The grass for a group of ISU students proved to be greener at an international competition when five teams from the ISU Turf Club placed in the top 20.

The teams competed with 66 teams and 244 participants in the 10th annual Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Collegiate Turf Bowl competition in San Diego Feb. 9-14. The competition took place at the association’s 75th International Golf Course Conference and Show; students also participated in educational development in turf grass management.

Iowa State received first place, third place, fifth place, 13th place and 14th place. Tim Christians, ISU alumnus, placed 10th in an individual competition.

Participants worked in teams of four and collectively took a four-hour test covering aspects of golf course care, said Jim Osborne, Turf Club president and senior in horticulture. Questions on the test focused on cultural controls; weed identification; mathematics of pesticides and insect and grass diseases, he said.

Each team spent nearly the entire four hours working through the questions as a team, Osborne said. He said his team began studying for the test in October by reviewing class notes, reading books about turf management and researching online. Each team spent time outside of class preparing for the test, he said. A graduate student, who had previously taken the test, helped prepare them, he said.

“It’s a huge amount of knowledge, and you just have to try to know as much of it as you can,” he said.

Osborne said his team wanted to keep up the reputation that Iowa State has acquired.

Iowa State has won the Turf Bowl five of the past six contests and has won three in a row, he said.

“We like to think that we work hard at it,” Osborne said. “It gives our guys and our school a good reputation.”

Nick Christians, turf club adviser and university professor of horticulture, said having five teams place within the top 20 made for a good feeling.

The key to ISU Turf Club’s success at the competition was the amount of preparation put in, Christians said. Questions on the test come from all over the country, and the students trained to learn about things outside of their region.

Matt Dammann, junior in horticulture, was on the team that placed first in the Turf Bowl competition. Dammann said his team put in a lot of extra hours and started studying nearly four months in advance.

“It was definitely worth it cause everything paid off in the end,” he said.