Evaluating USGA’s TruFirm for greens firmness measurements
In our continuing efforts to develop programs that assist turf managers in maintaining optimal greens firmness (545 kd pdf), we have followed with interest the USGA's TruFirm. This tool was developed by the USGA to recreate the effect of golf ball impacts, thus assisting in preparation and monitoring of greens for consistent tournament play, day in and day out.
To this end, we were lucky this past January to be able to team up with USGA agronomist Pat Gross and Victoria Club superintendent Mark Burchfield to take a preliminary look at the TruFirm, and to compare the picture it gave us of greens firmness with that provided by the Clegg Impact meter.
As detailed in this Super Journal report (311 KB), there was a good correlation between the two devices. However, further work is needed to identify the potential role of each of these tools in greens management programs.
Project title: Measuring greens firmness using the USGA TruFirm and the Clegg Soil Impact Tester at Victoria Country Club: A preliminary study
Principal investigators: Larry Stowell, Ph.D. (PACE Turf), Pat Gross (USGA), Wendy Gelernter, Ph.D. (PACE Turf) and Mark Burchfield (Victoria Club, Riverside, CA)
Report posted 2/16/09
