Listening to Chamblee talk about grass...

[Joe Bausch]

And how did the seed get there?  The lizards, coyotes, and other animals probably forgot to wash their shoes.

I'm guessing the wind carries the seeds around?

[Adam Clayman]

There's a very simple common sense way to keep poa from spreading on newer courses. Train your crew what it look likes and give them cart blanche' to cut it out with a knife before it gets bigger than a quarter. The damage will heal.

[Phil McDade]

Interesting article in the Milwaukee paper about grass and other comparisons between CBay and Erin Hills, with the news that EHills will not be available for any play (presumably public; I'm guessing practice rounds by qualifiers will likely be allowed) in 2017 until after the U.S. Open:
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/golf/erin-hills-a-course-of-a-different-color-to-chambers-bay-b99524655z1-309417941.html

[Don Mahaffey]

Well, I guess there are a lot of Chamblites out there.
There are very few people in the world who know the story behind the turf at Chambers Bay, and they aint talking, and I don't blame them.

[William_G]

And how did the seed get there?  The lizards, coyotes, and other animals probably forgot to wash their shoes.

exactly, as if humans can control everything, LOL except for Augusta the week of the Masters of course

[Steve Okula]

Poa seed is small, and light, there are over 2 million seeds per pound. It doesn't need to be carried by animals or golfers, it is dust in the wind.

[Steve Okula]

There's a very simple common sense way to keep poa from spreading on newer courses. Train your crew what it look likes and give them cart blanche' to cut it out with a knife before it gets bigger than a quarter. The damage will heal.

In favorable conditions, on a 100+ acre site like a golf course, there will be a countless multitude of Poa plants germinating every day.
Most maintenance staffs have all they can do already without spending mind-numbing hours digging Poa out. If a guy mowing greens spends just 10 minutes on each green scouting for Poa "smaller than a quarter" and digging it out it will add 3 hours to the job.

[Marc Haring]

There's a very simple common sense way to keep poa from spreading on newer courses. Train your crew what it look likes and give them cart blanche' to cut it out with a knife before it gets bigger than a quarter. The damage will heal.

Yes as Steve say's, easy in theory but not in practice. There's been many a high end facility with unlimited resources that have failed to keep it out using this method.

[Marc Haring]

Marc:


Yes, but Castle Stuart isn't ten years old yet.


The difficulty in keeping poa annua out of the greens is that it has an ally in Mother Nature.  In most climates where bent or fescue are grown, you will eventually get a wet summer where you can't kill off the poa by drought, and then you've got a big enough population that it's hard to let it all die the next year.

You may well be right Tom but St Andrews is more than 10 years old and i'm pretty sure they've managed to eliminate poa although they do have a mix of bent and fescue. I do think it can be successfully used but only in very specific climates and I'm guessing the Pacific NW is not one of them.

[Pete Lavallee]

I spent two weeks in St Andrews in the summer of 1989. They were in the midst of a heat wave and they refused to water the greens at TOC in order to "burn out" the meadow grass. The greens were extremely crusty and it was difficult to make putts. We actually chose to play Carnoustie where they were watering and to my untrained eye the greens seemed to have a high percentage of Poa; they putted just fine though.

[Adam Clayman]

There's a very simple common sense way to keep poa from spreading on newer courses. Train your crew what it look likes and give them cart blanche' to cut it out with a knife before it gets bigger than a quarter. The damage will heal.

Yes as Steve say's, easy in theory but not in practice. There's been many a high end facility with unlimited resources that have failed to keep it out using this method.

It takes a village!

That's why it should be mandatory for the super, and as many other crew members, to play the course as often as possible.