1. "We architecture buffs would likely choose Oakmont or Winged Foot, and certainly Augusta National, over Torrey Pines. But the severity of the greens yield less exciting results by tentative golfers playing defensively. For these reasons, Chambers Bay will make a fine Open venue, if they can keep the poa annua out until 2015, and the USGA will gladly return to Torrey Pines."
John Kirk, June 17, 2008
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,35104.msg707472.html#msg7074722.
Honestly, I cringe whenever threads about agronomy get going, and especially when it makes its way to TV. Managing turf at high-end conditions is not for amateurs.
But I like grass talk. It's fun!
3. To the best of my knowledge, no Pacific Northwest course west of the Cascades has kept poa out of the greens. Every one succumbs to significant invasion within 10 years. It doesn't matter whether the planted grass is bent or fescue.
As I've said before, the best example that I've seen of maintaining bent grass greens on the west coast is at Stanford University, which are about 20 years old and still 90-95% bent. They don't do traditional aerations there.
4. Don, in the attached Golf World article is the statement: "When you dig into the dirt, here's what the poa annua problem at Chambers Bay amounts to: As greens bake out during the day, the fescue indigenous to the Pacific Northwest loses moisture and wilts. Meanwhile, perennial poa thrives, turning what are smooth greens by morning into mini-minefields by afternoon."
I'm not sure I agree with this analysis. If you had asked me, I'd have thought the annual varieties of poa cause most afternoon putting problems.
5. For your information, according to my notes, Chambers Bay's greens were initially planted with about 45% red fescue, 45% Chewing's fescue, and 10% colonial bent. Chewing's fescue is a variant of red fescue (Festuca rubra).