Great turf comes from great care

You need to know your greens intimately as most superintendents do. Experience is critical when growing grass. I recently had the privilege of attending a webinar with a USA superintendent, Rod Lingle, with 48 years turf experience – WOW he exudes passion for turf!

A few key pointers I like to follow:

Daily dew check

This is where you pick up any early signs of disease. Remember to get your dew off the leaf as quickly as possible by mowing, whipping poles or dragging a hose pipe. I am not a fan of opening sprinklers to remove dew.

Mowers

Walk with at least one mower each day to check the clipping volume – this helps you determine your PGR rate. We like to increase or decrease your Primo Maxx at 30ml/ha per week within your application rate window for
your turf. 

Measuring your clippings from one green is a great tool, but it doesn’t replace your cut.

Height of cut

This is always a contentious issue. Don’t sacrifice your plant health by pushing your HOC too low. Rather do regular double cutting to gain your desired speed and ball roll – we typically mow until there are no clippings in the box.

Collars

You either love them or hate them. Remember if you have a collar, particularly in a tournament scenario, it needs to be clearly visible to avoid ruling issues. 

I prefer no collar for a tour event, however they are a great tool for protecting your turf in the cooler months. We typically would raise the height by 0,25 mm weekly until you reach your desired height of 5-6mm
and immediately start bringing them back down at 0,25 mm per week. This can be an ongoing process, however I prefer no collar on cool season turf during the heat of summer.
 

Slowly, slowly catch a monkey is the absolute key on so many elements of a green – particularly nutrition, verticutting and your PGR applications. A little more often does not gives you inconsistent spikes of growth and will give you a fantastic playing surface year round. Remember to base your nutrition programme on your soil tests (at least annually) as well as regular leaf sampling on your greens (at least every 3 months during the growing season).
 

Being a superintendent is a demanding, but incredibly fulfilling career so we are dependent on the support of our families and teams. Delegating is a must and an awesome way to see your team grow up through the ranks. Choose carefully what you do delegate though as you need the best agronomist on your turf making the turf-related hands-on decisions – I personally prefer to delegate the admin side of the business and work closely with my team on the agronomics which is our passion after all.
 

All the best for a fantastic season in grass and golf!