My 2 cents:
For Atlanta there is no "silver bullet" or perfect grass. The ultra dwarfs today are light years ahead of the old bermudas and the turn away from over seeding to painting during dormancy is a huge leap forward. Right now in Atlanta, I am guessing 90% of all private courses are bent. A few high profile clubs (East Lake, AAC and Cherokee) have converted but most people are still sitting on the sidelines to see how things work out. For East Lake and AAC, there was absolutely no choice--if you want firm, fast greens in Atlanta in August-early September there is only one choice. The super at Cherokee (Tony Mancusso) is a disciple of the super from Memphis who has had terrific success with the ultra dwarfs and I know Tony will be very successful with bermuda at Cherokee. All those guys know grass--bent and bermuda
I am a little surprised that at AAC and Cherokee, both of which have 36 holes, they seem to be heading to going with all bermuda. I understand that choice from the super's perspective but if I were a Member I would one one course bent and one bermuda so that I always had the best of both worlds. But I am not a Member at a 36 hole facility.
I think there can be some savings although I do not think for those very high end courses wanting "bent like" performance there is a huge amount to be saved. And frankly, does anyone think that AAC, East Lake or Cherokee are really saving money or that that was a primary concern?! I think many daily fees and modest clubs that struggled with bent have found a godsend with the ultra-dwarfs (but only because they are not maintaining the bermuda at a very high level. They still can have a good product but it is not "bent like--more on that later). The bermudas can be very fast, and very firm (many higher handicap players complain about the greens being too fast and firm actually) and what I like best is that for Atlanta you would have all areas of the course (tees, fairways and greens) peaking at the same time. With bent, just as the greens are getting good in the fall, the bermuda fairways are slowing down, in the winter the greens are perfect and the fairways dormant and through late spring as the bent has peaked and you are going in to "protect mode" for the summer, the bermuda fairways are just starting to really thrive.
Also, with bermuda you get rid of fans, electric bills for fans and the cost to begin with of fans.
So, I love those aspects of bermuda. I do not think the greens roll as well but I have seen statistics that prove PGA players make just as many putts on bermuda as bent so I recognize that is a personal taste issue and I have no facts to support my view
.
At my course our play is heaviest fall through spring and has traditionally tapered off in July and August so we chose to stay with bent in 2006. Also, the bermuda was still pretty untested and there is no doubt that 2007 and 2010 were anomilies regarding temperature and heat. Atlanta is 1,000 feet above sea level and the historic average high temp in July is 88 with night time averages of 68. If we just had a normal five years I don't think there would be this big of a push toward ultra dwarfs right now. We had a freakish year last year and I tell people if I knew every year was going to be like 2010, I start spraying round up tomorrow on my bent! If Al is right and temps will stay 2-3 degrees higher then I may change my tune. But, bermuda has its own issues.
I still think the ultradwarfs are a little untested and we have forty years of experience with bent in this region. We have not had a severe winter recently and the threat of catastrophic winter kill of bermuda is just as frightening to me as the thought of horrible bent turf loss due to summer heat. It was tough but the bent did survive last year and for us, our fall, winter and spring have had near perfect putting surfaces.
I have tremendous respect for Pat O'Brien and Chris Hartwigger with the USGA--the turf advisory section is a tremendous asset and their research is terrific. In fact I invited Pat to come and give a presentation at my club last August. No doubt Pat is an evangelist for bermuda today. In fairness, in 1995 Pat was a total Crenshaw bentgrass man (prior to the development of the latest ultra dwarfs) and was convinced that was the way to go. Crenshaw was very popular and many have had great success with it but like all plants, it has its issues. The grasses du jour are the ultra dwarfs.
