Greens Maintenance Days

The 2013 golf calendar includes new events called greens maintenance days.  These are days that were built in to allow us to complete our routine cultural practices such as grooming, topdressing, and venting the greens.  The timing of the events allows us to prepare for and recover from the premier golf events.  The nature of the practices will vary based on their proximity to tournaments or other cultural practices. 

Yesterday we verticut the greens to thin out the turf and smooth the putting surface in preparation for the Sid Noyes Championship this weekend.  Essentially this was more of a grooming and less of a verticutting, therefore the disruption to the putting surface is minimal.  What does this mean?  Not much to the average golfer, but to turf nerds like me it is exciting. 

 

Verticutting is an important tool that we use to control thatch and smooth out the surface.  Earlier this spring we used the Graden to remove a lot of material from the surface, which produced the firm smooth surfaces we have enjoyed this spring.  This time we just tickled the surface, but we did it in three directions.  In a couple of weeks we will be a little more aggressive and lower the blades to help with our topdressing application. 

So how does this affect the average golfer?  
In addition to the short term benefits realized by the tournament participants, and the long term benefits over the course of an entire season, golfers will be able to check the calendar before they invite guests out to enjoy the course or schedule an important match.  Additional information will be available on the blog to inform golfers about the level of disruption they should expect, and how long it will take for the greens to recover. 

Here is a link to a USGA video that explains the "Venting" process.