The above picture was taken on the approach of number eight fairway. Some of you may notice that here is a sizable discrepancy in the growth rate of the turf there. The reason for such is simple, the taller turf is actually a different species of grass; Ryegrass to be exact. It is not unheard of for low quality crops of seed to contain foreign contaminants, even the seed of other plants. Our theory is that the Bentgrass seed used to regrow eight fairway contained some Ryegrass seed as well. When the fairway was still establishing the immature Ryegrass plants would not make their presence known. But now that they are strong and mature their telltale seed stalks have caught our attention.
Unlike annual bluegrass, there are no existing products meant to remove Ryegrass from stands of Bentgrass. And because of their significant height our fairway mowers cannot cut the stalks, which bend down instead of being pulled into the reel and severed. This leaves us with only one option: stripping and replacing the current sod. However, since this course of action is time and labor intensive, and would involve temporarily keeping traffic off of the approach entirely, we are loath to under take the project at this point in the year.
Until we are able to solve the problem in it's totality, we will be trimming these areas by hand so as to keep them from interfering with play.
See you on the course!
Elliott Dowling
