Of course, that's because working in Purdue University's newest science laboratory is a day out on the golf course.

When Purdue's newly renovated Kampen Golf Course opened June 27, most golfers focused on how renowned golf course architects Dye and Tim Liddy have looped the course around a marsh known as the Celery Bog. But for some Purdue scientists, the course is a unique opportunity to study environmental and agronomic problems of urban America.

"There are a lot of university golf courses, but what makes this course unique is the amount of interaction between the golf course and researchers and students," says Clark Throssell, professor of agronomy.

Here are four of the initial research projects taking place on the golf course:

Using golf courses to filter water Research in the 1990s at several institutions has shown that golf courses are environmentally neutral. Many of them use herbicides and chemical fertilizers, but the studies have shown that these chemicals don't run off the course and into the local surface water.

Researchers at Purdue, however, think that they can take this one significant step further. As construction on the new golf course began, they theorized that they could actually improve the quality of surface water by building the golf course so that it acts as a filter for pollution. "Research has shown over and over how well golf courses can clean up the chemicals that are used on them," says Zac Reicher, assistant professor of agronomy. "But nobody has looked at how well golf courses can clean up the water that is coming across them. That's what we're trying to do."

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Contact: Steve Tally
tally@purdue.edu
765-494-9809
Purdue University
16-Jul-1998