surface hardness

Here are three items that cover the topic of surface hardness, or the firmness of turfgrass surfaces, from all kinds of angles. Richard Forsyth is the director of courses at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

This is a difficult problem—pitch mark scars—and the only long term solution I know of is firmer surfaces. I was reminded of that this week when I saw balls bouncing on the greens at a tournament in Japan (see videos below).

I spent a morning with Brad Revill at Nikanti GC last month. I wanted to see the course, get some measurements, see the clipping volume measurement, and talk about turf management with Brad.

Yesterday I wrote about tools used to measure surface hardness. I’ve used all of those tools, and I prefer the golf course firmness tester from SDI (a 500 g Clegg impact tester with a domed head) for its ease of use and reliability.

There are various tools available to measure surface firmness, or surface hardness, of turfgrass. For golf course putting greens, I’ve used four different tools, and my preferred method is the golf course firmness tester from SDI.

Last week I had a couple conversations about green speed. Green speed and surface hardness My column in the June 2018 issue of Golf Course Seminar magazine discusses the relationship between effective mowing height and green speed.

I’ve been at Keya Golf Club for the KBC Augusta tournament this week. Yesterday afternoon I watched some shots during the first practice round, and took a few videos of ball reaction on the greens.

I measured soil moisture and surface hardness on three fairways, approaches, and greens at a golf course in Thailand in September 2014. The fairways and approaches at this site are seashore paspalum on a sandcap.

I use the terms surface hardness and surface firmness interchangeably, but I usually prefer surface hardness. In the report I prepared in August 2012 I included this figure, showing the relationship I measured between soil water content (using a Delta-T Device Theta Probe with 6 cm rods) and surface hardness (using a 500 g Clegg Impact Soil Tester).