Morris’ Stimpmeter study reveals optimum speed

FRANKFORT, Mich. - The Stimpmeter has never been a superintendent’s best friend, but here at Crystal Downs Country Club, Mike Morris has changed all that. After an exhaustive two-year study that included Stimping two greens twice a day, collecting weather data, recording cultural practices and surveying members, Morris has determined the optimum green speed for the 1933 Alister MacKenzie and Perry Maxwell-designed layout.

“We never had a problem with green speed before,” said Morris. “But the issue arose at the club after we had a course come in up the street that had A4 bentgrass greens that were fast as lightening. All of a sudden it became a problem.

“The greens committee wanted to know two things: What is the most appropriate green speed for our golf course, and what is the range of green speed that we can maintain consistently,” he continued.

Morris turned to Michigan State University turfgrass research specialist Thom Nikolai to find answers to these questions.

“He asked me if you could have the same speed every day throughout the year,” said Nikolai. “I told him the easy answer is ‘No way.’ But a better answer is ‘Let’s find out.’ So we started this study.”

In addition to recording weather data, Morris took Stimpmeter readings at two different greens twice a day for two years to determine the actual green speed.

“We measured speed and what inputs impacted speed and tried to get a range,” said Morris. “But the way we determined the appropriate range was by doing a golfer survey. For two years we surveyed 20 golfers who play regularly and who represent a cross-section of skill levels.”

The blind survey asked golfers whether they thought the greens were too fast, fast but okay, okay, okay but too slow, or too slow. Putting the survey results side-by-side with the actual Stimpmeter readings allowed Morris and Nikolai to compare perceptions with reality.

“When we compared the survey with the actual green speed, we found that when our greens were between 9.5 and 10.5, 80 percent of the golfers were answering fast but okay or okay. This is what we were shooting for,” said Morris. “When we went to 10.5 to 11.5 we got 20 percent saying it was too fast, so there is an upper limit.”

Morris found that it was possible to maintain the range between 9.5 and 10.5 on his bent/Poa annua greens throughout the year.

“We do everything we can to hit the target range,” he said. “We have gone to every other day rolling and spoon-feeding fertilizer to eliminate the ups and downs caused by fertilizer.”

With the comparison results in hand and maintenance regime finalized, both Morris and his greens committee feel they have found the optimum green speed range for the course that can be maintained consistently and make the members happy consistently. This has solved numerous problems.

“There is now an optimum speed that can be managed and maintained,” said Morris. “In the past we would speed up the greens for the member-guest and then go back to our routine maintenance and that’s when the complaints came. So we have developed a policy that this is the green speed for our course and we don’t speed them up for events. These are the speeds that the members have chosen to play, so we have taken that issue out of the equation.”

In the process, Morris has eliminated complaints from members.

“This process worked because we involved them,” he said. “It has been great and everyone is buying into it.”

Nikolai would like to see more courses follow Morris’ lead.

“He has taken control of green speed from his membership because he uses the Stimpmeter and they know he uses the Stimpmeter,” he said. “Now they have an understanding that Mike has this under control. I want to see more superintendents do this.”