One of the ways we speed up greens is through verticutting using a machine with reels like you see above. It's called vertical mowing because the blades are like a series of table-saw like blades that reach deep into the turf canopy, pulling up decaying plant matter and even standing up the grass. This does a couple things to benefit ball roll. First, it stands the grass up, allowing us to get a better cut when it's followed by greens mowers. Second, it thins the canopy to a small degree, which reduces friction working on the golf ball. This again, increases speed. With the Bob Jones Tournament on Saturday, we've been using this machine daily for the past week. In addition, we are mowing greens again each afternoon. The weather has not been very cooperative for us, but the cumulative effects of doing this along with a morning and afternoon mowing program, will lead to faster greens by Saturday. Now, if only the rain would stop and the sun would shine!
Above, you can see some of the material that remains on the green after running the verticutter across it. The green is then mowed and blown to clean up any clippings left on the turf.