Tournament time - Ball Roll

For our biggest and most competitive event of the season, ball roll and greens conditioning is the up most importance and a precedence we have set the last several years to have the greens rolling.  Using the term "ball roll" instead of greens speed for describing the quality of a putting surface, means the condition of a green is not just measured by the speed but also by how smooth, true, and consistent it rolls, and all of those characteristics in my opinion make up "ball roll".  Yes the greens will be very fast this weekend but they will also be ultra smooth, firm, true, and consistent.

2013 Whing Ding Sole Survivor

Staff has worked extremely hard the last two weeks fine tuning the condition of the greens.  Ball roll does not come from just dropping the height of cut, but it is a combination of fertilizer running out at the right time so the greens are very lean, the height of cut, sand topdressing for a smooth and firm surface, rolling frequency and timing, and the moisture level from irrigation in the green.  The first four items listed have all taken place over the last two weeks and now the only thing left is to dry the greens down as far as we can to get the hard firm surface.  A little strategic planning while we watch mother nature to get the timing just right so they peak with moisture level by Monday afternoon (the lack of), but we do not dry them down to quickly.  There are a lot of aspects that go into managing tournament greens and it is not just dropping the height of cut or turning off the water, but a combination of many different aspects.