Survey of plant-parasitic nematodes in Arkansas and Mid-South Golf course putting greens

#	Golf course	State	Turfgrass species	Greens sampled	Sampling date
1	Hickory Creek Golf Course	AR	HB^a	9	April 19, 2023
2	Nutters Chapel Golf and Country Club	AR	HB	9	April 19, 2023
3	Maumelle Country Club	AR	HB	9	April 19, 2023
4	Texarkana Country Club	TX	HB	9	April 21, 2023
5	Northridge Country Club	AR	HB	9	April 21, 2023
6	Isabella Golf Course	AR	CBG^b	9	April 26, 2023
7	Granada Golf Course	AR	CBG	9	April 26, 2023
8	Ponce de Leon Golf Course	AR	CBG	9	April 26, 2023
9	DeSoto Golf Course	AR	HB	9	April 27, 2023
10	Balboa Golf Course	AR	CBG	9	April 27, 2023
11	Coronado Golf Course	AR	CBG	9	April 27, 2023
12	Hardscrabble Country Club	AR	CBG	9	April 28, 2023
13	Magellan Golf Course	AR	HB	9	May 24, 2023
14	Cortez Golf Course	AR	CBG	9	May 24, 2023
15	Springdale Country Club	AR	CBG	9	June 23, 2023
16	Fayetteville Country Club	AR	CBG	9	June 26, 2023
17	Stonebridge Meadows Golf Club	AR	CBG	9	June 26, 2023
18	The Alotian Club	AR	CBG	9	March 1, 2024
19	Blessings Club	AR	CBG	9	March 12, 2024
20	Shadow Valley Country Club	AR	CBG	9	March 18, 2024
21	Pinnacle Country Club	AR	CBG	9	March 26, 2024
22	Pleasant Valley Country Club	AR	HB	9	April 2, 2024
23	Mystic Creek Golf Club	AR	HB	9	July 30, 2024
24	Lion’s Club Golf Course	AR	HB	9	July 30, 2024
25	El Dorado Country Club	AR	HB	10	July 30, 2024
26	Bayou DeSiard Country Club	LA	HB	12	July 31, 2024
27	Squire Creek Country Club	LA	HB	9	July 31, 2024
28	Twins Creek Ranch	LA	HB	4	July 31, 2024
29	Meadowlake Golf and Country Club	LA	HB	9	July 31, 2024
30	Conway Country Club	AR	HB	10	August 1, 2024
31	Rolling Hills Country Club	AR	HB	10	August 12, 2024
32	Cypress Creek Golf Club	AR	HB	9	August 12, 2024
33	RidgePointe Country Club	AR	HB	9	August 13, 2024
34	The Ridges at Village Creek	AR	HB	9	August 13, 2024
35	Tunica National Golf and Tennis Club	MS	HB	9	August 21, 2024
36	Kirkwood National Golf Club	MS	HB	9	August 21, 2024
37	Spring Creek Ranch	TN	HB	9	August 22, 2024
38	Ridgeway Country Club	TN	HB	9	August 22, 2024
39	Timber Truss Golf Course	MS	HB	9	August 22, 2024

[i] ^aHybrid bermudagrass.

[ii] ^bCreeping bentgrass.

Map of all mid-south United States golf courses sampled for plant-parasitic nematodes and soil parameters from 2023 to 2024.

Table 2

Summary of mean plant-parasitic nematode population densities on golf course putting greens in the Mid-South United States

