IPM and pesticide rules on golf courses

In few places is the use of plant protection products as strictly regulated as on Danish golf courses. As a greenkeeper you must both know the rules and be able to work according to IPM principles — the training regulations require that the apprentice, in cooperation with others, can apply IPM principles and data analysis to identify and combat pests and diseases in grass in a sustainable way. This article gives you an overview of the most important rules and concepts.

IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management, in Danish integrated pest management. The requirement comes from EU Directive 2009/128/EF on the sustainable use of pesticides, which requires professional users to think of chemistry as a last resort. The basic thinking is a fixed order in decisions:

• 01Prevent: robust grass varieties, correct fertilisation, aeration and good drainage so problems do not arise at all.
• 02Monitor: keep a systematic eye on the field — record disease signs, pests and weeds.
• 03Use thresholds: only fight when damage really threatens play quality or grass cover, not at the first spot.
• 04Choose non-chemical methods first: mechanical control, re-seeding, changed care.
• 05If chemistry is necessary: choose the most gentle, approved agent at the lowest effective dose.
• 06Evaluate: did the intervention work? Document and adjust the care plan.

The order on the use of plant protection products on golf courses (BEK no. 1573 of 05/12/2025, in force 1-1-2026) — known as the golf order — sets ceilings for how large a pesticide load a golf course may put on the environment and health per hectare. Separate load ceilings apply to four product groups: herbicides (weed killers), fungicides, insecticides and growth regulators. The load is calculated from the products' content of active substances and their environmental and health profile, and the requirements depend on which course elements are treated — the order distinguishes six course elements: green, tee, fairway, semi-rough, rough and nature. Golf courses are also exempt from the requirement to use only low-risk products on grass areas with public access — here products approved for golf courses may be used (BEK 1516/2025 § 38(2)).

Each golf course must once a year report its pesticide use for the previous calendar year together with information about the course's areas divided into course elements. Reporting occurs in the Environmental Protection Agency's IT system Greendata in the period January 1 to March 1. The Environmental Protection Agency supervises that reporting takes place and that exposure limits are complied with. At many courses, it is the head greenkeeper who handles the reporting — but the figures come from the entire team's careful recording throughout the season.

You can't just pick up a sprayer and get going. Professional application of plant protection products requires training and authorisation in the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's authorisation system MAB. The spraying certificate is the basis for an S1 authorisation, which covers application with e.g. a field sprayer; for hand-held and knapsack sprayers there is a separate hand and knapsack sprayer certificate. The authorisation must be kept up to date: it is valid for 4 years and is renewed with a follow-up course — at least 7.4 hours for S1 and 3.7 hours for S2 (BEK 951/2025 §§ 5-6 and 23).

In practice, the rules mean that modern greenkeeping is data-driven. You monitor the course systematically, know the major fungal diseases like snow mould (Microdochium nivale) and their preferred conditions, and you use weather data and observations to time prevention: strengthened grass before autumn, removed dew on vulnerable greens, aeration against compaction. When a problem still grows over the threshold, you choose the method according to the IPM order — and document everything. It is precisely this combination of expertise and systematisation that the education's subjects on grass diseases, plant health and spraying build up.

“The best spraying is the one the course's maintenance made unnecessary.”

— IPM basic idea