Questions for Greenkeepers?

Fescue

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

I played Lucan at the weekend and the greens were probably the best greens anywhere I've ever played. They were unreal, so fast, true, consistent and blemish free and where a joy to put on. Given it's still quite early in the year the conditioning was seriously impressive. I don't know what speed they were running on the strimp meter but as part of the cutting and maintenance process believe they iron the greens after cutting.

Now the question, given that hollow tining is to improve aeration and compaction within the greens what are your views on ironing? Would it's regular use require additional hollow tining and similar invasive maintenance throughout the year or is it just a means of rolling the greens smooth and fast after cutting? Also given that hollow tining and sanding often leaves greens bumpy for weeks would ironing them help with the recovery? Thanks.

Very intersting topic.

I think you have a pretty good grasp on the subject matter judging from your question. I am a great believer in ironing/rolling greens to create truer and smoother surfaces which are as a result faster.
Indeed many use rolling as a means to work in sand into the surface after topdressing. It is also used immediately after aeration to smooth the surface for play as you suggested.

I think it would be natural to assume that repeated rolling would cause compaction in the green. I have been told by an agronomist that contrary to this assumption, rolling does not create compaction in the soil profile. Certainly not on sand based greens. So there seems to be a lot of positives with very little downsides.

I use rolling as an opportunity to rest the greens from cutting occasionally and maintaining speed and playability.

Senna

Question; On one parkland course I regularly see large clumps of cut wet grass on the fairways after they have been cut, but I never see that on my home parkland course. Is there cutting equipment at fault, are they cutting it when its too wet or too long?

Another one, a few years ago I played a course that had a designated "diviot repair" hole that changed ever day for a week\month (excluding comps). At the tee box was a rack of sandbags and each golfer would take a bag and repair a few diviots as they walk along that fairway, at the green was another rack to hang the bag back up. I was told they stopped it because it encouraged people not to bother replacing their own diviots, it seemed like such a good idea but obviously others disagreed. What's you take on it?

BigChap1759

A question on fairways - we always seem to have mud spots early and late season on the fairways, it almost looks as though they have tried to cut them too low. Would these be worm casts or something else?

ronnie3585

I played Cregmore last week. Several of the greens were covered in scores of small black maggots. I thought they were dead, but they moved a little. They didn't appear to be coming out of, or digging into the green, they were just lying on top. Funnily enough, the birds had absolutely no interest in them. I've never seen anything like it before, any ideas?

Fescue

Senna wrote: »

Question; On one parkland course I regularly see large clumps of cut wet grass on the fairways after they have been cut, but I never see that on my home parkland course. Is there cutting equipment at fault, are they cutting it when its too wet or too long?

Another one, a few years ago I played a course that had a designated "diviot repair" hole that changed ever day for a week\month (excluding comps). At the tee box was a rack of sandbags and each golfer would take a bag and repair a few diviots as they walk along that fairway, at the green was another rack to hang the bag back up. I was told they stopped it because it encouraged people not to bother replacing their own diviots, it seemed like such a good idea but obviously others disagreed. What's you take on it?

Regarding the clumps of grass on the fairways, this is quite a common occurrence on parkland fairways. Obviously the longer the interval between cutting the longer the grass and the worse the problem. There are a number of ways of dealing with this. Firstly, after a fairway is cut, sometimes another greenkeeper in a utility vehicle can drag mat the fairways to disperse the clippings. Another approach is the cut the fairways more frequently but even this may not remove the wet clippings. The use of plant growth regulators can slow down the growth which in effect reduces the need to cut the fairways as frequently and therefore less clippings. There are some specialised cutting units that have the ability to further chop up the clippings which are very good. Finally cutting in the afternoon, on dry fairways usually leaves behind. Sometimes at courses with low staff or a small budget it can be difficult to find the time to do the above.

Regarding divoting, I have always felt that golfers should take a bag of divot mix with them during their round and repair their own divots as they go. You can refill the bags at divot bins every 4/5 holes and hand the bag back in when you finish.

Fescue

BigChap1759 wrote: »

A question on fairways - we always seem to have mud spots early and late season on the fairways, it almost looks as though they have tried to cut them too low. Would these be worm casts or something else?

