Healthy turf can provide firm footing

Waterlogging reduces a soil's slip resistance.

John R. Cockrell, Ph.D.

Y POINTS
Both metal spikes and alternative cleats need healthy turf to provide firm footing. Waterlogged soil can cause turf to decline and soil to become algae-covered, soft and slippery. Severe decline of turf due to waterlogged soil can lead to slip and fall accidents, particularly on slopes.

Today's golf shoe traction devices spikes, cleats, nubs, or combinations of these - are designed to interact with healthy turf and deliver firm, safe footing with minimal turf damage. The various traction systems achieve these goals to varying degrees; however, all can be defeated by unhealthy turf with low shoot densities and shallow, poorly developed root systems. The condition that contributes most to poor turf health and reduced traction is waterlogged soil. Much has been studied and written about the causes of waterlogged soil on golf courses, which include (1,5,6,8,9): Soil compaction, very low infiltration rates Overirrigation, exceeding infiltration capacity Inadequate supplemental drainage High precipitation, low evaporation or low light intensity in seasonal or regional climates Runoff from other surfaces or higher ground The effects of saturated soil include thin turf, reduced soil oxygen, shallow turf rooting, additional compaction under traffic, restricted rhizome growth, moss and algae growth, Pythium damage, black layer formation, root rot and muddy, mushy soil.

In simplest terms, slip resistance is the ability of the shoe-and-turf "system" to provide firm footing and prevent slipping. Healthy turf is a very important and necessary component of this system, if firm footing is to be provided. When soil becomes chronically saturated and turfgrass thins and weakens, slip resistance can decline to hazardous levels.

Slip resistance
Slip resistance is a measure of the amount of backward push the shoe and turf system can produce against the forward push of the foot during walking. It is expressed as the highest ratio of the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) forces from the foot that can be resisted by the shoe and turf to hold the foot in place during a step and prevent slipping. It can be measured by state-of-theart instruments that apply horizontal and vertical forces simultaneously, just as the human foot does, to a shoe that is stepped down onto the turf surface. The instrument, which has been most extensively used to evaluate the slip resistance of golf shoe traction devices, is the Brungraber Mark II slip tester, as described in American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard F1677-96.

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Measured slip resistance can vary from near zero - as for very slippery surfaces such as wet ice - to a high of 1.1 for such high-traction systems as dry, broom-finished concrete and soft rubber shoe soles. The amount of slip resistance needed to prevent slipping for the average person walking with normal strides on a level surface has been the subject of extensive research (2, 3,4, 7). Approximately 0.22 is the ratio of forward horizontal and vertical forces produced by the foot during a step, and this number is therefore the approximate minimum ratio of backward forces that must be developed by the shoe traction devices and turf to prevent slipping.

In other words, the quotient of H/V for the backward force of the shoe and turf together must be greater than the quotient of H/V for the foot's forward movement if slipping is to be avoided. The necessary slip resistance increases when the turf is sloped and can be calculated for any angle of slope using the following equation:

tan 5 + RL 1 - RL tan 5
Where Rs is the minimum necessary slip resistance at a downhill slope of S degrees and RL is the minimum slip resistance needed on a level surface (approximately 0.22).
continued

When turf is thin or nonexistent,

spikes are not enough protection

against falls.

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When chronically waterlogged soil and thinned turf reduce available slip resistance, and slope increases the amount needed, slip-and-fall accidents become more likely. To illustrate the effect of turf health and soil conditions on slip resistance, two of the most effective shoe traction devices were tested with the Brungraber Mark II tester on bermudagrass golf

course turf in North Carolina. Test areas included both healthy %-inch fairway turf and waterlogged areas with substantial turf damage and algae development. Both the 6-millimeter metal spike and the Softspike Extra Performance cleat provide off-the-charts slip resistance on healthy turf, even when it's wet. When grass cover is reduced to approximately 50 percent and soil is wet and covered with algae, slip resistance is substantially reduced, but still to safe levels. However, when grass cover is very thin - less than 10 percent - and the wet soil is muddy, slip resistance declines to levels that can be hazardous even on modest slopes. In the interest of firm footing and golfers' safety, steps should be taken to correct and eliminate areas of waterlogged soil and related thin turf .

Literature cited 1. Beard, ].B. 1982. Turf management for golf courses. Macmillan, New York. 2. Brungraber, R. 1996. On the subject of standards criteria for slip-resistance of walkway surfaces. Memorandum to American Society for Testing and Standards Committee F-13 (March 5). 3. Brungraber, R., and ]. Templer. 1991. Controlled slip resistance. Progressive Architecture March, p. 112-116. 4. Buczek, EL. 1990. Untitled. p. 39-54. In B.E. Gray (ed.), Slips, stumbles, and falls: pedestrian footwear and surfaces. American Society for Testing and Materials STP 1103. 5. Carpenter, L., and D.A. Oatis. 1994. Wet greens: Let's try this first. Bulletin of the Green Section of the USGA 32(4):5-8. 6. Gross, P.]. 1996. Suck-cess. Bulletin of the Green Section of the USGA 34(3):29. 7. Perkins, P.]. 1978. Measurement of slip between shoe and ground during walking. p. 71-87. In: C. Anderson and ]. Senne (eds.), Walkway surfaces: measurement of slip resistance. American Society for Testing and Materials STP 649. 8. Turgeon, A.]. 1996. Turfgrass management. 4th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.]. 9. Zontek, S.]. Managing soil water. Bulletin of the Green Section of the USGA 32(5):1-4.

The Brungraber Mark II slip tester allows the author to test the traction of turf and golf shoes on a tee.

John R. Cockrell, Ph.D., specializes in slip resistance technology and pedestrian fall science with SKL Laboratories, Greensboro, N. C.

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