At ETL, we were eager to establish whether organic matter in golf greens modified with their age as a general trend. For ease of self categorisation Course Managers put greens into the one of the following categories which included individual greens from numerous courses:
Summary of the relationship between the age of golf greens and levels of organic matter at all depths of the profile:
- Overall, it can be safely concluded that as greens age, generally they accumulate increasing organic matter levels.
- Whether this remains a trend which can be slowed or even prevented is not concluded within this research element but is an interesting discussion point.
- Organic matter appears to increase at all depths in line with an increase in age of greens tested.
- Of all the research concluded by ETL, the strength of the relationship in this aspect certainly intimates that as greens age, Course Managers must work significantly harder to buck the trend of increasing organic matter content.
Understanding why organic matter increases with the age of greens as a general trend needs to be considered both in agronomic and circumstantial terms.
- Courses limited in resources will tend to have older greens which have not been heavily renovated or reconstructed in recent years or decades, and as such are older.
- As outlined in our previous article looking at sand volumes, courses with older greens will tend to have lower resource and don’t necessarily prioritise (or can’t afford) to apply sufficient sand volumes to greens.
- Older greens will tend to be more dominated by ‘soil style push-up’ greens of variations of which will generally have slower drainage, leading to quicker rates of organic matter accumulation due to being wetter for longer in the year.
- As greens start to accumulate organic matter and it is not adequately controlled or diluted in earlier years, in most circumstances this starts to result in more moisture retentive upper profiles. Where greens, especially in countries that experience a winter build excessive organic matter, they sit wetter for longer often becoming anaerobic. This environment limits and slows natural degradation of organic matter, meaning a quicker build-up of it within older greens.