I love watching a golf course come back to life this time of year. The trees are blooming and budding, the bentgrass is getting back up to speed, and the bermuda is finally climbing out of bed. Watching the once dormant plant peek out from winter's poa annua is exciting for a turf nerd like me. The bermuda looks stronger than ever this year and that's allowed us to spray out the cool season grasses months earlier than last year.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we decided not to apply pre-emergent which would have kept poa annua from germinating. This was the first year that overseeding was skipped and without some poa, many fairways would turn to mud after a few decent rains.

The eleventh fairway would be the exception and should have been maintained as clean and dormant common bermuda. The mat of turf survived the winter without a problem and the poa that grew in was an eyesore, not a benefit to play. Next winter this hole, and hopefully others will be kept poa-free throughout the year.

The eleventh fairway was sprayed with a herbicide called Revolver ® . This product kills all of the cool season grass to wipe out bermuda's competition and does so very slowly. The cool season turf will turn brown in 2-3 weeks, but will remain playable for up to 6 weeks providing plenty of time for bermuda to fill the voids.


The pictures above were taken four weeks after treatment and the cool season grass is just now starting to break down.  We are fertilizing the bermuda fairways slightly more than the others to encourage the bermuda to thicken up well before summer.  A general rule of thumb is bermuda needs 90 days without competition to be in good health for the following year.  2010 will provide 7 months from April to October; a huge improvement from seasons past.

A couple other fairways, numbers 10 and 17, just got sprayed on Monday, April 19th.  Number 10 is in its third year of transition to bermuda, while 17 was sprayed for the first time last summer.  In the picture below, you can see the poa annua mixed in with the bermuda.  The white portions are seed head from the flowering annual bluegrass.  The poa on #10 came in surprisingly thick and became a decent playing surface for our winter rounds. 


Other spots were more of the clumpy variety and not attractive at all.  I would rather see a solid brown fairway than the mottled appearance of dormant bermuda with clumps of bright green poa annua.  Next winter might be our first go at a couple dormant bermuda fairways.




I know that it is odd to have three holes as solid bermuda.  Why not manage all of the fairways in the same manner?  Converting to bermuda is a relatively new idea at a very old course.  It takes some time to adjust players', managers', and employees' acceptance of dry playing conditions.  Keeping the course as dry as possible obviously favors bermuda grass, but also results in the death of some of the poa.  During this lengthy transition, there have been many brown spots and bare areas that waited for bermuda to fill in.  Thin spots have reduced in size and number each year with the increased population of bermuda.  Little by little, we will continue to encourage a move to a stress tolerant playing surface. 

The next fairways to be converted may be number,1 which has the largest stand of hybrid bermuda and few trees shading the fairway.  The 7th, 9th, and 14th holes are also good candidates.  Shade patterns definitely limit the potential of bermuda and dictate our management plan. 

So what is the best part of solid bermuda fairways in California's central valley?

Happy turf at 100 + degrees.