water

That’s a bit of a trick question, because the answer I give is: neither. What one wants to do is apply the optimum amount of water to the turf, and that can be done by light and frequent irrigation, or it can be done by deep and infrequent irrigation.

Sand rootzones are common the world over for golf course putting greens. Many athletic fields are also built with a sand rootzone, and in Asia, many of the tees, fairways, and even roughs are grown in a sand rootzone.

After a month of research and writing in southern Japan—my 2012 summer sabbatical—I returned to Thailand, got my mail, and in that accumulated stack of papers I found (and promptly read) the July 2012 issue of Golf Course Architecture.