#	Nematodes per 100 cc soil
#	Dagger	Lance	Lesion	Needle	Pin	Ring	Root-knot	Sheath	Sheathoid	Spiral	Sting	Stubby-root	Stunt
1^a	0	9	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	21	0	0	0
2	0	4	0	0	0	13	43	0	0	0	0	9	4
3	0	4	0	0	0	32	4	0	0	5	0	0	0
4	0	0	0	0	0	43	17	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	0	47	0	0	0	30	0	0	0	17	0	13	0
6	0	107	13	0	0	8	4	0	90	364	0	34	34
7	0	1	0	0	4	14	60	0	30	64	0	9	0
8	0	52	8	0	0	8	0	0	4	330	0	17	0
9	0	0	4	1	0	0	8	0	8	0	0	0	0
10	0	128	0	0	0	0	0	0	43	0	0	25	0
11	0	30	0	0	0	9	0	0	38	0	0	17	4
12	0	27	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	34
13	0	9	0	0	0	34	4	0	4	0	0	0	0
14	0	81	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	30	0	4	0
15	0	0	0	0	0	43	0	0	0	137	0	0	9
16	0	78	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	21	0	9	448
17	0	27	0	0	0	85	0	0	13	73	0	47	0
18	0	4	0	0	0	51	0	0	0	4	0	0	30
19	0	0	0	0	0	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	0	0	0	0	0	34	0	0	0	43	0	0	51
21	0	4	0	0	0	51	4	4	0	0	0	0	0
22	0	0	0	0	0	38	0	34	0	8	5	0	0
23	0	0	0	0	0	48	26	0	0	4	0	8	0
24	0	0	0	0	0	17	4	0	0	85	4	13	0
25	0	0	4	5	0	127	15	62	0	12	0	8	0
26	0	0	0	0	0	35	0	0	0	0	52	0	0
27	0	0	51	0	0	179	107	9	0	0	1	13	0
28	0	0	0	0	0	96	29	0	0	0	0	0	0
29	0	0	0	21	0	30	4	0	0	267	0	21	0
30	0	0	0	0	0	81	46	0	0	298	46	11	0
31	0	0	0	0	0	4	8	0	0	4	17	0	0
32	0	0	0	1	0	35	4	8	0	0	0	0	0
33	0	0	0	7	0	427	0	9	0	4	0	13	0
34	0	0	0	0	0	25	4	0	0	4	0	0	0
35	4	0	0	0	0	68	0	0	0	21	0	0	0
36	0	0	0	0	0	13	8	0	0	13	4	0	0
37	0	0	0	0	0	94	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
38	0	4	0	0	0	9	4	0	0	351	0	0	0
39	0	4	0	1	0	26	4	0	0	0	4	0	0

a Golf course information can be found in Table 1.

Prevalence of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) in mid-south United States golf courses (n = 39). Prevalence represents the number of golf courses where the respective PPN taxon was detected.

Table 3

Population densities and prevalence of plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) species in Mid-South United States golf courses

Nematode	Nematodes per 100 cc soil
Nematode	Mean^a	Max^b	Standard error
Dagger	0^c	38	0.11
Lance	16	381	2.60
Lesion	2	154	0.70
Needle	1	85	0.34
Pin	0c	38	0.11
Ring	47	1,115	5.47
Root-knot	10	538	2.34
Sheath	3	154	0.94
Sheathoid	6	346	1.60
Spiral	57	1,662	9.62
Sting	4	200	1.06
Stubby-root	7	115	1.09
Stunt	16	1,130	4.95
Any PPN	169	1,700	12.93

a Mean population density of nematodes from all putting green samples.

b Maximum population density recorded from all putting green samples.

c Means were rounded down to zero.

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination of plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) community composition in mid-south United States golf courses. (a) Sample points are colored by turfgrass species. Species vectors (grey arrows) represent associations between individual PPN taxa and community composition gradients. (b) Environmental vectors (red arrows) indicate the direction of increasing values for each significant soil parameter, and vector length reflects the strength of association with PPN community composition.

Table 4

Comparison of plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) densities between creeping bentgrass and hybrid bermudagrass putting greens in Mid-South United States golf courses

Nematode	Nematodes per 100 cc soil		p-Value^a
	Putting Green Species
	Creeping Bentgrass	Bermudagrass
Dagger	0.0	0.2	0.4560
Lance	38.6	3.2	<0.0001
Lesion	2.4	2.4	0.9688
Needle	0.0	1.4	0.0457
Pin	0.3	0.0	0.1809
Ring	24.4	59.3	0.0021
Root-knot	4.9	13.2	0.0869
Sheath	0.3	5.1	0.0134
Sheathoid	15.5	0.5	<0.0001
Spiral	76.2	45.8	0.1302
Sting	0.0	6.3	0.0042
Stubby-root	11.6	4.4	0.0015
Stunt	43.6	0.2	<0.0001
Total PPN Density	217.7	142.0	0.0049

[i] ^a p-value calculated from a one-way analysis of variance.

