Poa at Pacific Dunes?

[Tom Johnston]

Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Just came back from four days at Bandon - played each of the courses once and Pacific Dunes twice.  The greens at Pacific didn't track nearly as well as any of the other three.  One of our caddies said that it was due to a Poa infestation.  The greens at Old MacDonald (huge and undulating) tracked marvelously.  Trails' greens were very fast but fair.  Bandon Dunes greens look to me as if they had some Poa mixed in with the fescue, and were slower than the others, but tracked well.

Has anyone else experienced this?  Most of the courses here in the NW (with a few notable exceptions) have gone to Poa greens because they can't keep it out even if they wanted to...

Thanks,

- TJ

[Dan Herrmann]

Tom - not just the NW - Poa will take over most places if given a foothold.

[Tom_Doak]

It's been a year since I saw it, but on my last visit, the poa annua was starting to take over the greens at Pacific Dunes.

It's not a huge problem there, because it doesn't get hot enough on the coast to kill the grass, and it's pretty hard to overwater the course on that sandy base.  However, the transition from fescue to poa will be a difficult process, until they decide it's too far gone and just let the poa take over.

It's really just a combination of age and traffic.  The first two courses have seen a lot of play and a lot of compaction from golfer's feet -- 40,000 golfers annually PLUS caddies PLUS all the staff play that takes place off the clock.  As at Ballybunion and Lahinch, it's hard for the fescue to take that sort of relentless onslaught.  One of the benefits of Old Macdonald was the thought that even if the overall # of rounds did not grow by 30% as a result of adding the fourth course, reducing the pressure on Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes would be a huge plus.

[Tom Johnston]

Thanks Dan & Tom

[David_Tepper]

Are poa greens in the Pacific Northwest susceptible to nematode infestation/damage or is that just a problem in coastal Northern California?  

[Steve Okula]

Tom - not just the NW - Poa will take over most places if given a foothold.

And when it's not given a foothold as well.

[Pete Lavallee]

During the King's Putter this March PD did indeed seem to have the most infestation; especially the lower green on #9, it was really bad. Although Bandon had some it did not seem as bad as PD, this seems counterintuative as Bandon is several years older and gets more play due to it's popularity. The Trails seemed unaffected so far.

Would they consider regrassing at some point and trying harder to keep the poa at bay? Can they afford not to aerate with large tines? This seems to be where the poa really gets its' foothold.

[Bill Brightly]

When I played Old Macdonald on opening day, it was striking how pure the fescue was there compared to the other Bandon courses. I wondered if they should have some type of shoe cleaner at the starters hut. Or does the poa spread via airborne methods?

[Jerry Kluger]

I played Sand Hills a couple of years ago and there was Poa in a few of the greens - I don't know if they did anything about it.

[Dan Herrmann]

Jerry - I was at SH last week, and the greens were pure bentgrass.

For what it's worth, our Head Greenkeeper has used "Velocity" to keep our greens free of poa..

[Randy Thompson]

Dan,
That will work if you have you have less than 30% or in that range. It takes balls but the product does work but many will argue itīs not labeled for greens. My reply, who gives a shit if it works! On bent at least, have no idea if there have been trials on Fescue but to me the fescue would even be more sensitive and I would try on a nursery first.

[William_G]

the greens crew at Trails has a schedule for "hand picking" any poa out of their greens

[Dan Herrmann]

Randy, Due to Bruce's attention to detail, we're < 2% poa, which makes spot application of Velocity very effective.

[Randy Thompson]

Dan,
Three years ago we took it out of a course that had greens between 10 and 30% and we were able to eliminate 100% and now we have about a 2% return rate and are also controling via spot application with velocity to keep them poa free. We were in a hot humid climate and it was important to keep them overwatered. If they got any dry spots shortly after an application the bent would die in these area not just turn black and then return in a few days like normal. Luckily we fiquered this out early on and lost just a couple of square feet and resoded those areas in two greens.