“If this year’s weather is not an anomaly, will we still be able to play soccer on natural grass in the future?”
Lee Chun-bok, head of the Dongwon Development Team in charge of the turf at Pohang Steelyard, the first dedicated soccer stadium in the K League, said he has never been so frustrated with the weather as he was this year. The prolonged heat wave and 안전놀이터 tropical nights have taken their toll on the turf.
“There was no problem in spring and fall. The summer is the problem, because we don’t have typhoons (unwelcome guests), and the 34-degree weather never stops. The grass melted. It’s a natural disaster.” Lee joined Dongwon Development, a partner of POSCO, in 2003 to manage the turf at the Pohang Steelers’ Songra Clubhouse, and has been in charge of the Pohang Steel Yard since 2013.
“When I first started managing the lawn, summer wasn’t a big problem,” he recalls, ”but after about five or six years, the summers got longer and the grass started to melt in the summer. If a typhoon comes at the right time, the grass either survives or dies,” he says.
“This year, we had six blowers running all day, but they didn’t do much. If the weather continues to be like this year, I’m skeptical that there’s any point in maintaining natural grass. What if next year they say it was cooler this year?” he added. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the average maximum temperature in August 2002 was 27.5 degrees, but this year’s August was 33.3 degrees.
In Korea, the Kentucky Bluegrass Midnight variety, a bentgrass lawn, has become popular since the Korea-Japan World Cup. This type of grass thrives in cooler environments with a temperature of 16 to 25 degrees, which was enough to withstand the hot summer weather. It also stood out for its ability to stay green for three to four months longer than Nanji-type, extending the playing season. However, as Korea’s climate became increasingly hot and humid, the problem became more serious. There are suggestions to plant summer-tolerant Kentucky bluegrass HGT varieties or even introduce Nanji grass, which thrives in conditions of 27 to 35 degrees.
“We asked for advice from the Japanese, and they said that they use bentgrass as the basic framework and maintain it by overseeding bentgrass in winter. In Korea, golf courses are changing to bentgrass,” he said, adding, ”We can solve this problem by working together.”