Table 5

Pearson’s correlation analysis^a between various soil parameters and plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) densities in Mid-South United States golf courses

Soil parameter	Nematode^b
Soil parameter	Lance	Lesion	Needle	Ring	Root-knot	Sheath	Sheathoid	Spiral	Sting	Stubby-root	Stunt	All PPN
pH	0.116	−0.275	0.305	−0.171*	−0.400*	0.000	−0.407*	−0.238*	0.050	−0.109	−0.044	−0.214***
Phosphorous	−0.343**	−0.246	0.599*	0.057	0.003	0.304	−0.301	0.149	0.307	−0.039	−0.060	0.032
Potassium	−0.173	0.086	0.202	0.075	0.030	0.272	−0.189	−0.071	0.005	0.106	−0.321	−0.163**
Calcium	−0.300*	−0.257	0.553*	−0.111	−0.288	0.404	−0.412*	−0.151	0.203	0.092	0.085	−0.081
Magnesium	−0.211	−0.151	0.522	−0.012	−0.140	0.247	−0.406*	−0.232*	−0.089	−0.115	0.079	−0.159**
Sulfur	−0.336*	0.0091	−0.240	0.076	−0.026	0.247	−0.130	0.127	−0.141	−0.148	−0.280	−0.107
Sodium	0.009	−0.171	0.563*	−0.014	−0.160	0.152	−0.225	−0.132	−0.090	0.027	0.598***	0.076
Iron	−0.232	0.102	0.465	0.089	0.013	0.268	−0.375	0.151	0.019	−0.187	−0.236	0.005
Manganese	−0.135	−0.133	−0.226	0.004	0.043	0.063	−0.030	0.089	0.415*	0.054	0.116	0.050
Zinc	−0.249	0.208	0.273	−0.005	0.071	0.226	0.108	−0.022	0.145	0.200	0.220	0.089
Copper	−0.277*	0.079	0.307	0.020	0.113	0.063	−0.140	0.017	0.214	0.235	−0.109	0.067
Boron	0.076	−0.158	0.329	−0.052	−0.321*	0.228	−0.271	0.081	−0.091	0.032	0.161	0.026
Organic Matter	−0.156	0.164	0.189	0.056	0.125	0.146	0.038	0.073	0.328	0.043	0.102	−0.002

[i] ^a* = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001.

[ii] ^bPin and dagger nematodes were excluded due to limited data for correlation.

Table 6

Comparison of various soil parameters between creeping bentgrass and hybrid bermudagrass putting greens in Mid-South United States golf courses

Soil parameter	Unit	Putting green species		p-value^a
Soil parameter	Unit	Creeping Bentgrass	Bermudagrass	p-value^a
Boron	mg kg^-1	0.3	0.3	0.7447
Calcium	mg kg^-1	323.5	279.6	0.0100
Copper	mg kg^-1	2.0	1.8	0.4992
Iron	mg kg^-1	56.2	106.8	<0.0001
Magnesium	mg kg^-1	30.7	42.3	<0.0001
Manganese	mg kg^-1	32.3	41.2	0.0015
Phosphorus	mg kg^-1	31.9	42.5	<0.0001
Potassium	mg kg^-1	52.7	84.8	<0.0001
Sodium	mg kg^-1	9.9	11.6	0.3013
Sulfur	mg kg^-1	10.0	13.8	0.0002
Zinc	mg kg^-1	7.2	8.4	0.0917
pH	N/A^b	5.8	5.7	0.1008
Organic Matter	%	1.0	1.7	<0.0001

[i] ^a p-value calculated from a one-way analysis of variance.

[ii] ^bN/A = unitless measurement.

Relative abundance of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) in hybrid bermudagrass (n = 226) and creeping bentgrass (n = 126) putting greens in mid-south United States golf courses. Relative abundance represents the distribution of each PPN by turfgrass species.

References

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jofnem-2026-0034 | Journal eISSN: 2640-396X | Journal ISSN: 0022-300X

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Language: English

Page range: 561 - 572

Submitted on: Feb 12, 2026

Accepted on: Aug 8, 2026

Published on: Oct 19, 2026

Published by: Society of Nematologists, Inc.

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

Arkansas,

Plant-parasitic nematodes,

Soil parameters,

Sting nematode (Belonolaimus spp.)

Related subjects:

Life sciences,

Life sciences, other

© 2026 Michael V. Battaglia, Jessica K. Anders, Sharandeep S. Chahal, Michael D. Richardson, Wendell J. Hutchens, published by Society of Nematologists, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 58 (2026): Issue 1 (February 2026)

Survey of plant-parasitic nematodes in Arkansas and Mid-South Golf course putting greens

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Figure 1

Table 2

Figure 2

Table 3

Figure 3

Table 4

Table 5

Table 6

Figure 4

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