A Visit From The USGA

As we enter our second official "growing season" for our new golf course we thought it could be helpful to get some specific feedback from the USGA to help us, in conjunction with Troon Agronomy, cultivate strategic agronomic plans for the short and long term. While the full report won't be ready until the Annual Meeting, I'd like to provide a quick synopsis of what took place during the visit.

This device pulls a turf/soil sample so that we can inspect the soil profile. This indicated roots in the 7 inch range, a healthy visual build up organic material, no alarming layering (which occasionally can happen during and after the heavy fertility and watering during the initial grow in phase. We check several greens and each of their soil profiles pass the visual inspection.

Next, we tested the firmness of the bunkers, which landed in right about in the middle of the USGA's recommended range for firmness.

This is isn't your everyday stimp meter. This is the USGA's new technology that shows green speed, trueness, and smoothness. While all three metrics we're reasonable for the age of the greens, smoothness has the most room for improvement and will be improved tremendously in the coming months through topdressing and vertical mowing.

There is a part 2 to this device that checks firmness. The result of this test showed our greens being the perfect firmness, given their age. At this age, any softer would indicate excessive organic matter and moisture, but any firmer would show that they are not progressing as expected. We are actually already within the USGA's specification's for firmness, but we will continue to work towards slightly softer and more receptive greens. And today's findings support that we are right on track.

We took a total of 21 samples from our greens. These will be sent to a lab to show organic matter levels. While a visual check can tell us a lot, a tested sample gives us much more accuracy. This will allow us to perfect an agronomic plan for thatch and organic matter management. This type of testing will take place on an as needed basis, but likely once a year until a long term plan is established.