BobbleTest

Many podcasts go on for hours. Mine often do. But this one is only 20 minutes, and for information density—a lot of useful insight in a short time—this particular episode is hard to beat.

I made a video about the bobble test with Queen. She knows about green speed, and she was familiar with the Holing Out Test using the Greenstester, but she didn’t know how to do the bobble test.

David Bataller organized a seminar in the VIP tent behind the 18th green on Thursday morning during the Catalunya Championship. Measuring air temperature, humidity, and wind speed on the 18th green just after sunrise.

I have recorded both my presentations from the ATPI (Association of Turfgrass Professionals Ireland) conference in Galway. One is systematic improvement of course conditions. In that, I explained how we can only get the kind of playing surfaces we want when both the soil and the grass are in the right condition.

Chris Tritabaugh has been writing an extraordinarily interesting series of blog posts. The topic, broadly, is putting green management and putting green performance. That’s a big topic, obviously. Chris, on his blog, has been taking a route through it that describes what he’s been doing and what he’s been measuring.

Chris Tritabaugh and I met to review the OM246 test results from samples collected in October 2021 at Hazeltine National Golf Club. We did this as a livestream episode of ATC Office Hours, which is available for watching or listening at your leisure.

I’ve used many different methods to assess the quality of ball roll on putting greens. This is not the distance the ball rolls—that measurement is commonly called the speed of the greens.

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?