Sanding greens

The River greens are growing well now and have now been de-thatched and sanded twice over the past two weeks.  This will now continue to be done weekly as weather and the golfing program permits and has a number of benefits.  It is generally the best accepted method of thatch control but I mainly use it to true the surface up and help put a little bit of speed into the greens by reducing the amount of friction between the ball roll and the greens surface.  After the sand is applied it is then rubbed in to the surface and there is little disruption to play.  Some courses refer to it as dusting but as I put it on a little heavier I like to call it sanding, although some people seem to have a phobia about the word sand and golf greens but as mentioned above, in this case there is little disruption to play.

Sanding 17 River green

Sand has been used to fine tune golf greens for a long time.  Old Tom Morris who was the "Keeper of the Greens" at Saint Andrews for many years in the late 1800's was famous for his response to the question - "What should we do to improve the greens" to which he replied (in a heavy Scottish accent) "Sand, sand, and more sand Laddie."  Old Tom is considered as the father of greenkeeping and was responsible for many advancements in the presentation of golf courses.  Amongst his many  achievements was to reduce St Andrews from over 20 holes back 18 which then became the standard for golf courses throughout the world.  Ohh, and he also won the Open Championship four times!!