You were spot on with worm casts. There use to be a chemical which was very effective at preventing worm casts but it has since been banned from use.

Fescue

ronnie3585 wrote: »

I played Cregmore last week. Several of the greens were covered in scores of small black maggots. I thought they were dead, but they moved a little. They didn't appear to be coming out of, or digging into the green, they were just lying on top. Funnily enough, the birds had absolutely no interest in them. I've never seen anything like it before, any ideas?

Leather jackets, the larvae of daddy long legs or crane fly. Probably the number one insect pest that affects golf courses. The major damage is caused by birds digging up the surface of the greens in their quest to find them. As far as I am aware the larvae do feed on the roots of the grass plants and cause a certain amount of harm.

My guess is that if you seen many of them on the surface of the green then the green had been sprayed with an insecticide the previous day. This usually pushes them to the surface as they try to escape the chemical.

I guess the birds don't like the smell or taste of the insecticide and leave them alone.

MisterAnarchy

When I was younger I used to sometimes play golf in the summer time in trainers as they were much lighter than the older style golf shoes.
A number of times it was mentioned to me that wearing trainers was bad for the greens.
I couldn't fathom this as surely having no spikes on my shoes was better than having spikes ,most golf caddies wear trainers.

I heard this same topic brought up at an AGM again recently ,some guy was saying too many kids wearing runners on the course in the summer were damaging greens.Seemed like a crackpot notion.
Is there any truth to this ?

GreeBo

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

When I was younger I used to sometimes play golf in the summer time in trainers as they were much lighter than the older style golf shoes.
A number of times it was mentioned to me that wearing trainers was bad for the greens.
I couldn't fathom this as surely having no spikes on my shoes was better than having spikes ,most golf caddies wear trainers.

I heard this same topic brought up at an AGM again recently ,some guy was saying too many kids wearing runners on the course in the summer were damaging greens.Seemed like a crackpot notion.
Is there any truth to this ?

All I can think of is that skidding on a damp green could damage it, less likely to skid with studs.

Fescue

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

When I was younger I used to sometimes play golf in the summer time in trainers as they were much lighter than the older style golf shoes.
A number of times it was mentioned to me that wearing trainers was bad for the greens.
I couldn't fathom this as surely having no spikes on my shoes was better than having spikes ,most golf caddies wear trainers.

I heard this same topic brought up at an AGM again recently ,some guy was saying too many kids wearing runners on the course in the summer were damaging greens.Seemed like a crackpot notion.
Is there any truth to this ?

I can't imagine runners do any kind of damage whatsoever.

As for those Adidas Adizero's...

GreeBo

Senna wrote: »

Question; On one parkland course I regularly see large clumps of cut wet grass on the fairways after they have been cut, but I never see that on my home parkland course. Is there cutting equipment at fault, are they cutting it when its too wet or too long?

Another one, a few years ago I played a course that had a designated "diviot repair" hole that changed ever day for a week\month (excluding comps). At the tee box was a rack of sandbags and each golfer would take a bag and repair a few diviots as they walk along that fairway, at the green was another rack to hang the bag back up. I was told they stopped it because it encouraged people not to bother replacing their own diviots, it seemed like such a good idea but obviously others disagreed. What's you take on it?

We use a growth inhibitor on the fairways but often in the beginning of the season/winter we will have clumps in the rough.
We use a leaf blower (like a jet engine on its side!) on a trailer to blow all the crap to one side of the hole where its then collected. Noisy bugger.

Felexicon

GreeBo wrote: »

We use a growth inhibitor on the fairways but often in the beginning of the season/winter we will have clumps in the rough.
We use a leaf blower (like a jet engine on its side!) on a trailer to blow all the crap to one side of the hole where its then collected. Noisy bugger.

Are you in the green keeping profession too Greebo?

GreeBo

Felexicon wrote: »

Are you in the green keeping profession too Greebo?

Other than the back garden, nope!

MisterAnarchy

Fescue wrote: »

I can't imagine runners do any kind of damage whatsoever.

As for those Adidas Adizero's...

Thanks ,as I expected.
Tin foil hat theory so.