2010 ASSET PERFORMACE EVALUATION. #1 ASSET: THE GREENS

How do you go about evaluating the performance of your greens? Well, Chris Hartwiger, Senior Agronomist with the USGA who operates out of the Southeast Region of the US put together a wonderful, and nearly all encompassing, Putting Green Performance Pyramid that provides a building block check list arranged in a fashion to determine a greens overall strenghts and from those strengths it tells you how far and how long you can push that green to attain a peak performance. If you are missing some of the foundations building blocks, lowest level of the pyramid, than you can expect some deterioration of the putting surface if you push the green to peak performance for too long of a time, especially if weather conditions are not favorable.

The weather in 2010 in SE Wisconsin was more akin to the weather of St. Louis and Memphis where bent grass survival is tested annually.This weather was a fantastic test for our one year old, Penn A-1 pushup greens. Eighteen of our greens performed beautifully, our 11th was ok and within our "Standard" for excellence, but our 6th, with its lack of air movement, sunlight, limited cupping area and a congested entry point had a problem. The growth became stunted and the stand thinned a bit. To protect it from further damage we roped of its narrow entry point, raised the height of cut and went to a mow one day and roll the next schedule. These actions protected the quality of the surface but slowed the speed to below our "Standard". Having one green perform below our "Green Standard" is not what we like to have but if this weather pattern is more a trend, than an aberation, this substandard for #6 will reoccur. To insure this doesn't happen we need to install a fan or fans for air movement, thin out trees and undergrowth to the southwest of the green for sunlight an air movement, educate golfers on where to enter and exit the green and make sure our green venting program, a program that produces a small hole or slice in the green for oxygen infusion and the exodus of harmful gasses is adhered to on a 2-3 week schedule throughout the season. With all of these elements of the pyramid corrected on #6, and our venting program intact, we will have a significantly better chance of achieving our standard, even with, The Memphis Weather Blues. To view the entire USGA Pyramid article, by Chris Hartwiger, please view my January 22, 2011 blog post.