Playability is what it is all about, isn’t it? At least for putting greens, one wants to have surfaces upon which the ball rolls at a certain pace, and which have a firmness that is appropriate for the conditions.

slide from AGIF presentation about soil, grass, and resultant playability

This had been scheduled as an AGIF presentation for 10 December, but will instead make its world premiere as Episode 3 of my Grammar of Greenkeeping series.

It starts with choosing the type of playing conditions one wants to have. Then one must measure those conditions. I will explain the key measurements to make, and how to adjust soil and grass conditions to produce the playing surfaces one wants to have. It’s remarkably simple, and every golf facility has the ability to do this. Implementing the method I’ll describe produces surfaces that meet the desired standard in the most efficient manner possible.