Turf tourism

I’m lucky. I get to visit a lot of golf courses. When I visit a course, I ask a series of questions that helps me to understand more about the property, the superintendent, and the grass.

I’ve been listening to Joe Gulotti’s The Talking Greenkeeper since the first episode back in 2018. I’m sure many of you listen to his show as well. We’ve heard Joe talk about the turf on the Montchanin course that he manages.

I looked through my photos from this year and chose these as favorites. I’ve added a little commentary about each one. Some are educational, some sentimental, some illustrative, some poignant, some just pretty.

I made two new videos that you may like to watch. This one shows a circle mowing technique on bentgrass greens that accomplishes a ton of things all at once.

Randy from Bulgaria sent me this interesting question, which I paraphrase here: I was wondering is there a place on earth, where growth potential (GP) is above 90% for cool-season grass, or also a place where GP is above 90% for warm-season grass, all year long?

Golf courses in Japan usually have creeping bentgrass greens, korai (Zoysia matrella) tees and fairways, and noshiba (Zoysia japonica) rough. The korai and noshiba will be dormant in the winter, and these grasses don’t grow much in spring or autumn even if they have some color.

This photo of the 18th green at Habu Country Club in March 2001 appeared in my Facebook feed on March 20, and it reminded me of springtime maintenance on golf courses in Japan.

I got to see a lot of beautiful and interesting turfgrass around the world in 2022. I looked through my photos from the year and chose these as my favorites.

I was in Japan for two weeks to work at the KBC Augusta tournament, have meetings, and visit turfgrass sites. On this trip, I made a deliberate effort to record some videos to show a few things that I find interesting about turfgrass management in Japan.

I’ve thought of mowing patterns or “stripes” as something that happens with grasses. I’ve seen it on lawns, sports turf, golf courses, and hay fields. When the grass is cut, and as the leaf blades are bent in a particular direction during the cutting process, often by a roller that is part of the cutting unit—the grass blades get oriented more in one direction than in another.