Is rolling the greens 3 or 4 times a week a good idea?

[Lou_Duran]

During my recent Chicago trip, I learned that a number of area courses roll their greens every other day.  My home course seldom rolls its greens (compaction issues? labor costs?), and I don't think that it is a common practice to roll the greens very often down here (Texas).  I did notice that the greens in Chicago roll more true (little bounce and hold the line) and tend to be faster.  Of course, this could be a function of any number of things such as grass types (bent vs. hybrid bermudas) and budgets as much as the use of rollers.  Any thoughts?

[Anthony_Nysse]

My dad rolls greens 4-5 times a week.(Bentgrass) Here at Long Cove we try for 3 times a week with the Tifeagle and 3-4 on the cool season, poa Triv.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Lou,

According to superintendents, rolling of older greens (with no USGA Mix, and with Penncross/German Bent/Poa Annua) gets the "last half foot" of speed that members want out of these older grasses better and with less turf damage than double cutting or cutting the turf as low as the newer varieties allow.  It also gets them a bit smoother and doesn't stress or compact the green at all.

Once it becomes part of the program, they do it every other day to avoid having to tell the members who play, say Thursdays, that they don't deserve as smooth a green as the members who play over the weekend - in other words, rolling often gives more consistent conditions and probably costs about the same as double cutting in terms of labor.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Lou,
Rolling is a great way to pick up a few inches of pace with out cutting lower. Used to be just used for special events but now is fairly common practice on many courses. I'd be surprised if most mid to high end courses across the nation (or world) don't have a regular rolling program. (Also helps a lot to get freshly sanded or aerated greens up to speed).
Either the USGA or GCSAA did a study that basically proved that the old conventional wisdon about rolling causing significant compaction was a myth and that a good rolling program was part of a healthy management program for sand based greens.

[Craig Sweet]

For what it's worth...we host the Montana Open every year....this year we double mowed the greens on Wed. and double mowed and rolled them on Thursday....they were double mowed Fri. Sat and Sun. as well....

The weather was nice and dry and warm until Sat. night into Sunday morning when it rained.

The greens speed was around 10.8 on Wednesday...jumped to 11.5 on Thurday...11.8 on Friday and Sat...and dropped back to around 10.5- 10.8 on Sunday....we did nothing different from day to day, except for the rolling on Thursday to the greens...and of course the greens were probably 6"-12" slower in the evenings than the mornings...

So, when someone talks about green speed, and a "cap" on green speeds, I'd like to know how they plan to do that.

[igrowgrass]

If you are really interested in learning about rolling of golf course greens, you should contact Dr. Thom Nikolai at Michigan St. University.  Over the last few years he has done studies to determine the effects  of rolling on golf course greens.  He advices that you can roll up every other day without diminishing returns to the plant.  An added bonus along with rolling this much has shown a reduction in the frequency of dollar spots on a green.  

[RJ_Daley]

Lou, just don't tell us they are rolling 1/2 the green1