USGA-Green-Section-Record--July-15--2011

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update

The next 10 days will be a tester for us and the turf.  This week I paid close attention to recovery of some of the very dry areas on the golf course.  The hot weather is very stressful all all turf and very, very careful attention must be made to watering, mowing and making every attempt to reduce mechanical injury. If that is not enough there are numerous diseases that can take over in the extremely hot weather. I will water the golf course tonight using the irrigation system and then during the hot weather will limit the nightly watering and do more spot watering dry areas.  The key will be to reduce stress and limit excess moisture, which can actually be much worse.  I will apply some plant protection to the greens and some low areas in the fairways over the next few days.  We will most likely not roll the greens for speed  , but may skip a mowing during the week and roll the greens instead.  I think the take home message here will be to not overdo it just like you would with yourself in extreme weather.

The progress on the putting green moss control is making some strides.  I believe we are on the right track with the program and over the next few weeks we should continue to see improvement. 

In the last few weeks we have went through a lot of divot mix for the fairways and tees.  This is a great thing and your effort is much appreciated, but I also feel that there are many divots that are taken that can very easily is replaced instead of filling with divot mix.  In the photos below, I took 3 shots into a green. The left and middle full shot and big divot the right side more or less just a scalp that no divot was taken. After one week the replaced divot is completely rooted down and the filled divot has just germinated.  It would take most likely another 7 days for complete fill in.  These findings show that if you can replace your divots do so and if there is not enough sod to fill the void then fill with the divot mix.

filled/ replaced 7/8

7/8

7/11, notice rooting from divot

7/15, divot rooted down and filled divot just germinated

The Stimpmeter

I am posting this video today in regards to the measurement of the greens for both consistency and green speed.  I use a tool, which is called a Stimpmeter to take these measurements.  For me, the most important use of the tool is to make sure the greens are putting consistently throughout the golf course,  in doing so the speed of the green is also determined. I have a process that I use when measuring the greens so that it is the same from day in and day out and I done it this way for as long as I can remember.  There are so many environmental and mechanical  factors that are in play on a daily basis thase all effect the speed of the greens.  Humidity, soil moisture, lack of humidity and maintenance practices just to name a few have some factor on speed as well as consistency from one day to the next.  We do our best to keep some of the factors in check, but a prefect example was last weekend  The turf really started to grow which really slowed down the speed.  I will continue to do my best to keep the greens consistent, smooth, and at or near a ball roll of 11 feet for daily play.  Typically, the first part of the week the greens are slower then Friday through Sunday which all relates back to the maintenance part of the factors that effect the speed of the greens.