Wear problems on putting greens are common and can be caused by traffic from golfers and traffic from maintenance practices such as mowing and rolling. Greens vary significantly in their susceptibility to wear based on a host of variables. Severely contoured putting greens can be especially susceptible, particularly when they are small, shaded or intensively maintained. Having the ability to adjust management practices on a green-to-green basis is important and can improve the performance of individual greens tremendously.
Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville, New Jersey, has severely contoured greens and rollers were causing wear in specific areas of certain greens. Due to the contours, some can only be mowed and rolled in certain directions. Superintendent Ryan Tuxhorn developed an easily adjustable guide with specific rolling instructions for each putting green so that roller operators can change practices regularly based on turfgrass health.
Overhead images of every green were obtained from Google Earth, laminated and placed in a three-ring binder. Specific instructions for rolling each green are written on the laminated pictures with dry-erase pens and adjusted as necessary. The information includes the best direction to roll and identifies areas that should be avoided. Somerset Hills generally uses two roller operators, so two binders were produced for the two basic rolling directions (6:00 – 12:00 and 3:00 – 9:00) for each operator.
