The Superintendent's Guide to Green Speed Management

- Preface.
- Introduction.
1. Problems Associated with Green Speed.
- What Is Green Speed?
- The Best Laid Plans.
- Researcher-Superintendent Communication Problems.
- Whose Golf Course Is It Anyway?
2. The History of Measuring Green Speed.
- The Development of the Stimpmeter.
- New Technology.
3. Using the Stimpmeter for Its Intended Purpose: Creating the Ideal Green Speed.
- Twenty-Five-Year Anniversary.
- Uniformity.
- Uniformity 1.
- Uniformity 2.
- The Two Directives.
- Directive 1.
- Directive 2.
- The Morris Method.
- An Ideal Green Speed: What's in It for You?
- Putting It All Together.
4. The Weather: The Known Unknown in the Quest for the Ideal Green Speed.
- Controlling the Weather.
- Seasonal Variability.
- Diurnal Variability.
- Rain, Wind, Temperature, and Humidity.
- Conclusions about Weather and Green Speed.
5. Putting Green Root Zones.
- Putting Green Root Zone History.
- The Effects of Root Zone on Green Speed.
- Root Zones and Management Practices.
6. Turfgrass Species and Green Speed.
- The Birth of Golf Turf Research.
- Early Perceptions of Green Speed on Various Turfgrass Species.
- Current Research with Putting Green Turf Species.
- Conclusions about Turfgrass Species.
7. Mowing Height.
- History of Putting Green Mowing Height.
- The Law of Diminishing Returns.
- Mower Height versus Height of Cut.
- Mower Types.
- Mower Type-Green Speed Study.
- Double Cutting.
- Conclusions about Mowing and Green Speed.
8. Fertilization and Green Speed.
- The Importance of Fertilizing.
- Nitrogen as a Fertilizer.
- Recent History of Nitrogen Fertilization on Greens.
- Nitrogen and Green Speed.
- Annual Nitrogen Rate and the "4-inch Theory".
- Root Zone-Nitrogen Rate Interactions.
- Nitrogen Frequency and Its Effect on Green Speed.
- Fast-Release versus Slow-Release Nitrogen Carriers.
- Monthly Applications of Nitrogen and Plant Growth Regulators.
- A Comparison of Liquid Nitrogen Programs.
- Monthly

THOMAS A. NIKOLAI, PhD, is the Turfgrass Academic Specialist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He is also a faculty member of The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) specializing in green speed management issues. He spent ten years working on golf courses and ten years working as a turfgrass research technician studying such topics as fertilization, topdressing, lightweight green rolling, cultivation techniques, PGR's, mowing heights, wetting agents, leaf mulching, irrigation scheduling, putting green root zone mixes, and alternative spikes.