A guide for golf clubs
The spray log goes digital on 1 January 2027
What the law requires, and what it means for a golf course.
This guide describes Swedish law. The rules differ in Norway — a separate Norwegian guide, Plantevernjournalen, covers the requirements there.
Two dates
From 1 January 2026, the documentation requirements for professional users of plant protection products were amended. Some of the information to be recorded changed, and some new details were added.
From 1 January 2027, records must be kept digitally. Paper is no longer sufficient.
What must be recorded
For each treatment:
- Date — year, month and day
- Time when spraying began
- Sprayer operator — the full name of the person who carried out the spraying. No initials, no signature.
- Type of use — GOLF COURSE
- Location of application
- Size of the treated area
- Crop — 3AMGC
- Growth stage — NOT APPLICABLE/MISSING
- Name of the plant protection product
- Registration number
- Application rate
- Purpose of the treatment
- Fixed safety distance
- Adjusted safety distance
- Presence of flowering vegetation — NOT APPLICABLE/MISSING
- Withholding period — NOT APPLICABLE/MISSING
- Harvest date — NOT APPLICABLE/MISSING
All fields must be completed. Leaving a field blank is a deficiency in the documentation and may result in a penalty charge — even where the information itself has no significance for a golf course. Enter "NOT APPLICABLE/MISSING" rather than leaving the field empty.
Weather — not mandatory, but necessary in practice
Temperature, wind direction and wind speed.
Weather data is not among the fields that must be completed. But without it the adjusted safety distance cannot be calculated — and that is a field that must be completed.
The adjusted safety distance is determined using the 'Hjälpreda', which has been provided by the Swedish Chemicals Agency since 1 July 2024, following the winding up of the collaborative organisation 'Säkert växtskydd'. For several plant protection products, the use of Hjälpredan is a condition of product authorisation, and the calculation is based, amongst other things, on temperature, wind speed, dose and boom height.
That is why we have included the weather fields in Reddibo, even though they are not required by law. They enable you to enter the safety distance correctly — and to demonstrate afterwards how you arrived at that figure.
Legal basis: Chapter 3 of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's regulations (NFS 2015:2) on the application and certain other handling of plant protection products; the Swedish Chemicals Agency's Hjälpreda for determining adjusted safety distances.
Who is responsible
The person applying the product is responsible for the documentation — regardless of whether it is the club's own staff or a contractor hired for the task. Both the club and the contractor must be able to produce the logbook on request.
The local authority is the supervisory body for chemicals and for the application of plant protection products. The log must be available during an inspection.
Permits, signage and reality
A golf course sprays when necessary — not according to a schedule.
This is the part of the regulations that is least suited to a golf course, and it is worth stating this plainly. A fungal outbreak does not give a week's notice. If you spot it in the morning, you spray that day or the next. Agriculture plans its treatments; a golf course reacts to what is happening in the grass.
The regulations are strict nonetheless, and a club cannot opt out of them. Here is what the three parts look like.
1. The permit is applied for once a year
Since 2014, a permit — not just a notification — has been required for the use of chemical control on golf courses. The application is submitted to the local council's environmental department and is valid for one year at a time.
In the application the club lists all products that may be used during the season, together with a map of the course showing the areas that may be treated — greens, tees and fairways. The map also shows watercourses and ditches, since safety distances are measured from them. It is in the application that the areas are defined, not in the individual log entry.
SGF advises clubs to apply broadly and early. The Swedish Golf Federation provides a sample application form that clubs can use as a basis, and recommends submitting it early since processing can take time. The Federation also advises clubs to check with the environmental authority regarding the requirements for pest control carried out at short notice.
Legal basis: The Pesticides Ordinance (2014:425), Chapter 2.
2. Signs go up while the treatment is carried out
The signage requirement applies to areas where the public may move about freely. On a golf course those are the fairways — the right of public access does not apply to greens and tees. It is therefore when pest control is carried out on the fairways that the signs are required.
The Swedish Golf Federation puts it succinctly: put up signs on the course when chemical control is carried out. The sign should state who is applying the treatment, which product is being used and where, with contact details so that anyone with a question can call.
The legislation also states that the information must be provided in advance and that the notices must remain in place for some time afterwards. How this fits in with a fungal infestation discovered that very morning is a matter to be discussed with the local authority — and one of several reasons to have established contact before the season begins.
Legal basis: Chapter 2, Section 45 of the Pesticides Ordinance (2014:425); Chapter 8 of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's regulations (NFS 2015:2).
3. The log is kept by the person carrying out the spraying — and the club must have access to it
The person applying the product is responsible for the logbook. If the club engages a contractor, it is the contractor who keeps the log — but the club must still have access to it. If the local authority pays a visit, the club cannot claim that someone else carried out the spraying.
How long it must be kept
At least three years. Longer than most people stay in the same job.
What this means for a golf course
A golf club is a professional user, but sprays rarely and only when it needs to.
In practice it is mainly greens that are sprayed, tees and collars to a lesser extent, and fairways in some cases. Most of it is fungicides and growth regulators on greens, and herbicides on fairways, which most clubs spray rarely or never.
There are fungicides approved for fairways, but in practice they are rarely used, as they are too expensive for such large areas. Herbicides are never used on greens — the products would kill the grass.
Growth regulators are classified as plant protection products — the regulation is titled "Chemical control and growth regulation on golf courses". They therefore also require a spraying log, just like fungicides and herbicides. This is the entry that is most often overlooked.
How to identify the area
In Sweden it is currently sufficient to write green 7 or fairway 14. There is no requirement for geographical coordinates — the areas are already defined on the map that accompanied the permit application.
That is worth knowing, since the EU regulation behind the digital requirement is based on the land register in the agricultural support system. A golf course is not in that register, and does not need to be. Names and numbers are sufficient — as long as they are used consistently.
Three things to consider before January 2027
The folder in the machinery shed is no longer enough.
What is recorded on paper next to the sprayer today must be available digitally from the first day of 2027. It is as much a change of habit as a change of system, and it affects the person actually carrying out the spraying.
Three years is longer than most people stay in a job.
A log that exists only on one computer, or in one person's handwriting, is a log the club may not be able to produce when requested. The requirement outlives the person who created the documentation.
It is not a stand-alone task.
The products in the spray log are the same products that require safety data sheets and an entry in the club's chemical register. Documenting the spraying and documenting the chemical are two halves of the same obligation. Clubs that treat them as separate tasks usually end up with neither complete.
Obligations and rights
The legislation is strict. It is not negotiable.
A golf club cannot organise its use of chemicals as it sees fit. Permits, documentation, safety distances, a functionally tested sprayer and signage are mandatory requirements, and supervision lies with the local authority. Some local authorities are more meticulous than others, but the requirements are the same.
At the same time there is a purpose. The treatment is carried out for the course — to ensure the playing surfaces remain in good condition, and because a green lost to fungus takes a long time to recover. That is why clubs take the matter seriously, and why the documentation is worth doing properly.
The scale of the operation is small. The responsibility is not. A golf club rarely applies pesticides, and only when the course requires it. But when it does, the same regulations apply as for all other professional users — permits, a spray log, safety distances and a function-tested sprayer.
Conclusion
The digital spray log — already written for you. The spray log, the safety data sheets and the chemical register describe the same products. Reddibo keeps them in one place — and we take care of the safety data sheets for you.
For the fact-checker
This guide is based on the Swedish Board of Agriculture's rules on the use of plant protection products and its guidance on completing the spray log, together with information material from the county administrative boards. The underlying EU legislation is Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 and the 2023 implementing regulation on the content and formatting of the documentation.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Confirm what applies to your club with the relevant authority.