1925 article: "U.S. Experts Evolve New Wonder Grass"

[Joe Bausch]

This is 'old hat' for some of the experts here, but I found it to be a nice read.

[TEPaul]

Joe:

That article is a very good layman's working history of the development of creeping bent grass for golf in this country---via the so-called "vegetative process." That entire thing with the inclusion of the names of the men who primarily created and promoted it are Piper and Oakely (Carrier, Walton et al), the Wilson brothers, Toomey and Flynn, Walter Harban, E.J. Marshall, Mr. Whitney, owner of Prudence Island RI and to some extent C.B. Macdonald. This was the work of the US Dept of Agriculture at its golf turf grass plots at their Arlington Virginia experimental station, that evolved into first the USGA Green Committee which morphed into the USGA Green Section in 1925.

For more detail in this entire creation and evolution reported by this article one should refer to the so-called "agronomy letters."

There is one mistaken item in that report though and that is that brown patch did not affect this creeping bent grass. Hugh Wilson became somewhat frantic in the end (of his life) that unless some better remedy was found to slow down large and small brown patch that the problem might ruin their entire years long effort to promote creeping bent grass for golf.

PS:
Toomey and Flynn's farm in Montgomery County where they housed some of their crew became for a time a very productive station for the development and dissemination of this creeping bent via the vegetative process. That is obviously why you see the mention in that article of their Manufacturers and Marble Hall (Green Valley).

The lady in the photo in that article was Rodman Griscom's (Wilson Committee member) sister. Their other brother, Lloyd, was the ambassador to Italy. She won the US Amateur in 1900. Their father, Clement Griscom owned the land of one of the nines of the original Merion Haverford course. Clement Griscom was the chairman of what was known as  International Mercantile Marine (affectionately known as "the Shipping Trust"). That entity financed by the likes of Drexel and Morgan arguably had more tonnage at sea than any other entity. It included the White Star Line which owned the Titanic.

[Tom_Doak]

Joe:

One of my favorite stories about grass cultivars:

When I worked for Perry Dye, he asked me to talk to the turf program at Colorado State about grass specs for our new course in Denver (now Riverdale Dunes).  Perry wanted to use bentgrass fairways, but all the professors said that wouldn't work in Denver, and recommended various cultivars of the then-best dwarf bluegrasses [none of which could be mowed lower than 3/4 of an inch].

Anyway, I reported back to Perry that they all recommended their new miracle bluegrass.  And for the next year or two, Perrry kept asking about it, because he thought Miracle was a cultivar, when it was just a New York boy being cynical.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

What grass was used and how has it fared over the years ?

[Tom_Doak]

Pat:

We planted creeping bent on the fairways ... I don't remember the exact cultivar, that was a long time ago!

It's held up fairly well, according to my associates who live in Denver.  There's a fair amount of poa annua in it now, of course.  And it's a bit of a struggle to keep it from getting too thatchy at a low-cost county-owned course.

We actually did use a dwarf bluegrass for the fairways at our new public course out there, Common Ground.  The newer varieties of bluegrass can handle the lower cut a lot better than the ones from 25 years ago.  It's hard to get chipping areas to perform as you'd like them too, but at fairway height they are a good surface and there is a decent amount of roll-out on tee shots.

[TEPaul]

Joe:

True story: 

With that exact so called new wonder grass mentioned in that article (loosely explained as pure bent via the US Dept of Ag's "vegetative process") there is some correspondence between Alan Wilson and Piper (around the mid 1920s) in which Alan Wilson tells Piper that some of the best players in Philadelphia don't like it because it's too "slippery" on the greens.

Piper fires back a letter asking Alan what the hell "slippery" is supposed to mean. Piper apparently thought Alan meant golfers might be having problems with their footing or something on the greens. Alan responds that it's about the unpredicatablility of their putting (I think Alan is explaining the affects of "grain" on putting).

So Piper writes back saying who the Hell cares what golfers think of it since the only point is it grows just great on the US Dept of Ag's experimental plots in Arlington, Va?

Alan writes back asking Piper if anyone actually hits putts on those experimental plots and Piper responds; "Of course not, what does that have to do with it?"

These scientists are something else, don't you think Joe? By the way, Joe, what is it you do for a living?