The Stimpmeter is a simple tool. Demonstrating how green speed is measured helps course officials understand what the numbers mean and how they are obtained.

Ever since the USGA completed development of the Stimpmeter in 1976 and the tool was made available to superintendents and course officials in 1978, controversy has ensued. Definitely, the Stimpmeter changed the way golf greens are compared. In the 1930s, Edward Stimpson invented the tool that would eventually become the Stimpmeter, designed to monitor green speeds on a golf course to improve its consistency. It seems that the modern Stimpmeter frequently is used to see who can produce the fastest greens, and these speeds are now a point of comparison (and often envy) from golf course to golf course. Many superintendents refuse to "Stimp" their greens, shunning all things Stimpmeter. In fact, I once saw a Stimpmeter planted in a five gallon bucket of concrete. Talk about making a point! But what if the Stimpmeter could be used for good, as a weapon against excessive green speed? Perhaps the superintendent who pulled the weapon from the concrete could experience Camelot. Well, probably not, but read on.

In the words of the philosopher Yogi Berra, "It's like deja vu all over again."

Ok, please bear with me while I gripe about my end of the industry. I hate to sound like the crabby old man I'm trying desperately not to become but it seems Nature is taking its course. Now by "Nature is taking its course" I don't mean that it is a given that I will become an old grouch. What I mean is that the terrible summer experienced by so many courses this past year was predictable and inevitable. We asked for it and we got it.

In 1987 I wrote an article for the Green Section Record entitled, "Management on the Edge". The article emphasized that many courses were simply pushing greens too hard in order to maintain very fast Stimpmeter speeds. At the time, "pushing" meant .125" cutting heights (we used to call it 1/8^th) and nine feet on the Stimpmeter. The article was inspired by the frequent failure of greens across the country as the older bentgrass strains failed under the pressure. Those failures led to a lot of lost jobs, lost revenue, and lost memberships at courses everywhere.

So what did we learn from that experience?

Read the rest of this article.

Read the 1987 article Management on the Edge

Concerning Phosphorous

A nationwide survey of golf course water resources supports

by Dr. Jeff Nus, manager, Green Section Research 

In a study led by Dr. Stuart Cohen, Environmental and Turf Services, Inc. conducted surveys and evaluated water quality data from 44 studies covering a 20-year period and 80 golf courses.

If asked what you think is the most serious environmental challenge facing golf courses today, what would you say? Pesticide runoff? Scarce water resources? Maintaining wildlife habitat? Although these issues are important, to an increasing number of turfgrass and environmental scientists, the answer is the threat from nutrient runoff - specifically phosphorus.

Read the rest of this article

Watch a short video summarizing this work 

Links to related work:

 A Northwest Regional Update
by Larry Gilhuly, director

The warm weather is almost gone. Time to get ready for winter.

From west to east and north to south, trying times were had by many in 2010. Pacific Northwest golf courses suffered from severe turf damage last winter, both west and east of the Cascade mountain range; however, with recovery can come the annoying trait of short-term memory loss by players.  Since the human memory can sometimes be a little less-than-effective, the purpose of this update is to provide a reminder of what happened and how to minimize duplication this winter should nature decide to throw us another curveball.  Rather than being down about the end of warm weather and good playing conditions, let's get up for the upcoming winter.  Read the rest of this update.

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