Two years ago, Justin Daigle, superintendent at Perry Park Country Club in Larkspur, Colo., was facing a tough situation for many golf course superintendents.
“We had been going through winters with typical desiccation and the thought was, ‘How do we get more bent grass in our greens?’ The course had been built in the late 1960s and most of the greens had 90 percent Poa.”
A crucial decision was made to attempt to reduce the percentage of Poa and increase the percentage of bent in the greens through what is known as a “minimal disturbance theory.” This meant no verticutting and minimal aeration, smooth rollers replaced Wiley rollers, a higher height of cut, limited mowing, increased rolling and frequent light topdressing. And critical to what Daigle calls a two-year process was the use of the plant growth regulator Cutless in the second year of the greens care and maintenance transformation.
In 2013, the first year of the plan, the process involved a final double verticutting and solid tine aeration followed by bent grass overseeding in the spring, topdressing, frequent light watering, light grooming, and rolling and a fall deep tine.
Year two of the program involved hollow tine aeration and overseeding with bent grass at a half a pound per 1,000 square feet in spring. Upon germination, applications of Cutless began. It was applied at eight ounces per acre (two applications 14 days apart), followed by another two applications of 10 ounces per acre and 12 ounces per acre for the remainder of the season. This was done to retard the germination and growth of Poa in the greens and to allow the bent grass to supersede its rival.
“We rolled seven days a week and deep tined in the fall with a half-inch tines, 2-by-2.5-inch spacing and 10 inches deep,” says Daigle. “We rolled the surface but did not fill the holes. This allowed roots to penetrate deep the during the fall months.”
The end result? Nothing short of “amazing,” says Daigle.
“We now have our greens 50 percent bent grass and the best one is 80 percent bent. We need to mow less and the quality of the putting surfaces is excellent.” He says the response from the membership at Perry Park CC has been positive.
“I didn’t tell them what we were doing until the second year when they could really begin to see the results. It’s not that we didn’t want to be transparent, but once something is out there some people might get anxious to see results. This is a program that you have to be committed to for awhile and be patient with.”
“The comments I hear is that the members are pleased with the consistency of the ball roll from day to day,” he says. “Poa, of course, can be inconsistent, especially late in the day because of seed heads. When members saw the bent grass taking off in the greens the light bulb went off in a lot of their heads.”
Daigle says that “in the long run,” the program will result in a cost savings because he will only have to mow every other day without reduced ball roll quality or speed.
“That’s a number of hours every other day that we can put into something else, whether it is weed mitigation, or attention to other details of the course. Plus, we’re winning the battle against Poa.”
