Technical
M
any of you may not realise that rolling a golf or bowls green to produce a smoother, truer surface is a regular activity for every greenkeeper and golf
course. Whether you have a dedicated turf roller or not, every time the greens are cut, they are effectively rolled by the action of the cutting units or mower passing over the surface. After all, it’s not the cutting cylinder that leaves the stripe, it’s the roller the cutting head runs on that produces the distinctive finish to finely mown surfaces.
So it’s not a question of whether to roll or not, but more a question of how much rolling we should incorporate into the maintenance programme to get the best results for our course or rink. In a previous article, we covered how, by changing the weight of the cutting units’ rollers, we can easily increase, or decrease the amount of rolling action we deliver when mowing the surface. (See Pitchcare June-July 2014).
Double Cutting
The classic way to improve the speed and presentation of the playing surface is to double cut. Cutting twice will remove more grass and leave the sward with a truer and tighter cut, but it is also double the amount of rolling action over the surface, which also increases speed and trueness.
With modern machinery, we can achieve the ‘double cut’ effect by increasing the clip rate (or cuts per metre), thereby achieving an improved cut quality, but without the additional rolling effect. By separating the two activities, we are in fact getting more control over our mowing regime; having produced a higher quality cut, the greens performance can be checked and then an additional roll added to
increase the speed further, if required.
So it can be useful to separate rolling from mowing, which is why there are a number of roller options on the market, which all deliver an additional rolling action to the surface.
Accessory weighted rollers, some with vibrating elements, will transform the greens triple mower into a greens rolling machine. Most riding greens mowers can swop units quickly, and some courses keep an older greens mower, which is dedicated for these utility heads, making this a really viable option.
If accessory units are not viable, then there is a range of self-propelled turf rollers, which give an excellent rolling action and use trailers for easy transport around the course.
Rolling Effects
It is easy to see that rolling will immediately produce a smoother, truer surface. Such improvements can easily be measured using a Stimp Meter or a Parry Meter. What is perhaps less well understood is that this effect will last on the green for up to forty-eight hours after the roll, leaving a residual effect and higher than ‘normal’ speeds, improving the standards of the playing surface, without requiring daily use of the roller.
Mowing and/or rolling
There has been a move, in recent years, to operating a mix of both mowers and rollers as part of the regular course maintenance programme. So, when higher speeds are required, both mowers and rollers are used. In hotter, drier conditions, mowing and rolling on alternate days can produce the best effect, as the stresses of daily mowing are removed, without impacting green speeds and smoothness/trueness. In the autumn, again,
Drive to both rollers helps with traction
It can be useful to separate rolling from mowing, which is why there are a number of roller options on the market
PC JUNE/JULY 2015 I 133
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