STRI (Sports Turf Research Institute) Bulletin April 2014 | Page 6

GOLF
Moving On
Our clients were asking how to
measure progress and we needed a
better method of agronomy to assist
in the process of improving golf course
performance. Our response was the
development of the STRI Programme.
It took a while and was a challenging
process. We stuck with it because we
knew it was the right thing to do in
order to improve our advice as well
as golf course performance. Analysis
of the data from all STRI Programme
visits each year shows golf course
performance is improving and those
that have been in the Programme
for the longest have the greatest
improvements. But, in addition to
illustrating the progress of our clients,
it also highlights some key relationships
regarding golf green performance.
We are going to describe the results
from the data analysis showing how
the sward species composition of
the greens has a major impact on the
performance of the surfaces.
A New Method
Since the start of the STRI Programme
service in 2010, we have collected
3,735 sets of data from 1,866 greens.
To assess the effect of sward species
composition on surface performance,
we categorised the species composition
of all the greens measured and grouped
them into those dominated by annual
meadow-grass and those dominated
by the finer grasses. The style of the
course was irrelevant in this analysis as
we are solely focused on sward type.
The standard deviation was measured
to show the level of variability for each
year. Greens categorised as annual
meadow-grass dominant are selfexplanatory, ie surfaces that support
50% or more of this species. Greens
categorised as fine grass dominant
are surfaces that support over 50%
of their population dominated by the
finer grasses. This may be a fescue
or fescue/bent dominated surface
in a links or heathland setting or a
browntop bentgrass dominant green
in a parkland setting, with over 50%
of the sward dominated by the finer
bentgrass species. As course type was
irrelevant to the analysis, this was all
about comparing the performance of
different sward types. This is what we
learnt.

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Bulletin April 2014 Issue 265

Smoothness
When it came to smoothness, we found
that fine grass dominated greens were
consistently smoother than annual
meadow-grass dominated greens. In
relatively dry years such as 2010 and
2013 the average values fell within the
desirable and challenging target range.
For 2011 and 2012 they fell just outside.
Conversely, for annual meadow-grass
dominant greens, at no point over the
four years did the average smoothness
value fall within the desired target.
The data also shows how consistent
fine grass greens were over the four
year period. Despite varying weather
conditions, with 2010 and 2013 being
relatively dry and 2011 and 2012 being
wet, the fine grass greens remained
relatively consistent. The same cannot
be said for annual meadow-grass
dominated greens, which were much
more vulnerable to prevailing weather

conditions. In relatively dry years such
as 20