Facts & figures

Published August 16, 2016

Data collection is more and more popular and prominent in the turfgrass management community. However, misunderstandings exist regarding what to measure, how to measure and what to do with the information that will bring about agronomic benefits.

This past spring, Golf Course Industry, in partnership with POGO, conducted a research project to analyze and identify these trends with golf course superintendents.

Turf managers from throughout North America were pulled from GCI’s circulation list and asked to complete an online survey questionnaire via SurveyMonkey. The data was then collected, organized and analyzed by GCI editors

The following are breakdowns and analysis of some of responses we believed superintendents might find interesting as they consider their own data collection methods and how they fit into their overall agronomic strategy.

For more information on the topic of agronomic analytics, please checkout out a recent webinar about optimizing turfgrass performance by entering bit.ly/2ahb7kX into your browser.

— The editors

Crunching the numbers

Nearly three-quarters (75 percent) of respondents indicated they record and analyze data about their courses to assist in decision making and agronomic strategy. Of those respondents, approximately half (47 percent) indicated they compiled and analyzed their course data using Microsoft Excel, while more than a quarter (27 percent) said they use the POGO system.

In contrast, 39 percent of respondents indicated they do it the old-fashion way, employing some sort of manual recordkeeping system that includes written logs, photographs, historical notes and records.

Interestingly enough, nearly 9 percent of respondents said they simply eyeball the course conditions, visually assessing the current situation against their agronomic knowledge and an intangible gut feeling based on past experiences. As one respondent summed up: "I go out on the course every day and look at everything, which is what a superintendent should be doing."