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| Grounds Foreman Jake Hamilton taking a greens speed measurement on #17 green. July 30, 2022 |
As I may have mentioned in my introductory bio, I love numbers and data points. It's all well and good to feel, "Yeah, greens were pretty good this year", but when I can back it up with the facts provided in the table below that screams, "YEAH, greens were great this year!"
The table below summarizes 204 measurements of greens speed and smoothness taken in the 152 days between March 1 - July 31. We measure one to two greens everyday (other than downpour days) and record these measurements.
Our target speed is between 10' - 10' 6" and a minimum smoothness of 8. This seems to be an adequate speed for our greens and our clientele. Any slower and putts do not hold lines like they should, any faster and things can get a bit ridiculous, especially for higher handicap golfers. Of course contrary to what seems to be popular golfer belief, we do not simply set the greens speed with a dial on the wall of the maintenance shop each morning. 😉
Of course weather/growing conditions will affect our ability to meet our target, but also grass type, labour availability, event schedules and other factors all play in to what we can provide each day. The column 'Missed Days' in the table below refers to days where we did not reach our target speed of 10' and there was not significant precipitation on these days that would have affected the greens speed. Our ultimate goal is to have this column equal zero. As you can see we are doing quite well with only a handful of days each month that we are falling short. None in July!!!
For those wanting faster greens, in an effort to ensure we make the 10' goal we end up over sometimes. Since April we have been faster than 10' 6" over 1/3 and almost half of each month.
We take daily smoothness readings using the bobble test method. This test method does not require an expensive tool and has been scientifically tested to be the most useful way of testing. It's downside is that it does have some subjectivity to it, but as a Grounds Team we have decided to be fairly critical. The rating scale is between 1-10 but for all intents and purposes we generally live between 7-10. None of us have been brave enough to post the first "10" of the season but there have been a few days in July where we certainly could have been. The video below speaks about greens speeds, smoothness and the different ways to measure smoothness. Skip ahead to 7:45 for specific discussion on the bobble test method.
I look forward to following up with more numbers later this season and then again this time next year to update and compare our progress. Rest assured we will continually tweak our programs and operations with the constant goal to provide the best greens possible, no matter what time of year.
