Into the Backstretch

Green Speed - Part II 

To continue with the discussion on green speed  (previously ), let's define what 'slow' means as far as the United States Golf Association is concerned for daily play and tournament play.
   
Daily play

• Slow greens: 4.5 feet
• Medium greens: 6.5 feet
• Fast greens: 8.5 feet

U.S. Open, recommendations:^[1]

• Slow greens: 6.5 feet
• Medium greens: 8.5 feet
• Fast greens: 10.5 feet

Most private clubs keep their green speed between 10 to 11 feet.
When greens fall below 9 feet, most players notice a difference.  This is when we would call a green "slow". 

Greens become slow whenever resistance to the ball increases.  The most common causes of increased resistance are changes in growth rate, soft conditions, and increased mowing height.  To minimize these factors Superintendents employ chemical growth regulators, fertilizer restriction, sand topdressing, rolling, low cutting heights, and keeping cutting equipment extremely sharp. Missing any of these tactics can cause chronic slowness.  The factor that eclipses all others (and unsurprisingly is the hardest to control) is the ability to control water with an up-to-date and efficient irrigation system.  Water control is the quickest way to slow down a green. It has multiple effects on the surface such as softening the soil, softening the plant, and increasing the growth rate.  All three of these increase resistance and have the largest effect on green speed. Rains we can do nothing about, but how accurately and reliably we apply water, we do as carefully as possible.
What we can't control of Mother Nature, we manage around.  Wet greens and rainy spells will always bring slower greens the same as dry and hot spells will bring hard and fast greens.  These are expected outcomes that surprise almost no one.   What we shoot for with speed is somewhere in the middle.  It's a balancing act, but when done right it produces consistent putting surfaces that are  fair and fun for the majority.


That time of year

When the bugs are biting, apply your bug juice off the greens while seated in your cart, or standing on a cartpath.  This was on 9 green and likely occurred on Sunday night. It's understandable, but a good time to point out how toxic insect repellant is to plants.

Prepping for hole punching

2 green getting a breather and some lunch

Greens aerifying is right around the corner so it's time we pump the greens up with some fertilizer and lay off the aggressive mowing for a while.  You'll notice the greens becoming more lush and thicker in response to the nice treatment.  The increased vigor allows them to recover quickly and makes aerifying less invasive.  Green speed will be affected during this time.   
Between weather variability and outings, the best time to punch is too changeable to stick to a hard date. We aim for an 'aerifying window' typically in early September.  We've refined the process to a point that it's done without play disruption and finished in two days or less.  

Hits and Misses 

11 Tee

11 Tee was the victim of a poorly timed aerifying procedure a couple of weeks ago.  We were trying to sneak a coring in between rain storms and got caught by a big thunderstorm.  The cores didn't clean up well and got matted into the turf, suffocating it.  Lessons were learned.  It's been seeded and should be back in shape soon.

18 tee

18 tee rarely fails to impress at this time of year.  Lambs Ear, Garden Phlox, Obedient Plant, Black-eyed Susan. Great looking area.

11 fairway

Filling divots is a huge commitment of the grounds department. The two filled divots on the outside are about 2 weeks old and well on their way to healing and the one in the middle is about a week old.  Filling divots works.  Thanks for your assistance with it.

Tweetings

Check the new grounds department Twitter feed for quick and dirty semi-daily updates (or when the mood strikes) on what's going on around the shop and golf course, if you do that kind of thing, over at @TuscaroraGC