Trying to answer my own question about the
poa at Oakmont -- which should encourage the experts to post the correct answers! -- here's what I found.
Arnold Palmer said when he began playing Oakmont in the 1940s, the greens were bent; however, "The poa just came in gradually and slowly over the years," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2007. "Oakmont didn't change their whole process to accommodate poa. They just kept doing what they've always done. Poa is a type of grass that becomes acquainted to how its cared for, and they cared for it just like we did at Latrobe Country Club."
Over the years, poa crept in and apparently underwent an amazing evolution -- I think that is the right word. According to superintendent John Zimmers, Oakmont's poa actually is perennial. Here is a brief excerpt from a June 2007 Post-Gazette article:
Oakmont Poa annua is a bit freaky. It doesn't produce any seed at all. Instead, all of its energy goes into sustaining itself year after year.
"It's a perennial annual," [Penn State agronomist David] Huff said paradoxically. "It certainly has a mystique about it."
If you wanted to build a golf green from scratch and wanted to seed it with Oakmont grass, you're out of luck. There are no seeds. Oakmont grows reserve patches of the grass by saving the plugs when the greens are aerated, and then transplanting the plugs elsewhere.
...or maybe not: a 2006 article comparing Oakmont's
poa to Winged Foot's noted Oakmont's produces
less seed. The articles conflict; does anyone know one way or the other? If I had to bet, I would bet on the 2007 article that calls it seedless, as it carries quotes from Huff and Zimmers -- seems better researched.
Less or none regardless, Zimmers maintains a stand of the stuff (using aeration plugs) as he can't get any / enough seed from it or anywhere else.
And it is unique to Oakmont; even next-door Oakmont East cannot grow it. As obviously significant as the strain is, sustaining this special grass requires special conditions and those conditions do not appear fully understood, things like soil conditions as well as how maintenance has "conditioned" the grass. Palmer says Oakmont greens are elevated and this makes a difference, too.
Even if clubs somehow could control for soil, climate, architecture, maintenance, etc., still these courses would face another problem: supply. The grass produces few / no seeds. Huff has been trying for 10 years to produce a plant from the Oakmont strain that produces seeds. The 2007 article said seed production "may" be three years away.
Which calls to mind the heroic efforts of two scientists to find seeds of the seedless Persian Lime, a quest memorably documented by John McPhee in "Oranges." Hand-picking their way through the pulp of tens of thousands of limes -- two dump trucks' worth -- they managed 250 seeds.
They planted these seeds. And got
two lime trees. But what amazed their fellow scientists? That they managed to get even
two from 250 seeds!
So good luck to David Huff...
Now, does anyone out there have the facts? What about those who worked at Oakmont or graduated from Penn Street?
Mark