Did you ever wonder about what happens, as putting greens area gets old? Well, many golfers just assume that once the green is built, the work is finished. But the fact is constructing new putting green itself starts the process of evolution and natural selection as well. The primary job of the golf course superintendents is to try to manage the revolutionary process and check whether the changes are suitable for long run. During the long run some severe changes occur to bunkers, fairways, trees etc. As the times passes, putting green areas get smaller and irregular. Extreme care is necessary to prevent any damage to the turf. The loss of cupping area can affect the playability and health of putting green grass.
If the putting green area is small, it tends the traffic to get concentrated on limited area. The shrunken greens appear very different than it is intended to be. Golfers are cheated as the hole locations are envisioned while playing the game.
The older course can be improved with the cultivation practices for putting green. During spring and fall, traditional core cultivation practices for the putting green should be performed. These should be done to improve the problems associated with the soil on the golf course or putting greens.
Putting greens cultivation practice includes spiking, coring, brushing, verticutting, and top dressing. Top dressings affect the putting green quality more than they affect the turf quality. However, most of these practices are unique to putting green maintenance since they affect ball roll and ball holding. The spiking, coring and top dressing activity aids to alleviate the green and improve the holding of ball. Moreover, these activities also results in diminishing the graininess, thatch accumulation, improve uniformity, trueness, and speed of the greens.
Mowing and Brushing can be performed to reduce the graininess. During the spring, summer and fall, putting greens should be brushed up lightly every day. Everyday brushing can reduce the need for vertical mowing. However, the vertical mowing is essential to control grain and thatch and to increase the speed of greens as well as to prepare grass for over seeding.
Spiking and coring cultivation practice are important as they initiate aeration, water penetration and ball holding. Spiking improves the conditions caused due to surface crusts as well as surface compaction. Coring improves the ball holding ability of putting greens as compared to spiking. However, based on severity of the putting green problem, greens should be cored around 2 to 3 times a year.
Top dressing is important and an effective tool of the greens keeper’s. Topdressing activity is used for the fertilization, thatch control, diseases control and improving the quality of the putting. The wide use of commercial fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanical aerifiers has resulted in least use of top dressing. The main reason that contributes for reduced emphasis on topdressing activity includes the high cost of labor, equipments, and materials. Like all other cultivation practices, light and frequent top dressing is very effective and more desirable than the occasional applications of a heavy top dressing.
In all, Common cultivation practices for putting greens include spiking, coring, brushing, verticutting, and top dressing. These practices initiate better aeration, water holding capacity and better absorption of nutrition. It also increases the inter resistance of putting greens against diseases and pests.
