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That’s the question I was asking myself leading into the ＫＢＣオーガスタ tournament. Because it wasn’t just playing any kind of golf. It was professional golf, televised golf, and it also happened to rain 827 mm (32 inches) from the start of August until Friday morning of tournament week (August 27).

This chart shows almost a full season of bobble test measurements from Hazeltine National GC. I discussed measurements of smoothness and trueness of ball roll in this video, and I mentioned that I use and recommend the bobble test as a way to make these measurements.

When Cam Shaw wrote with a question about measuring smoothness and trueness, he mentioned that he’d searched my blog and didn’t find anything. “Wow,” I thought, “have I really written nothing about this?

When Bernd Leinauer introduced me prior to this talk, he mentioned that I’m one of the most controversial turfgrass scientists today. And the reason for being controversial happens to be the very topic of this presentation1 that I’ve uploaded today to my YouTube channel.

GCM Magazine has another article about the SLAN and MLSN methods for soil test interpretation. The article summarizes Jackie Guevara’s research (with Kevin Frank at Michigan State University) into turfgrass response when P and K applications are made based on MLSN.

Zoysia putting greens are common from Japan to Singapore because manilagrass—Zoysia matrella, or korai in Japanese—is tolerant of close mowing in the climate of East and Southeast Asia. The ball roll on zoysia putting greens is distinctive because the grass leaves are so stiff.

The KBC Augusta tournament (#KBCオーガスタ) is coming up, and as in past years, I find it extraordinarily interesting. There aren’t many tournaments like this one, from a grass and playing surface perspective.

One of the many valuable things I utilize from OM246 testing is what I call the organic matter accumulation rate. I’m actually referring to the net accumulation rate—how the total organic material in the rootzone would change if no topdressing had been applied.

These pots of variegated tropical carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) received an application of granular 16-16-16 fertilizer twelve days before this photo was taken. The grass on the right responded with a lot more growth than did the grass at left.

I’ve explained how MLSN works by telling a story about beer. Specifically, about a natural and logical method to figure out how many beers to buy at the store prior to an upcoming party.