After a few beers with Pat and after some prodding by my super, Pat admited that there are two issues they are now seeing with both mini verde and Champion--segregation which is already affecting the look and texture in some of these early ultra dwarfs. I am no plant person but what I deduced was that the segregation was occuring a little more rapidly than may have been expected and is obviously resulting in grass of slightly different shades and textures. If I understood, the color issue is entirely cosmetic and the texture issue is really a non issue as mowing heights are so low (as low as .085!!) that with aggressive grooming, topdressing and low mowing heights, this isn't noticible. The second issue is this--the ultra dwarfs were hailed for their disease resistance and how this was going to save thousands of dollers each year in fungicide costs. Well, according to Pat, the ultra dwarfs are needing some fungicides after all
Nothing is bullet proof and there are some disease pressures that are needing to be addressed. I am sure the fungicide cost is still far less but I am betting it will increase.
Another interesting item is the overall cost factor. At a recent seminar Pat was present (and giving his bermuda sermon
) and in the audience was a super who I think is the absolute best bermuda green person ever--Chris Purvis from Berkeley Hills Country Club in Lawrenceville. He is an absolute "go to" guy and I know Ken Mangum and his committee has made more than one trip from AAC to see what Chris does to his Champion greens. Chris has an extremely modest budget and a shoe string staff and has the best ultra dwarf greens you will ever play.
Anyway, he and Pat did engage in a slightly contentious debate about the cost saving nature and how "easy" it was to have great bermuda greens comparable to the roll of bent. Chris did not see all the savings that Pat was mentioning as benefits and Chris made it clear in his experience that to achieve ball roll that he thinks is acceptable and comparable to bent, one must be very aggressive. He advocates lots of grooming, very low mowing heights (walk mowers), frequent light topdressings and in the winter, covers anytime the weather threatens to fall below 28 degrees. The covers are interesting for this reason. Say it is a decent late December day in Atlanta and it is warm enough (40-55 degrees) between 11:30 and 4:30 to play with temps falling to the twenties overnight. Chris points out that the membership must understand that in order to trap enough heat under the "blankets" and unless you can keep a large winter staff, the tarp coverage must begin fairly early--maybe by 3:30 in order to get all the greens covered ASAP. Tarping the greens is very labor intensive, is an absolute must and can disrupt play a little. Even with covering the greens, mother nature can still mess with you and winter kill is as serious a threat to bermuda as turf die back in bent in the summer. You never want to lose grass and this may sound like asking to choose between being shot or stabbed but would you rather have catastrophic grass loss in Atlanta in August when it's 100 or in April/May just as the season is getting started because of winter kill?
I do not know this answer and would love to hear others' experiences with winter kill--would lower cutting heights of the ultra dwarfs leave them more open to winter kill than fairway and rough height bermudas? If you do everything right which is a greater threat--bermuda winter kill, or catastrophic bent grass die off due to heat? Are both threats exaggerated?
According to Chris Purvis, if you go with the ultra dwarf and don't spend the time and money to "get it right" you will have crappy bermuda grass that is inferior to bent. For many daily fee courses and at facilities where mowing heights are at .125 or higher and having so-so bermuda is acceptable, I think you can have significant savings. But the more you baby it in order to get to a Berkley Hills, AAC, Cherokee, East Lake level, Chris would say you are dreaming if you think you will save the day with this "cheaper grass".
Let me be clear that I think an ultra dwarf today at .125 would blow the doors off the old bermudas and that height of cut should be more than acceptable for 98% of all players. It is sick the arms race we have gotten into in order to constantly push the edge of putting surfaces--pure lunacy and unsustainable. But, for the savings many operators seek, it will come at a price of lesser quality and the key will be if golfers will accept it. Of course, bermuda at .125 that is healthy is way better than dead bent/dirt!
One last bermuda grass jab
Pat still hasn't been able to convince his own course super to change to the bermuda yet---and his course is in Macon, GA--and hour and a half further south of Atlanta! Wade keeps Idle Hour and its tiny bent grass greens in terrific shape all year round and I'm still not ready to take the plunge.
Of course, a few more 97 degree June 2nd days and I reserve the right to do a 180.