– How do is the grass / turf on golf putting greens grown so dense, uniformly, and smooth?
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Very specific type of grass and meticulous maintenance. A friend of mine has a degree in the field but I can’t remember what it’s actually called.
As mentioned, it is specific grass. Typically bentgrass or Bermuda. It is also cut very short (0.100-0.200 in), and the mowers have rollers to help compress and even out the dirt. Regular aeration and fertilization/pesticide use as necessary as well. And they are watered usually several times a day to make sure they stay healthy. The dirt and construction of the green is also very technical to provide the right firmness and ensure drainage, etc.
In addition to that, it takes a lot of maintenance on the mowers themselves to ensure a perfect cut. I was a mechanic at a golf course, and whenever we would have a tournament and the super would want me to drop the cut height I’d often discover some minor issues that would effect the green at the lower height. I actually had a prism that I would use to magnify the grass to check for minute waviness across the grass or rough cutting, all of which would effect play.
High quality grasses are selectively bred or engineered.
These are then laid with the subsurface having to meet requirements for water drainage and retention as well as clay and mineral content and absorption.
This is then leveled are shaped according to design requirements for the club.
The grass it self is maintained with cylinder or reel mowers.
These do not cut like a regular mowers with a fast moving blading chopping at the grass, instead more like scissors slicing through the leaf of the grass hundreds of times per second.
Each time a green is cut it is done at a different direction to the previous one, this promote growth in all directions instead of cutting it the same way every time where the blades of grass may lay over and grow longer before reaching blade height (the bowling greens I worked on where cut at around 2.5/3mm most of the time and as low as 1.5mm before select competitions)
The greens are also aerated or cored regularly to maintain the subsurface content and hardness of the ground.
Another process used is know as scarifying.
This involves using a machine with many vertical blades that cut the tubular non leafy part of the grass under the blades of the grass.
This removes old growth and prevents over compaction or crowding.
The surface is then covered with PGA certified sandy loam (sand with specific clay and mineral content)
Which is screened over and leveled.
All of this along with pesticides, herbicide, fungicide and fertilisers.
The greens can also be “rolled” using a machine that sits on cylindrical rollers that are quite heavy and compress(harden) The surface before games.
There’s a whole lot of work that goes into maintenance of competitive greens and grass playing surfaces.
1) The greens are regularly topdressed with sand so the ground is level. Achieving a level surface allows you to effectively use a reel mower. Reel mowers can cut much lower and cleaner than a traditional homeowner’s rotary style mower.
2) When you cut low, it encourages the grass to tiller outward (rather than upward). This outward growth is further encouraged by using a product called Plant Growth Regulator.
3) A shortcut lawn on a level surface looks dense, uniform, and smooth.
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I worked on a golf course for a couple years so i feel at least partially qualified to answer this.
Its a specific type of grass, and the greens are mowed at least every 3rd day. We did it every other day and you could tell when it was a mow day by looking at it (at least those of us that worked there could maybe not someone who doesnt see it every day)
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