Building a Home Golf Putting green using the USGA methodYou want a natural turf home golf putting green and you want the best technology available for its construction? Then really the only way to go is with a USGA specification putting green. What is that you ask?The United States Golf Association (USGA) has spent millions of dollars and decades into researching what makes a good and successful golf green. Way back in the 60’s they came out with a series of recommendations, which through continued research have been tweaked and adjusted. Essentially the two important aspects to these greens are: 1. Their huge infiltration rates combined with drainage systems which prevent them from becoming waterlogged or excessively wet. 2. The perched water table effect they create to prevent them from draining too much water from the rootzone.How does it work you ask?Essentially they are like huge flower pots, a flower pot has a hole in the bottom for drainage, a bit of gravel for drainage, and the potting soil on top. What happens when you water it is the water fills all the pore spaces in the soil. Then any excess water in the macropores (large spaces between soil particles) drains out the bottom by gravity, but because of the larger gaps in the gravel, the water remains in the micropores (very tiny spaces between soil particles) and is held there by capillary action. The plant(s) then have water available similar to the water held in a sponge, but are not drowning and the roots have good gas exchange due to the macropores being full of air.The USGA recommendations for your home golf putting green will work similarly, in that the rootzone specifications will have approximately 50% of the volume being space between the soil particles, and that pore space will be roughly half macropore for air exchange, and half micropore for water retention. Below that rootzone will be a coarse layer also known as the choker layer whose purpose is to prevent the finer rootzone material from seeping into the drainage gravel layer. Finally below that is a gravel layer, again with a specific sizing requirement so that it drains well, but also has adequate bridging properties to prevent the layers above from seeping down. Because it has very large pore spacing, the excess water will drain out, while the micropores in the upper layer will retain enough reserve of water to continue feeding the plants. How do you build it you ask?
See Part 2 of Building a Home Golf Putting green using the USGA method/ Part 3 Filling your USGA green Any questions? Contact us! |
