I promised a new book on how to objectively measure bowling green performance would be published here in late November 2015, but my work in China got in the way and now the book has grown in stature with much more detailed technical information informed by my teaching in November. The tyre lever and the golf ball will teach you what you need to know to achieve Firm, fast and smooth bowling greens in 2016 and beyond.
Bowling green smoothness and trueness are measurable concepts and the data can be used to ensure that the ideal maintenance program is followed to make your green perform to previously unattained levels of excellence.
We often find bad runs on rinks or bad rinks on greens and we can guess or hypothesise as to the causes of these effects, but at many clubs the science stops there and they reach for the top-dressing. Given that we have seen the negative side of making greens too sandy, shouldn't we explore the possibility of a different answer to the apparent overnight appearance of bad areas on greens?
My upcoming ebook, The Tyre Lever and the Golf Ball, making green performance objective, puts forward a suggested way forward in green performance measurement. Until now assessment of turf performance has been open to suffering from human error due to the tests used being somewhat less than objective.
Back at the beginning of the month I announced that I would be releasing a new ebook dealing with the evaluation and measurement of bowling green performance called the Tyre Lever and the Golf Ball.
You might have noticed that I have updated the post about the ebook to say that it will now be available on the site on 28th November instead of the earlier date I first promised; let me explain.
In this new book I will reveal how we bowling greenkeepers can adopt some of the methods being used by the golf industry in order to make green performance management more objective and replicable. To do that I will explain a few tricks currently being employed in the golf world and describe some of the hi tech (and expensive) equipment being used to perform those tricks. Ultimately, the book’s purpose will be to describe a series of tests and measurements that can be used to help us decide what maintenance work needs to be done to keep the green on a trajectory towards greater and more consistent performance, without blowing the budget on consultants and measurement equipment, hence the title.
Now the reason for the delay in bringing you this book.
When I first wrote the bulk of the content and made the original announcement on the site, I wasn’t aware that a project was about to come in that would let me add a lot more detail and real world findings to the book’s content.
So I’m writing this update at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam on my way to Hainan in China where I am about to undertake two weeks of teaching on this very subject with two groups of Chinese students who are studying an HND in Golf Course Management.
Over the next two weeks I will make regular updates on the subject of Green Playing Performance with live findings and anecdotes from my classes in China and the updated book will be released on the site on 28th November.
Meantime if you have any questions about any aspect of greenkeeping or club management it’s business as usual so just ask any questions using the Help link, via the contact form or leave a comment on any of the articles that interest you.
