The main aim of putting surface management must be to produce putting surfaces that are firm underfoot and refined to enable the ball to roll fast, smooth and true. The best way to achieve such surfaces is by implementing 'best practice' sustainable greenkeeping principles. This article aims to describe what these are as well as providing some supportive evidence to show that adopting these management principles actually produces results. Greenkeeping is a difficult job Producing the putting surfacesgolfers require is no easy task and is certainly not just about cutting grass. It requires complex management of the soil and turf system. To make it more difficult, golfers now demand high quality surfaces not just through the main playing season but for the whole year—golf has evolved into a year-round game. This is a hard objective even with unlimited resources and near perfect environmental conditions. Unfortunately, few, if any, greenkeepers have such luck. Most, on top of producing the desired surfaces for golf, must do so within budgetary constraints as well as increasingly stricter environmental legislation on pesticide and water use. Finally, this all has to be done in potentially more difficult environmental/weather conditions of milder, wetter autumns/winters and hotter, drier summers and springs.
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