Barenbrug Golf Green Trials

Discussion “Which grass species are most suitable for golf greens in the UK and Ireland?” The results strongly indicate that the preferred grass composition for golf greens under year-round play in the UK and Ireland on a sand-based rootzone is a combination of quality cultivars of red fescue (slender creeping and Chewings) and browntop bent. The 80:20 red fescue: browntop blend was the top performing treatment in the Bingley trial. In the Druids Glen trial it also performed very well, ranking second overall (both for standard input maintenance). These results can be seen in Table 6. Clearly not every golf course is the same, but sowing out new greens with a combination of these species is likely to be a recipe for success. If the long-term intention is to have greens dominant with bent-grass, then an adjustment of the percentage make-up of the mix (e.g 50% fescue: 50% browntop) may be in order. The fescue component is still likely to aid establishment, and prevent widespread disease (e.g. take-all patch) during the early life of the green. Similarly, if the long-term goal is to have fescue-dominant greens (e.g. a links course), sowing with a small percentage of browntop bent, by weight is still likely to be beneficial, particularly during periods of winter wear. Greens with 100% red fescue or 100% creeping bent composition would not be recommended for year-round golf based on these results. If a golf course is able to close for play during winter months, successful maintenance of greens with these species would be far more achievable. These species are well known for providing excellent golf green surfaces elsewhere in the world, but are not best suited to the combined effect of climate and golfing pressures in the UK and Ireland. Finally, it is worth highlighting the poor performance of the Trueputt (Poa annua) plots at Bingley, which ranked in last place for visual merit of all the seed treatments under trial. The result was of no surprise, but serves to reinforce the opinion that anyone working with annual meadowgrass golf greens should be looking to integrate more suitable grasses into their surfaces for year-round golf. Bingley Treatment Standard Input Mean Visual Merit Druids Glen Treatment Standard Input Mean Visual Merit BAR 2 (80% red fescue: 20% browntop bent) 7.1 BAR FESCUE 7.3 BAR DUO 50:50 browntop:creeping 6.5 BAR 2 (80% red fescue: 20% browntop bent) 7.2 BAR ALL BENT browntop bent 6.0 BAR ALL BENT 5.8 Vesper 5.5 50:50 Penn A4;Penn G6 5.3 Bengal 4.9 50:50 Bengal:AS 0803 creeping bent 4.8 Penn G6 4.6 100% AS 0803 creeping bent 4.5 BAR FESCUE 4.3 BAR DUO 4.3 BAR PLATINUM 4.1 100% BarKing browntop bent 4.0 BAR 40 3.6 50:50 Bengal:AS 0803 creeping bent 3.8 BAR 22 3.6 Table 6: Mean visual merit scores of all treatments under standard input throughout Bingley and Druids Glen trials. 80:20 Highland 3.6 Trueputt 2.3 10 Golf Greens