Why don't they go for wall to wall fescue?
Anthony hit the nail on the head.
I have a question about poa control on RM's greens. During the Crockford decades (1937-75) it was not a problem. He kept the greens lean-and-mean, with minimal watering & fertilising. The result was brownish greens that were hard, fast and true - reputedly the world's best. Many (eg Graeme Grant) seem to think this watering regime prevented poa infestation from becoming a problem - clearly poa will struggle if not sufficiently watered during a Melbourne summer, and it needs more frequent watering than bent grass. However, I've also heard accounts that Crockford treated his greens with strong pesticides, which are now considered toxic and thus unsafe to use. So the question is whether Crockford's watering regime alone was sufficient to prevent poa infestation, or whether nasty chemicals also played an essential/significant role?
Warwick,
This is the 64 million dollar question and I'm sure everybody has their own theories.
I worked there for almost nine years under Jim Porter. When I started the non-composite greens were the original Suttons and the composite greens were Penncross. We had an Egmont chipping green, half of the main putting green was original Suttons and the other half was Penncross. We had another putting green we called “the five grass” over by the tennis courts that had five different bents all in neat sections and labeled, these were Suttons, Penncross, Egmont, Cobra and I can't remember the fifth. Anyway, my point is all the greens were surrounded by Poa Annua green surrounds and all were Poa free. I'm not sure what the process was when they replaced the composite greens to Penncross, this was started by Peter Williams (Claude Crockford's protégé) in 1988 and when Jim came on board in 1989 (ironically from Metropolitan) he still had 12 greens on the composite to convert to Penncross. What I can tell you is contrary to belief Jim keep the greens very lean and underwatered, I know because I sprayed them and was a part of watering them for a long time.
Remember, back in the Crockford years I'm sure there wasn't near the traffic as today and if you could go back in time I would love to see just how fast those greens really were compared to today??? 9' on the stimp may have been really fast to the members back then? There was nothing to truly measure the speeds back then and now all we have are stories and rumors that the greens were faster 50 years ago than they are today.
IMO the chemicals that Crockford and maybe even Williams were applying back then had a lot to do with the Poa free greens. Present day watering/fertilizer practices aren't solely to blame for the Poa problem. I have heard stories from greenskeepers that worked under Crockford and they would turn over Arsenic based pesticides into the topdressing by hand to topdress the greens annually. Obviously these trace elements stay in the sand for a long time and in leads case forever.
Back to when Peter Williams began and Jim completed the composite greens conversion with Penncross, I'm not sure how much of the native sand was disturbed? For example, they may have simply stripped the old Suttons and laid down new Penncross sod or seed. In the recent case of the greens replacement it was far more extensive than that. To cut a long story short we stripped the old sod, dumped it in a huge hole between 3w & 6W, gassed the greens with Methyl Bromide, rotary tilled the sand, laser leveled the original contours using Cad leveling programs and also added purchased sand where needed. It’s no secret that this may have affected the long lasting residual effect of these Arsenic based pesticides and also the micro-biology that had been keeping the greens Poa and disease free. Immediately after the new greens were seeded we were experiencing extensive Poa infestation and diseases that had never before been seen on the greens, namely several different fairy rings.
Another theory is as we all know Crockford rarely “aerified” the greens. Every few years he would strip the greens with a sod cutter (stacking the sod beside the green), and then remove the thatch by sod cutting again back to the sand. They would then lay the sod back on the sand. Maybe, not opening up the greens twice a year by aerifying (which is what they do now) helped by not giving the Poa seed a ¾” hole to settle into and germinate?
Hindsight is 20-20 and maybe the club should never have touched the original Suttons greens similar to how the Old Course treats their greens today. I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in the future you see these Suttons greens ripped up again and the club will resort to one of these modern Penn A’s and G’s bents. Although, if it were my decision the fairways and green surrounds would be Poa free before I replaced a green. The two grass system has had its day and needs to go, the fairways need to be clean Couch. I think the fine fescue green surrounds would be great if they can establish it…
Just to think we dumped all that precious Suttons sod in a hole....