I remember the days vividly when I was a superintendent, when I thought the greens were great. We had planned all our spray applications and topdressing events with the goal of maximizing the performance of the putting surfaces. Mowing and rolling practices were adjusted to get our greens in peak condition for our key events. After the roller would leave the green, I would linger for a few moments, maybe even hit a few putts, and enjoy the deeply satisfying feeling that our team had produced fantastic greens.
I often wondered if that kind of greens performance was sustainable for longer than a couple days during an event. If I had data on how the greens were performing before and after those events, would that have helped me extend those windows of peak surface performance?
Regrettably, I never kept track of all the things we did to prep for those events, nor did I record the measurable outputs such as green speeds, clippings, and firmness values. It could have been that I was just too busy, but more likely, I just wasn’t that forward thinking.