Weird Science?

Some superintendents swear by Marc Logan's

agronomic method to rid greens and fairways of
Poa annua and moss. Others are just plain skeptical
BY A N T H O N Y PIOPPI while reducing fertilizers, especially nitro-
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR gen. When nutrients are required, elemental
fertilizers should be used. He also calls for
lor years, salesmen and lessening disturbance through the reduction
companies have promoted of hollow-core aeration. He wants greens
products and methods mown as low as possible in an effort to
they say result in that reduce organic buildup.
magic combination of im- "Bentgrass requires an acid environment,"
proving turf quality while Logan says. "So I asked myself: How could
saving money. Rarely has you put that in place and a have a playing
the reality matched the hype. surface people expect day in and day out."
But on layouts in California, Oregon and Logan, 47, is a native of Australia where Marc Logan says soil high in
Montana, established golf course superin- he earned a turf degree and became a head acidity favors bentgrass. Poa
tendents say that Greenway Golf Vice Presi- superintendent. It was during that time that annua, on the other hand,
dent Marc Logan has come up with such Logan said he was struck by how many links doesn't like it.
a panacea. They say his method of ridding and seaside courses around the world had
greens and fairways of Poa annua and moss turf dominated by bentgrass and fescues
while encouraging the growth of desirable with Poa annua making up a small percent-
grasses not only improves conditions but also age of the grasses. Logan said he looked into
reduces maintenance budgets. the reason and uncovered research compiled
Not everyone buys into the program, over decades from places such as the United
however. Many, including academic types Kingdom, South Africa and the United
and superintendents, have continued States that said soil high in acidity favors
doubts. bentgrass while providing unsatisfactory
Logan's plan is simple: Increase the acid- growing conditions for Poa annua.
ity of the soil through iron applications Continued on page 40
 Continued from page 39
Jesse Gooding, superintendent at the
municipally owned 36-hole Heron Lakes
Golf Course in Portland, Ore., subscribes to
Logan's theory and has proof that it works.
"You just have to ask the golfers, that's
my proof," Gooding says, adding that at the
same time the players were raving about his
course's condition, he was cutting his pesti-
cide budget by as much as $20,000 a year.
Down the coast at the 36-hole Monterey
(Calif.) Country Club, where superinten-
dent Bob Zoller has been running the show
for more than 30 years, he has cut back
significantly on his fertilizer applications.
Where once he applied as much as 1 pound
of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet a month on
greens and fairways, he has reduced that to 3
Several superintendents or 4 pounds a year on his greens and as little
say Logan's method rids as 2 pounds a year on the bentgrass/fescue
greens of troublesome fairways of his Dunes Course, a Rees Jones
lime-green Poa annua. renovation of a Seth Raynor design. At the
Continued on page 45

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Continued from page 40 pany that morphed into a management
same time, greens that were once nearly company in 2006. Stevinson, Calif.-
100 percent Poa are now as much as 80 based Greenway Golf manages all facets
percent bentgrass. Fairways have seen at three facilities and the maintenance

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similar transitions. The results are much programs at five others.
the same on the Shore Course. Logan says within four months of
It was during his tenure as head green- putting his plan to work at Stevinson
keeper at Mount Lawley Golf Club in Ranch, the long-term moss problem
western Australia, which opened in 1929 was eliminated and the Poa was reduced
and is about 10 miles from the ocean, significantly.
that Logan first implemented his theories Once Greenway was formed, Logan
transitioning the greens from Poa to bent- took his show on the road trying to
grass. More than 20 years later he says the convince superintendents in the West
course is still following his advice. that his way of Poa reduction — even
After implementing his program on in places like Northern California where
a few more courses in Australia, Logan Poa is the dominant grass — worked.
moved to the United States in early 2000 Not surprisingly, his method was, for
and brought his ideas with him. While the most part, rejected. Some balked at
growing in the Jack Nicklaus-designed the sheer simple fact that his theories
Mayacama Golf Club located in Califor- run counter to the way virtually every
nia's Sonoma Valley, Logan met George turf school teaches how to maintain
Kelley, a former PGA Tour player who bentgrass and the way nearly every su-
had become the owner and developer of perintendent maintains bentgrass. Oth-
Stevinson Ranch Golf Club, an 18-hole ers bristled at the fact that Logan consid-
public course he designed with Bruce ered his plan proprietary, which courses
Harbottle III, also in central California. paid to learn and were then forbidden
Kelley was impressed with Logan's ideas to pass on to other courses. There were
and the two formed Greenway Golf in those who gave Logan's plan a go.
2002 as a golf course consulting com- Continued on page 48

