30th Jun 2009 by Torch Last edited 30th Jun 2009
Hi All,
Been a while.
I'm looking into rolling greens through various methods. I am considering ride-on turf irons and vibrating rollers at the moment and I would be grateful for any experiences, recommendations and feedback.
I have a mixture of USGA type greens, 80 year old soil push-up greens and some built on fine sand. Some drain well, some...not so much! They have all responded well in recent years to increased aeration, top dressing and control of feed and water. I have also deep scarified them heavily in recent years.
I am looking at ways of increasing speed and trueness without cutting short. I also try to avoid verti-cutting. I appreciate that my methods may not be to everyones's taste; I am not really looking for a debate on that, just some input on rolling.
Thanks guys,
Torch
The answer is None more black.
Hi Torch,
We used to use a turf iron on our USGA greens, and gained as much as a couple of feet.
At my current course, I am cutting at 5mm and therefore my greens are a little slow.... I don't use a stimp meter but reckon they are about 8.5 feet. I used a vibrating roller on demo a couple of weeks ago and can't say I saw much of an increase in speed.... however, I am sure others will commend this tool.
I would be careful about rolling your push-up greens as you might undo all your good aeration work if they are too moist!
KB
a well balanced person has a drink in both hands
Yes I will commend it. I love my rollers, I have the vibrating type hmmm. It a great tool, its quick easy and puts about 6inch on my length.
Anyway, It allows me to do proper greenkeeping without the hassle. We can cut at sensible heights, aerate regular and still maintain a good surface.
We have a similar maintenance regime. I aerate at every opportunity and we send the rollers out behind, bish bash bosh done! No problem with members or playing surface. When we have a big comp, all we do is, give them a brush, a good hand mow and a double roll. This week we are stimping at 10ft whilst cutting at 4.5mm and that’s on poa turd… sorry poa turf, I need a spell check.
I also roll instead of cutting at times of stress, this also works well. The vibrating rollers are also good at getting the light dressing in to the profile. I tend to avoid winter and wet conditions.
I suggest you give them all a go, try stimping before and after. I used many types even the usga one (forgot the name) but the one that you ride on sideways… I hated it, but as you may love it, I know some do!
All the best
30th Jun 2009 by Eddy21 Last edited 30th Jun 2009
Hi Torch
Hope things are good and all is well back home.
Re Rolling.....At my club we roll both sets of greens on a every other day basis (ie the rouge course one day and the bleu course the next).
We have 2 Trueturf solid ride on greens rollers and they seem a fantastic bit of kit. Personally, I feel they are much better than the mounted units and very quick as well. We can have the greens cut and rollled in about 2 hrs 45 mins.
Its interesting to note that after the greens are cut and rolled stimp readings will increase in the region of upto half a foot and im led to believe the effects of rolling will generally last for a day after the operation, hence our every other day approach.
Our greens are cut at 3.25mm on a daily basis and we aim for 3.20m (10.5ft) on the stimp for members competitions, they can get alot faster than this if they are dried out, especially if we have high ET rates and we hold right back on the water.
A really good book to have a look at is "The Superintendents Guide to controlling Putting Green Speed" By Thomas A Nikolai as there is plent of research on rolling methods and many other things. I got my copy from Amazon for about £25.
Dave In Paris.
PS....Our HOC is probably not to everyones taste, but as they say here.... c'est la vie.... management styles differ so much from place to place, as I always say what works for one may not work for others. Id also like to add that im working with high percentages of G2 Creeping Bentgrass.
Learning is there for every man
Thanks for the replies men.
Good to hear from you Dave.
My greens are regularly cut at 4.5mm, 4mm for big comps and we achieve a reasonably quick pace. Most of my members want true greens, quick ones are an added bonus.
They are predominantly poa annua, but i think the bent is gradually increasing. I think we will reach that tipping point soon, maybe even this year, for the bent to really start taking hold.
Thanks again, keep 'em coming.
Torch.
The answer is None more black.
Our Tru-turf rollers are one of the most valuable pieces of equipment we have in the shed. They really do give you the ability to control the speed and consistancy of the greens in both summer and winter.
We have 100% poa on a mix of usga and push up greens and the HOC in winter is 4mm getting down to 3mm in summer. We also run a moddus programme (primo maxx to you guys) to regulate growth.
We roll 2-3 times a week during summer (mowing every day, occasionally a double cut before a comp) and in optimum conditions can easily achieve green speeds of 13+. Our members like quick and true greens but you often get a gobful from visiting golfers after they have putted off the green. For general play we like it around 11ft but true healthy greens are what we are aiming for, not fast, stressed sick things!
Winter we tend to only mow a couple of times a week due to the depressingly high rainfall that we usually receive but we tend to roll every day that we dont cut. Benefits are that we maintain a true surface for most of the day, we hardly see a triplex ring anymore, reduced disease outbreaks and greens tend to remain healthier for longer as we are not removing clippings.
However every action has a reaction. We do tend to get the surface of the turf "sealing" which leads to puddles after rain and dry patch in summer so plenty of spiking, verti-draining and needle tining in the winter plus regular verticutting/dusting and use of wetting agents in summer help relieve the compaction and help move the water though the profile.
They really are great little tools that can have a big impact on the overall performance of your greens, I highly reccommend you get a demo out and have a play around on it...
1st Jul 2009 by turfjack Last edited 1st Jul 2009
Hi Torch
I can only recommend rolling also. I use Salcos but I've heard great thing about the Truturf one also. I'm not a big fan of the vibrating rollers (I know some guys who swear by them) but I've seen better results with the iron types. I also think that the vibrating types result in more compaction and the pressure under the iron types is actually pretty low.
Typically I gain about a foot when I roll. Once the construction here was complete and we were ramping the speed up for play I saw an increase of nearly two foot just by using a heavier mower and a roll when the mowing height was up around 3.5mm.
Studies at Penn State a few years ago echo what Dave said ie that the benefits last basically until the next mowing. I usually roll three days a week as it keeps my greens speed consistant, any more and they start getting a little out of control. I'm currently mowing at 2.5mm and daily green speed is around 11-11.5 which is easily upped to 12-12.5 for competitions etc by rolling a day or two in a row. I'll also echo the thoughts that they help reduce stress during times of, um stress.
Alan FitzGerald, LedgeRock Golf Club
The benefits are well documented and as Kiwiturfie et al can testify the use of rollers down under is almost universal.
The Tru-Turf is clearly the best of the bunch (ride-on).
If you are looking at the triplex accessory units consider the TurfWorks units (ad on the side here somewhere) which have stainless steel frames and are endorsed by the big three greensmower OEM's.
GOGGA
2nd Jul 2009 by bath
How times change. Rolling a golf green. Poo pood not long ago. Sounds good to me providing regular aeration is carried out.
At least rolling should keep a green and its speed consistent. Compaction by foot traffic must be similar to regular light rolling, but not as even.
How times change.
I'd suggest the rolling is more correctly an 'ironing' effect rather than a compaction, hence the increase in green-speed.
GOGGA
2nd Jul 2009 by bath
I agree Sumo, very light rolling is all that is required to keep a surface smooth. Once upon a time i believed that the mower alone did this. Now we have dedicated rolling/vibrating machines.
Perhaps more pedestrian mowing of greens is required.
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