There have been quite a lot of comments over the past week raising concern about the speed (or lack of speed) of the greens. This has been unfortunate seeing as lots of work has gone into the greens that have struggled through a non existent spring.
This has happened for several reasons which I will attempt to explain now.
The main reasons for differences in speed are height of cut, sharpness of cut, weather, growth and maintenance regimes.
We are always after the ideal scenario of quick and true putting surfaces but the fact of the matter is that this is not always possible. The reasons listed above change on a regular basis and therefore consistency is sometimes difficult to achieve.
Last Monday we verticut the greens, which is a light scarify, and then we topdressed the greens. After this we used the Sweep and Fill brush to brush in the dressing and also help lift any grass that was lying down. As it was very dry we then took the opportunity to hand cut the greens and removed a lot of grass and excess dressing. This left the greens running quick and true. All the work was carried out on the same day to try and reduce disruption through the rest of the week. Now it is obvious to say that those playing Monday evening would have had the best of conditions.
Now during the period last week the temperature climbed a lot higher than it has been and the greens started to dry out. We have started to take regular soil temperatures as we need to make decisions to make sure the greens don't bake and deteriorate. Having done all the work and the greens drying out, we took the decision to raise the height of cut. Now it was only raised by less than 1mm but raised all the same. We are looking to work under certain parameters with regard to safe soil temperatures and a slight raise in the height of cut can be most beneficial for the long term health of the greens.
This then had a small effect on the pace of the greens but not as much as the sharpness of the cutting blades. Having cut through the regular topdressings the blades have become blunt and therefore were ripping the grass rather than cutting like a scythe. It is very important for the health of the grass plant to cut with a sharp blade. It was obvious to see that the mowers were not cutting as well as possible and that was the main reason for the pace of greens dropping off.
At the same time as this work the heat in the soil produced a natural growth flush. We have made great steps in recent times in using different products to improve the quality of the greens. The main liquid fertiliser we now use does not give you a massive growth kick unlike previous years. However the greens did react to all the heat and it was clear to see that there was much more growth throughout the last week during the day.
So with blunt blades, a flush of growth and a raised height of cut the greens were a lot slower than the Monday.
So to improve matters the handmowers were sharpened on Tuesday afternoon and the triple mower will be done before the weekend. The height of cut was lowered again and we continue to use the iron to help with greenspeed. Today we took lots of grass off the greens due to the sharp cut and the pace has already improved. We will continue to monitor the cut and speed of the greens to make sure we keep them at a satisfactory pace for all the members. Just please be aware that conditions change from time to time and there are variables that can affect things.
