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I reported on four numbers about golf play and course maintenance after visiting 11 golf facilities: the mean number of golf holes per facility was 30.3 the mean number of maintenance staff (full and part-time, and note that this is the total number of people, not expressed as full-time equivalents) was 9.

From July 3 to July 10, I visited 11 golf facilities in Japan. I asked some basic questions to the greenkeeper at each course. The answers to the questions help me to understand what the greenkeeper is working with, and how many resources are available to get the job done.

When a lot of nitrogen is applied relative to plant demand, I guess. The article Creeping bentgrass surface properties following aerification by Hubbard et al. reports the results of an experiment looking at various aerification treatments, tine diameters, and tine spacings on a `Crenshaw’ creeping bentgrass green at Clemson, South Carolina.

I was in Tokyo on June 14. When I looked out the hotel window just after sunrise, it was cloudy. When I walked to a harborside restaurant for a working lunch, it was noticeably cloudy.

The key thing about OM246 testing for total organic material is that the sample is handled and measured to explicitly include all the living and dead undecomposed plant material in the sample.

Frank Rossi and Chris Tritabaugh had a short conversation about the fascinating Park Grass experiment, and about a lot more than that—fertilizer, bentgrass, dogma, salaries, budgets, detail work, GPS sprayers, and so on.

For any day in the year, one can calculate the cool-season grass growth potential (GPC3) and the warm-season grass growth potential (GPC4). These growth potential functions take the average air temperature as the input and return a GP value on a scale of 0 to 1, or 0 to 100% if you prefer.

My advice is to test for soil nutrients at the time of the year when nutrient levels are likely to be at their lowest. In temperate climates in which there is some precipitation during the summer, then this is an autumn timing.

For a few years now, when I have private discussions about the type of putting green maintenance that involves few or no holes punched in the surface and minimal sand topdressing, I often hear this response.

Once upon a time, I presented the manganese availability index (MnAI) on soil reports. I also put a line at 45. When the MnAI was less than 45, I recommended Mn application.