Today's seminars at the Le Heritage Telfair Golf and Spa Resort in Bel Ombre drew 39 delegates, with representation from nearly all the golf clubs in Mauritius. The seminar was hosted by the resort and was put on by Bernhard & Co. with support from local companies S.C.E.T.I.A Ltée & COROI Maurice.

I spoke in the morning about Putting Green Nutrient Requirements. The presentation slides are available for download as a PDF file. I also shared this handout which contains links to many of the research papers and examples and template forms that I introduced in the presentation. 

My second presentation was on Measuring Turfgrass Performance (download slides here) in which I discussed the (sometimes) relationship between soil organic matter, soil moisture, and surface hardness. This led to a discussion of organic matter management and tine spacing. I then shared the results to date of stimpmeter measurements and Clegg Hammer measurements from hundreds of putting greens. Of particular interest to golf course superintendents in Mauritius would be the green speed of ultradwarf bermudagrass and seashore paspalum; in 75 measurements on ultradwarf greens, the median speed has been 9 feet 4 inches. In 123 stimpmeter measurements on paspalum greens, the median speed has been 8 feet 4 inches. 

Steve Wilson from Bernhard then gave a classroom seminar about quality of cut and reel and bedknife sharpening, following that up with a demonstration of reel grinding and bedknife grinding at the Heritage Golf Club workshop.