Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Oregon has been my home club since 1992. We have two big golf courses (6800 and 7100 yards), one of which is typically open to the public.
The club was sold last year to Escalante Golf, a Dallas, TX "boutique" golf firm with 15-20 premium properties in their portfolio, including Black Diamond Ranch in Florida and Sonoma Golf Club in California. Though I was skeptical of their new presence and enthusiasm last fall, Escalante has responded by investing substantially in infrastructure, and providing outstanding playing conditions for the members this year. It's been a wonderful year for golfing at the home club.
At 26-27 years old, the turf has undergone a near complete transition to Poa annua grass. In the last few years, the Poa has evolved into a tight knit greens surface that allows "rolling" the surface to induce faster green speeds as desired. The greens roll about 10.5 feet without rolling, and can be increased to 11.5 feet for a couple days without injury. This is important for our championship style golf courses, as the slopes around the green are rather subtle, and the penalty equation for short-siding yourself is better at higher speeds.
The superintendent since the club's inception has been replaced by a younger superintendent who worked at a nearby course. Our new superintendent has implemented more aggressive techniques to provide high quality playing conditions, most notably the use of growth regulators in the fairways and seed suppression on the greens. In addition, he is only aerating the greens in spring, rather than the historical practice of spring and fall aeration. Here are the primary changes I see from previous years:
1. I never saw any flowers on the greens all year. The greens are tight, smooth and fast all the time.
2. The strangest thing happened on the fairways. The growth regulator seems to affect Poa annua more than the bentgrass, and fairways this year appear to be 20-30% bentgrass, when in the previous decade the bent didn't seem to exist.
3. I am concerned about what appears to be a growing presence of bentgrass in the primary rough. Bentgrass rough lies are not only difficult, they are no fun. It's wet and mushy, and only one strategy is possible.
4. Currently, a few areas of greens look a bit bare, but that may be a function of preparing for the August Web.com tournament.
Overall, the year has been brilliant for golf. My question to the agronomists is this: Are there long term consequences for applying growth regulators and seed suppressors to turf? It seems that suppressing the natural flowering of Poa annua might retard its evolution into the tight hearty surfaces that the Pacific Northwest is renowned for. With respect to the growth regulator in the fairways, I have no idea about that.
Thanks. I appreciate your input, though I realize there may be reluctance to comment on another super's practices. I just want to know the potential drawbacks if possible. Feel free to message me privately if you feel shy about making public comments. I will your keep your thoughts confidential.