It seems this thread has got a little flamed up and out of hand and I think Adrian is right to bring it back to Ian's original post. Let's clear a few things up again:
Ian, I apologize if you took my posts to be any criticism of your work or programs. Completely not my intention. My intention was two-fold:
(1) You say anyone that says the "BENT IS BEST" is misinformed and naiive, saying that one particular grass cannot be best due to the many climates and global situations even though you do actually claim, in your orginal post, that Poa is the best putting surface (when managed correctly of course). Seems hypocritical......
(2) You started getting worked up by "armchair superintendents" or others who aren't....I guess, seasoned.....supers like yourself that like to throw in their two cents on this board. My long post was not to criticize your programs but to argue that non-armchair supers would not do the same exact thing, the same exact way, with the same exact frequency with complete disregard to the type of grass they're growing. As you again countered when discussing UK courses, with different budgets, expectations (and I would hope with different grass types with different needs) you SHOULD do things differently. Same basics, yes, but maybe not the same way with the same frequency. THAT'S the part of your claim I was arguing against. If you walked in the door for this job and my GM asked you, "I see you've worked mainly with Poa greens.....how would you manage these greens differently being predominantly Bentgrass?" and you said "Nothing....I would manage them the same," your resume would go in the round file.
In what I hope to be somewhat of a conclusive statement, and getting back toward the orginal question: Why the hatred towards Poa annua? I simply state two things for the hatred:
(1) Agreeing with Adrian, if you asked 100 supers whether they'd prefer brand new 100% bent vs. 100% poa greens, the overwhelming majority would choose Bent. Why?
(2) For all the reasons you describe as being necessary to justify your clause of "MANAGED CORRECTLY" in order to be the best putting surface. There is nothing wrong, per say, with Poa as a putting surface, as we've concluded, there are EXCELLENT greens with mostly Poa. The hatred stems from the fact that MORE intensive maintenance, chemicals, costs, fretting, handwatering, late nights and long days are required to maintain Poa to this high standard of being dubbed an "excellent green" of the likes of Oakmont, where bentgrass, as a comparable putting surface, still requiring NORMAL, BASIC greens maintenance practices, factually requires much LESS inputs and time, as I numerically pointed out, in the way of irrigation, labor attention, nutrients and fungicides.
That is merely my case.....Bent may not be "best," and Poa may not be "worst," but I firmly take my stance that (for the third time, and you can quote me on it), from a maintenance and subjective playability (meaning my own personal taste) standpoint, Bentgrass greens are better than Poa greens.