a numberof polo fields during his career. Like Triller,he has been interested in horses for muchof his life. As a youngster in WestchesterCounty, NY, he used to help out at a neigh-borhood stable so he could ride. His inter-est in architecture was spawned after hehelped build a barn for the stable.

His association with polo started whilehe was a student at the New York Instituteof Technology in Muttontown, NY.The landfor the school used to be part ofMeadowbrook Polo Club, one of the oldestpolo clubs in the country dating back to1881. To help pay his college costs, Tollestook a job with the club working on thebarns, fields, and track.

When the club was sold, Tolles was hiredby Ted Siegel, general manager of Pen-Mor

continued on page 16

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Farms, an 80-acre horse breeding facility onLong Island. Investors from New Yorkwould buy thoroughbred colts at auctions·in Kentucky and have them broken andtrained at Pen-Mor for racing. The risingvalue of promising race horses was attract-ing new investors and bringing new life toarea farms.

"In the early '80s, Pen-Mor sufferedfrom years of neglect," Tolles remarks. "Wehad to rebuild the track and barns andconstruct new paddocks. It was a big joband caught the attention of a lot of horse-men."

One person's eye focused on Pen-Marwas that of Peter Brant. He had recentlypurchased the farm in Connecticut andneeded a general manager and someone todirect construction of two new polo fieldsand numerous buildings for GreenwichPolo Club. Brant hired the team of Seigeland Tolles in 1983.

"When I started at Greenwich there wasa track with one polo field in the center,"Tolles recalls. "A lot of buildings needed tobe renovated. The old-style barns were per-feet for a polo setting. The pastures needed.J.rorkand Mr. Brant wanted two more polofields. On top of that, the buyers of theestates in White Birch Farm also requiredhelp to build and care for their own barnsand practice fields. There is also 15 milesof roads to maintain.".,," The idea was to use polo to attractbuyers for the farm estates. The propertyowners can become members of the club.However, local ordinances limit the club toeight public matches during a three-monthseason. That does not restrict the numberof amateur matches or team practices. Sixof the club's 200 members have teams. Onefield was simply not enough.

A 30-acre site located in the middle ofan abandoned golf course was selected forthe two new fields. The top eight inches ofsandy/loam topsoil were removed andscreened. "I wish we had sand to cover bothfields," says Tolles, "but the native soil ispretty nice. A consultant designed a drain-age system for us. It consists of frenchdrains 18 inches wide and two feet deep.The trenches are 75 feet apart in a herring-bone pattern.' They are filled with gravelwrapped in filter fabric. We had 15 inchesof rain one August. Fortunately, the teamsplay at Saratoga during August and we hada week to dry the fields out."

To keep the surface open during theplaying season, Tolles and his crew of 14

16 Golf & sports TURF

In addition to three fields, Bill Triller cares for a track, warm-up area, and two ball-and stick fields.

slice the fields rather than core aerify them."We put slicer blades on our two pull-be-hind aerifiers in the summer and switchback to the coring tines in the fall," Tollepoints out. A Verti-Drain is used for thecenter and goal mouths in October.

Greenwich Polo Club is constantly re-seeding. "We buy nearly 4,000 pounds ofseed a year based on recommendationsfrom Cornell University," Tolles says. "Wetry to pick the most disease and insectresistant varieties for our mix of 75 percentperennial ryegrass and 25 percent Ken-tucky bluegrass. Seed is always included inour divot mix of coarse sand and humus.We try to work sand into the field at everyopportunity. I wish somebody made atopdresser large enough for polo fields sowe could add sand every time we aerify."

A 110-acre lake is the reservoir for theirrigation system. The quick-coupler systemfor the stadium field and the Ag-Ratn trav-eling units on the other two fields arepressured by a 60 hp pump. "The quickcoupler valves are recessed four inchesbelow the surface and covered with rubbercaps and oak bark," explains Tolles. "Theheads run off a clock after we snap them inplace. They are divided into ten zones. Thetravelers run off a six-inch main."

The club uses a Jacobsen HF-15 to mowthe fields and surrounding turf. Tolles hasbeen dropping the cutting height to oneinch and mowing more frequently to makethe fields faster. A ten-foot-wide Brillionseeder is used each fall to remove thatchand interseed the new varieties.

Once a week the crew pulls string andpaints the lines with a Smithco sprayer. "In

addition to the Sidelines and center line,foul lines are marked at 30, 40, and 60yards on both halves of the field," revealsTolles. "It amounts to almost four miles oflines each week!"

Greenwich Polo Club today is one of thecountry's finest. Its president, Peter Orthw-ein, is the top ranked amateur player in theU.S. and owns an estate in White BirchFarm. "The best players in the world playhere each year and the horses in our barnsare among the best money can buy," boastsTolles. Dan Walker, president of Santa Bar-bara Polo & Racquet Club, is also a highly-ranked amateur. He is the third generationof his family to play polo at the club.

James Trebbin, general manager atSanta Barbara, believes that field improve-ment has given the club a magnum jump inquality of play, safety, and enjoyment. "Werun this club using strict business princi-ples," he states. "The money we spent onthe fields came from managing other costs,such as food service and publications. Wealso market our logo. We couldn't do thatif our reputation wasn't as strong as it is.The fields play a big part in that reputa-tion."

Polo has become a business. Many clubsare associated with real estate develop-ments. Each club competes for the bestteams and professionals. Proper field main-tenance is essential to the future success ofthe sport. Professionalism must applyequally to players and groundskeepers. Ifyou want proof, ask Jim Trebbin or PeterOrthwein. Their clubs' success depends onit. ~