Japan

A recent conversation about putting surfaces in Japan led to discussion of topdressing amounts and frequency. The Greenkeeper 2018 has course maintenance summaries for 17 courses in Japan. I mapped the locations of those courses by zip code.

I had an open discussion today with a group of greenkeepers in Japan. We talked about a lot of things – bentgrass in summer, irrigation, fertilizer, organic matter management, roots, etc.

When Andrew McDaniel wrote about #MLSN greens, I thought it may be interesting to show a few details of what this is about: These #MLSN greens are about to take 34 mows/21 rolls in 2 weeks.

I don’t often write about this, because I assume everyone knows it. But I’ve read a few things recently about amazing sums of money being saved by changing the way of fertilizing, all while getting the same or better turf conditions.

The KBC Augusta tournament is next week (August 24 to 27) on the Japan Golf Tour. There are a lot of reasons why it is a lot more than an average tournament.

The standard for measuring how much a turf sward is growing is to take the dry weight of the clippings mown off the turf. This isn’t a realistic option for routine turf management because who has drying ovens?

The idea that golf courses in Japan with the two green system have a summer green and a winter green is not quite correct. Nor is the two green system used exclusively with one warm-season grass green and one with cool-season grass.

I went for a run to the ocean at Cerro Gordo. As is my wont, I looked for grasses along the way. There were lots of zoysia lawns where I started.

is now available, and I see from the Amazon.co.jp website that it can be shipped to any country. The full title is 芝草科学とグリーンキーピング (マイカの時間 The BOOK). In English that is Turfgrass Science and Greenkeeping (Micah no jikan The Book).

Steve Chappell shared these photos of snow and ice at Gleneagles, and I joked that it would be nice to play golf in such weather: The mist is lifting @Gleneagleshotel but the snow & ice isn't so no golf today ☹️ Stunning scenery to be enjoyed though @VisitScotland 😀👍😎 pic.