Thursday June 11 and Friday June 12 I went on a trip to visit some of the top golf courses in the USA (and with that the world..). After setting up appointments with the superintendents of respectively Cypress Point Club (see picture of its par-3 holes 15 and 16), Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, Spanish Bay and Monterey Peninsula Country Club I headed down early Thursday morning. While touring most of the courses and maintenance facilities with the (assistant) superintendents I tried to figure out what their maintenance programs are at about, like fertilizer, aeration, irrigation and plant protection programs, with special attention to the greens. I also tried to figure out what their philosophies are regarding managing their crews and how they maintain machinery and register agronomic applications.
Due to the specific climate, all courses have a Poa annua content of at least 90% up to 99%, wall-to-wall. Most of them overseed with Perennial Rye and even Fescue. Pebble Beach was obviously in the preparation of next year’s US Open. Besides bunker renovation projects and getting original mowing lines back in place they also sodded most of their collar, approaches and rough around greens with Perrenial Rye, all within the ropes for the championship. Because of nematode problems on the west coast, some of these golf courses are in the trial and planning process of maybe replacing their greens to USGA spec greens growing Creeping Bent grass.
Overall this was a very interesting trip on which I learned a lot about their agronomic programs and the running of their facilities. Other trips I am planning for during my time over in California are to visit Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, The Olympic Club, San Francisco Golf Club and maybe some high-end golf clubs in the Los Angeles area. To be continued!
Due to the specific climate, all courses have a Poa annua content of at least 90% up to 99%, wall-to-wall. Most of them overseed with Perennial Rye and even Fescue. Pebble Beach was obviously in the preparation of next year’s US Open. Besides bunker renovation projects and getting original mowing lines back in place they also sodded most of their collar, approaches and rough around greens with Perrenial Rye, all within the ropes for the championship. Because of nematode problems on the west coast, some of these golf courses are in the trial and planning process of maybe replacing their greens to USGA spec greens growing Creeping Bent grass.
Overall this was a very interesting trip on which I learned a lot about their agronomic programs and the running of their facilities. Other trips I am planning for during my time over in California are to visit Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, The Olympic Club, San Francisco Golf Club and maybe some high-end golf clubs in the Los Angeles area. To be continued!
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