GREENKEEPER BLOG
GreenKeeper Q: A New Way to Measure Putting Green Performance
While GreenKeeper Q looks fun to use—and it is—inside its clear shell is a robotic measurement platform that represents a major departure in putting green performance measurement. For decades, golf course superintendents have largely measured greens performance by...
Your Putting Greens Have Their Own Growth Pattern. Here’s How We Can Learn It.
In the last article of our Growth Series, we examined how putting green growth responded to changing weather. Heavy rainfall produced a modest increase in clipping volume, while the first significant cold front of autumn caused a much larger reduction. The results...
What’s Normal for Putting Green Organic Matter—and Is Lower Always Better?
In the first article of this series, we explored how much surface organic matter could realistically change under a typical cultivation and topdressing program. One of the more interesting findings was that the same management program could increase surface organic...
What Happens to Putting Green Growth When the Weather Changes Fast?
In the last article in this series, I argued that a thermometer is often a better biological clock than a calendar. Growing degree days help explain why 14 calendar days in July can represent a very different amount of biological time than 14 days in November. That...
Fall Wetting Agent Timing Matters for Winter Preparation
Fall weather can make wetting agent scheduling deceptively difficult. As air temperatures cool—especially nighttime temperatures—growing degree days accumulate more slowly and microbial degradation of wetting agents slows. That means an application that may have...
How Much Can Surface Organic Matter Change in a Year?
Scheduling cultivation and topdressing is always a tricky and sometimes controversal task. These practices are disruptive to players, costly, and tough on turf equipment. How much cultivation is really required? What's the right amount of sand topdressing for a...