Wow.
Isn't this just a train wreck.
I've been hearing about this thread for weeks now and finally have had enough time to read it. Guaranteed an hour of my life I won't get back.
Let me shed some light that I think all of you need.
1. If you want to know more about the grassing choices made at BN, read my August 2006 interview here on GCA.
2. Bent. You all are throwing this around as if you know, but the critical mistake being made is the differentiation between Creeping Bent and Colonial Bent (aka Browntop). BN's greens were originally seeded in a Browntop/Fescue blend. With seed count leaning toward the Colonial.
3. Seamless Transition. One of the things that Camp Doak wanted was the seamless transition between fairway and green and the ability to mow the greens larger or smaller when needed. Much like how the 18th at St. Andrews is often mowed differently to catch a contour closer to the Valley of Sin. Tom and Bruce Hepner felt this to be one of the best parts of what we did at Pacific Dunes and we very much wanted to achieve that at BN. There was a special mix for Greens and Tees. Fairways much the same, but with more Fescue than Browntop to handle a higher height of cut.
4. Contamination. Contamination of seed is a very real thing and happens all the time. In the case of BN, a tiny bit of creeping bent probably ended up in the mix because the same equipment at the seed supplier was used to blend other grasses. My instructions to everyone were to blend seed at the site to avoid this, but to the original super (not Dave Hensley) it seemed like too much work and he let the seed company blend the seed for the greens. Around year two that decision proved to be a mistake.
5. Climate Study. As I have said over and over here and other places, we did an Awesome Job of studying the climate at BN. We knew the weather and soil temps inside and out. The Fescue/Browntop concept wasn't at all an unstudied move and I and many others stand by that.
6. Creeping Bent. Having said that, we knew that Creeping Bentgreens were probably a higher percentage shot, but they didn't give us the flexibility and seamlessness desired correctly by team Doak. We also knew that if the Browntop/Fescue greens were too difficult for BN, Creeping Bent could be interseeded easily and not be looked at as any kind of compromise or loss. In fact, at Cape Kidnappers we made the decision to do use Creeping Bent from the beginning without any loss of integrity or change in desired contours.
7. Current Ballyneal Situation. Dave Hensley is the MAN. I've said this over and over as well. I love Dave and love his heart and spirit for BN. I'm damn glad he hasn't read this topic, because really, all the discussion would be completely dispiriting to him. I've rarely seen someone put so much effort into making a place be so awesome. He does it quietly in a place where it isn't exactly easy to live (Holyoke is a scene like no other) and for a long time Dave has done it with little or no money. So at a certain point Dave had to recognize that doing the job meant looking at the situation. Fescue/Browntop fairways doing good. Greens having some issues that would have been easy to solver earlier, but no labor or seed money to handle it. Greens getting older. He told me his heart was broken when he began interseeding Creeping Bent, but that's the only way to make it work and really, it isn't a bad idea. My hat is so far off for Dave Hensley and his family for all he has done and I guarantee you, I don't know anyone else who could do what he does. A true master. But it was time for Dave to embrace a necessary and good agronomic change and be able to manage for that.
8. Playability. BN players won't see that much difference here. Most people could never pick out Browntop vs. Creepers vs. Fine Fescues. But he has to be able to fertilize and water with some degree of sensibility to create great greens. And that means development of a program that favors the weather and play at BN. The green speeds (which by the way you enlightened ones shouldn't give a shit about) won't affect the great contours.
9. Procedure. Dave has done test plots and again is way ahead of us all. He has picked a great creeping bent cultivar (SR1150) and will gently interseed into existing turf sward. There is no grand greens renovation going on at BN and if anyone thinks or says that, they are wrong.
10. Fescue. Fescue is not a failure. Ever. But at BN, we knew that Fescue was a 1-iron at low heights of cut. Thus the Browntop, which, by the way, is more common in the linksland than ever. Should we have done 100% fescue there? No. But I would have liked to try. Browntop is a much misunderstood grass and not an easy keeper. The blend of fescue and browntop is heirloom and traditional and we all should love it. But really Fescue alone (as proven by another Master, Ken Nice, and his Team, Bandon) is really good. Probably not for Eastern Colorado and we knew that.
Lastly...
I'm not going to hang around and answer questions. Doing that here has always lead to a gigantic waste of my time. Sorry. But it's true. Most of the folks that will come running love to see a dogpile more than they really want to respect the difficult work that greenkeeping and agronomy really is. You guys can be downright mean, not to mentioned ill-informed and many seem to just be spoiling for a fight.
What's sad about that is as Tom Doak has pointed out, because of the bad actors here and the amount of signal to noise ratio, the people that really know aren't coming by because really, why enter a flame zone and be challenged about every work and thought that make up what we do FOR A LIVING and not as a hobby. I've blathered on here lots about getting more respect for Greenkeeping. The way this thread shows up totally tells me that that crusade is a fail.
And having said that...read my latest Blog entry on Turfnet.
http://www.turfnet.com/blog/5/entry-443-an-open-letter-to-the-green-chairman/Thanks for reading.