Clean and uniform sands integrated into the turf canopy help to reduce mower wear and damage. Mechanical brushing also helps sand integration, but care is required during summer drought stress as this can exacerbate leaf burn.


Aeration - A healthy growing environment is necessary for strong bentgrass growth and, whilst modern golf green constructions can assist, there is still a requirement to aerate frequently. In fact, smaller tines used regularly will offer agronomic benefits while not adversely affecting playability. Coring with 6mm (often referred to as needle or pencil) tines may be required three to four times over the season and can be supplemented with less aggressive mechanisms such as HydroJecting or solid tining.


One thing is clear, invasive aeration


treatments such as hollow coring should only be attempted during the growing season; outside this the holes are a potential gap for meadow-grass invasion.


Verticutting and grooming - Brushing and light grooming is preferred for the maintenance of sward texture and uniformity. Aggressive verticutting should be avoided as this weakens and thins the sward. It is common in the US for greens to be verticut at least once in the spring and again in the autumn. Frequent grooming, with groomers, brushes or grooved rollers, is an excellent means of minimising excessive thatch while enhancing green speed, but


take care! In any case, if topdressing is completed with sufficient frequency there should be little need for verticutting to remove thatch, as it has never been allowed to accumulate in the first instance. Well-diluted mat is always the aim of good turf husbandry.


Nutrition - There is insufficient room here to talk about bentgrass nutrition in depth but it is sufficient to say that, the more you apply, the more aggressive the maintenance regime has to be. One misconception about creeping bentgrasses is that they require high nitrogen inputs. Established Penn A4 greens can get by on as little as 150kg N/ha/yr. Good nutritional programmes, as practiced for the maintenance of any turf, will work although bentgrasses do thrive with ammonium sulphate as the main nitrogen source.


Costs - There is no doubt that the newest creeping bentgrass varieties are more costly to maintain than earlier varieties. Cutler Robinson at Bayville had estimated that his Penn A4 greens management was 16% higher than his previous experiences with Penncross. Most of this was tied up in extra mowing, rolling and topdressing operations as his pesticide and fertiliser costs had actually reduced! The question should surely be, is it worth it?


The final choice - The philosophies of creeping bentgrass management don’t change when new and improved cultivars


are chosen. Successful management only comes about through an understanding of the dynamics of environmental conditions on turfgrass growth and a willingness to adapt to the needs of the turf.


An informed decision on cultivar selection should be made on the basis of all the facts available, including the financial constraints of the club. We would all like to own and drive a Lamborghini and might well be able to afford to buy one, but can we afford the running costs? Maybe it is better to have a good workhorse than a finicky thoroughbred.


At tournament sites with low mowing heights and the need to produce tournament conditions regularly, then the Penn A and G series might well be the preferred choice, more so if winter play is carefully controlled. On sites with medium to heavy play, moderate budgets and moderate mowing heights then varieties such as L-93, Providence and Southshore might be preferable.


If you are interested in reviewing the performance of the latest bentgrass variety trials in the USA, these can be seen at www.ntep.org. In the UK, this information is available in the BSPB/STRI publication Turfgrass Seed where ten creeping bentgrass cultivars are currently in trial.


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