Green surfaces ...Are the new strains really better?

[SL_Solow]

Following up on Justin's post, (for those who don't know, Justin is the Super at our club) I was greens chair for many years before Justin arrived and remain an active committee member.  Our old greens which were a Washington Bent poa mix had roots in the heat of the summer that would shrink to less than an inch.  We were growing grass hydroponically and we had a super who was a legend in the Chicago area.  Justin already talked about the winter issues.  Now, with continued top dressing, XGD and the new grasses our roots exceed 8 inches and would likely go deeper but for the clay in our pushed up greens.  So at least in our experience, the. new grasses have been a significant improvement.  As an aside, I was one of the last guys to be convinced to approve the change

[archie_struthers]

Are the new strains better or safer? 


Guess it depends on your risk threshold in many cases . In really tough growing environments it might be an easy choice to take the safer , drought tolerant  species but what about areas where the weather is benign. of course you can't be losing turf very often and stay in business, but do we make choices defensively because of this. Is it why we are so afraid of brown firm turf in America ? Probably so


The discussion isn't that simple. Different golf price points require different playing conditions. For all of us in the middle tier between muni and Augusta , how to handle maintenance is a constant conundrum for operators and members/boards. Be careful not to jump on the next bandwagon too quickly .