Monthly Turfgrass Roundup: August 2016
Thailand putting green performance in July: a summary

Bangkok is a long way from Knoxville

Tys_to_bkk

When Eric Reasor came to Thailand in July, he brought along measuring tools to assess how golf balls roll across putting greens.

Eric1

He visited 22 golf courses in 5 days. Here's a map with the locations visited marked as an orange .

July_data

The primary measurement he made was rolling balls using a customized Perfect Putter, so that all balls were launched on their roll at the same line and with the same pace.

Each ball was marked where it stopped.

Eric2

Then the width and length of the dispersion area was recorded. Sometimes the balls dispersed a lot before they stopped.

Dispersion1

On other rolls, or other greens, the dispersion was relatively small.

Dispersion2

The purpose of the project is to study what factors influence the dispersion of the ball as it rolls across the green. Is it the grass species? Is it the mowing height? Do off-type grasses affect the dispersion? Is it something else? This is all part of his research about bermudagrass off-types. For an overview of this problem, see Reasor et al. on the genetic and phenotypic variability of interspecific hybrid bermudagrasses (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × C. transvaalensis Burtt-Davy) used on golf course putting greens.

As we traveled around central Thailand, we got to see all the major species used as turfgrass in this region. For more about that, see What grasses are growing on golf courses in Thailand? Here's a few notes about what we saw in July.

Seashore paspalum must be maintained with a relatively rapid growth rate in this climate. If paspalum is not kept growing, it will be overtaken by other grasses. Therefore, a lot of work is required to keep paspalum surfaces in a playable condition, and we saw verticutting on paspalum fairways to manage the organic matter.

Paspalum_vcut

There are lots of birds on Thailand golf courses. These are Asian openbill and a little egret.

Birds

I haven't identified this bird yet.

Bird2

Bermuda greens and seashore paspalum fairways are pretty common around Bangkok.

Clouds

Manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) is even more common. Let's call it ubiquitous. You can find it at the airport, along the expressways, in lawns, on golf courses, and on football fields and tennis courts.

Taxi_roadside

This is bermuda on greens with the nuwan noi variety of manilagrass on fairways. The fairway would have been planted to bermudagrass, but over time the nuwan noi comes to dominate the sward.

Korai_chonburi

In parks, palace lawns, and temples, one tends to find tropical carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) under the trees and nuwan noi manilagrass in full sun. For more about the grasses on lawns, see this post about climate and this one about botanizing in Bangkok.

Park

We were lucky with the weather for that time of year. With 22 golf courses visited, we got rained out zero times. Normal weather in July at Bangkok will have 155 mm of rain and 13 rainy days.

We saw a bit of rain, but not enough to interfere with our work.

City

It was plenty warm. These are temperatures and heat indices at the time I collected data at 19 of the courses. It was only less than 30°C twice. What a great place for a tropical holiday! Or in this case, for 5 days of intensive data collection.

Air_temperature

Heat_index

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