John Kirk,
Long time no see. I hope you are well. I haven't read through the entire thread, but yes we were able to keep Kinloch virtually poa free on greens, tees, and fairways for a couple of reasons. 1. It was a brand new, virgin property in 1999 when we built the golf course. 2. We used newer (at the time) grasses that have more plants per square inch, and can help fight the pressure of poa. 3. From day one, we were on a very strong growth regulator program (Trimmit mostly) to help fight off any poa annua. 4. It is hot as hell in Richmond in the summertime. Poa hates hot! Put Kinloch in Bandon Oregon, or Monterey California, and the story has a different ending. There was not a lot of picking necessary.
Now if you want me to rant about grass, here we go. I personally have played very few fescue greens in the US that i liked. (In my eyes.) This is not a knock on the Superintendent of any of these properties, I just feel like certain grasses want to grow in certain climates. Let the poa take over the fescue greens. I would much rather putt on a poa green than a mixed poa/fescue green. I have played at places that have fought and fought to keep fescue greens, and most of them I found were not fun to putt. With that said, new products could revolutionize greens management giving many clubs the opportunity to keep bent greens clean(er). Pure poa is better than mixed bent/poa. Pure bentgrass is better than mixed bent/poa. Some of the best greens I have ever putted on were pure poa annua greens. Mixed bent/poa stands in February on tv are a Superintendent's nightmare thanks to Johnny Miller. Bentgrass is nice, crabgrass is not. Common bermuda is impossible to kill. We are Penn State - Gotta go, the game is on.