Golf Course Performance Standards (A)

A range of performance standards can and should be used to manage the different surfaces on a golf course. These can help provide for well informed decisions on the effective and efficient use of resources needed to maintain not just the greens, but the entire course. Annual budgets can be quite significant for the maintenance of a golf course to a good standard, so ensuring resources are used wisely and efforts not wasted through ineffective or inefficient practices can result in significant cost-savings.

Significant differences, as well as how relevant or not some of the standards are, can arise depending on the type of course – parkland, links, heathland, etc. The wide range of standards can be readily adapted to suit individual course needs, with the aim being to provide objective assessments of the surfaces.

Whilst a complete range of performance standards can be utilised, it is often desirable to select several key ones, especially in the first stages of their implementation, to help provide the most useful information for each situation. There is little point collecting a vast amount of data if this is just to be filed away, so focus on features will provide immediate visible benefit.

Some key performance indicators, with some example data for different levels of quality, can include:

1) Green speed: This helps to determine the level of effort needed to produce a good putt. A more uniform, dry, firm, even surface, with good grass coverage, at a suitable height and minimal levels of thatch will produce a consistent, smooth and more continuous, longer roll of the ball.

A medium-fast surface, for example, might be one which is aimed for during the summer period, which equates to a distance rolled of 7' 6", typically being measured using a Stimpmeter.

Slow greens can be considered as being heavier greens, which are typically prone to undesirable levels of thatch, moisture retentive, annual meadow grass dominated greens.

A consistent green speed between different greens on the same course is more important than trying to replicate speeds from other courses.

2) Total (live) vegetative ground cover, including grass density and absence of any grain or nap: Bare and thin or worn areas detract from overall impression of a green and they do affect the playing experience. Ideally ground cover will be very high, essentially blemish free, to ensure the roll of a ball does not deviate from the planned route.

Monitoring the development of wear, mainly through observation of sward thinning, on a green helps to provide an indication of the impact play might be having on wear and this will influence the location of flag positions and even the amount of play which is taking place at certain times of the year.

If the green cannot sustain a certain level of usage, whilst maintaining the desirable level of quality, then the carrying capacity (also called the sustainable use) will have been exceeded and a reduction of use will need to take place to allow the green to recover.

The impact of a wide range of maintenance practices will also affect the total ground cover and density of the grasses.

Regular mowing of a surface will contribute to keeping a suitably dense sward. Parameters for a green might range from a minimum of 99.5% live ground coverage to 97% depending on the quality of surface at a specific time of year.

For other surfaces example parameters might be a tee ranging from a minimum of 90% to a minimum of 75%; fairway ranging from a minimum of 97% to a minimum of 92%; roughs ranging from a minimum of 90% to a minimum of 80%.

Where renovation work takes place, especially hollow-tining, then there will naturally be a bare area present in the tine hole until grass colonisation has taken place. Appropriate allowance needs to be made for this within parameters for the time of year of this activity.