Further to my post #46 and Marc Haring's excellent response at #47, I make the following comments to illustrate the thoughts of some from the 1920's. It helps in understanding the degree of use of fescue in greens at that time.
In the Spirit of St Andrews Chapter 5 (Greenkeeping), the good Doctor MacKenzie refered on page 179 to the works of Drs Piper and Oakley to put greenkeeping on a scientific basis in their book 'Turf for Golf Courses'. The Doctor distinguished golf grass as that 'with a thick matted root growth and a dwarf leaf - grasses which require little mowing and provide a springy carpet that is a pleasure to walk on' (sounds like fescue) whilst from an agricultural point of view 'the most desirable grasses have a small root growth and a large succulent leaf'. Apparently, the latter (which sounds a bit like 'green golf courses' as well as farms) prefer alkaline soils, whereas the golfing turf is better suited by acidicn soils, which the Doctor recognises (on page 180) as discouraging worms (see Marc Haring's post #47).
On page 199, the good Doctor goes on that 'Chewings and other fescues make beautiful greens, but I do not know of any fescue that will stand close mowing for more than a year or two. On the other hand, fescues do much better on fairways where the mowing machines do not cut so closely, and on soil that is suitable to them they give more perfect fairways than any other grass.'
I recall Jack Nicklaus in the early 1970's in his cartoon strip tips commenting that the best fairways to play golf from were fescues (at the time I wondered what the hell is fescue), closely followed by freshly cut poa!
On page 18 of Golf Architecture vol 5, MacKenzie's 'Round the World on a Golf Tour' article of June 3 1927 is reproduced. He comments that in Melbourne Australia, a new course at Victoria Golf Club (across the road from Royal Melbourne, and the host of many Australian Opens) has had the greens sown with Chewings fescue. He says 'When I was there they had a beautifully, true putting surface free from weeds, but I have no doubt that they will have a similar experience to that of clubs in Britan and America, and that the fescues will die from constant mowing, with the result that it will be necessary to replace them with bent grasses. Fescues, I may add, die from mowing because the growth is from the apex and not the base of the stem as in agrostic grasses'. I think Marc Haring has clarified this last point (see #47). Today, Victoria Golf Club has a mix of bent and poa as their greens surface.
The good Doctor continued this discussion in the next weeks article (page 19 of Golf Architecture volume 5), commenting that America had got it right by seeding (or vegetative method) agostis, and that much better results would be obtained in both Britain and Australia by adopting such methods. He went on to say that Australia had made the mistake of sweetening their grasses with alkaline fertilisers, to the detriment of the finer golfing grasses. 'Sour acid soil not only encourages the growth of the finer golfing grasses, but is inimical to worms, plantains, daisies and similar weeds. The Alwoodley greens are free from fescues and consist entirely of the finer bent (agrostis grasses).
On a local note, I recently saw a new green constructed in A1 bent with a close-cut chipping area comprising of a fescue and A1 mix. It has only been down for 8 months, so it is too early to say how it will go during the winter and summer, but it currently looks and plays very well, although the ball scars in the approach to the green do not appear to recover quickly (an aesthetic issue only, playability is not compromised). Sorry, can't remember the mix of fescues used in the surrounds.