Oregon State University's

Tom Cook says no one can make
Poa annua disappear magically.
 Continuedfrom page 45 ting back on nitrogen, frequent light ap-

"We don't want the At Monterey Peninsula, Zoller main-

tains an inland 18 holes and a seaside
plications o f iron and reduction in hol-
low-core aeration, and verticutting. Zoller
18 holes, both which have undergone major also uses T r i m m i t plant growth regulator
turf to grow. We want renovations in the last 10 years. According to as part o f the program.
Zoller, he has more bentgrass on his greens, "There are a couple ways o f doing it, ag-
it to just sit there," which are A-4, than anyone in the area, even gressively or modestly," Zoller says o f Lo-
though Poa was the dominant grass from tees gan's plan. "I realized right away some o f the
- DON POLSON, to greens within a few years of the renova- Poa was [dying] too quickly."
SUPERINTENDENT, STOCK tions. Zoller said he first met Logan when Since then, Zoller has been going about
FARM CLUB GOLF COURSE
he appeared in his office one day pitching it slowly and the members rave about the
his plan, which he had heard about from conditions.
his brother-in-law, the general manager at It was also a moss problem at Stock Farm
Heron Bay. Zoller was not immediately Club Golf Course in Hamilton, Mont., that
impressed. was the reason for Logan getting involved. Su-
"Lots of guys stop in with the latest mir- perintendent Don Poison, who was there when
acle," he says. the L-93 greens were planted in 1998, was mys-
At the time, Zoller was having moss prob- tified to discover the problem shortly after the
lems and agreed to let Logan prescribe a cure. course opened. The moss problem gradually
"By golly if it didn't help my situation," became worse, no matter what he did to stop
Zoller says. it. "I've always been able to accomplish what I
From there, he was hooked and adopted wanted, given the resources," Poison says.
the full Logan regimen that includes cut- After hearing about Logan, Poison in-
vited him out to his course. Logan explained
his ideas then suggested Poison accompany
him on site visits to about a dozen courses
in California where he was consulting. Pol-
son did and was sold on the plan, which he

4S IF \
implemented with immediate success.

:ED He continues to mow his greens very low

and keep them very hungry, both in an effort

2 . 5 TIMES MORE FEET

to reduce thatch buildup on the T o m Fazio
design. He puts down potash and manga-
nese, according to the plan. Members at

\H YOUR CAN. the exclusive course rave about the greens,

which roll between 10 feet and 11 feet on the
Stimpmeter in the summer.
Stock Farm sees less than 9 , 0 0 0 rounds
a year, but G o o d i n g is hosting between
8 5 , 0 0 0 and 9 0 , 0 0 0 combined rounds on
his two courses at Heron Lakes where he
Rust-Oleum® triplexes greens at .065 with smooth rollers.
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Continued on page 50
 Gooding says. "It's just a whole different
way of doing it. You have to be inter-
ested in what is happening."
As Zoller points out, this is not a
boilerplate approach.
"He gives you a template to work with.
It's up to the superintendent to make
adjustments to his situation," he adds.
There are serious resignations about
Logan's theories. In the March-April edi-
tion of the 2005 Green Section Record,
Tom Cook, associate professor of horti-
culture at Oregon State University, au-
thored an article challenging Logan's ideas
without ever naming him specifically.
On the agronomic side, Cook doubts
the success of Logan's theories. He says it
might work in a place like New England
with a short growing season and stresses
I U I " ^TH^n^^^Kwnl^^c^^Ta BT» m iiMB such extremes in temperature, but not
in the Northwest where grass grows 10
months out of the year.
•iff!?!
According to Cook, annual blue-
grass dominates where it does because
Continuedfrom page 48 it is the perfect grass for many areas

Got Geese?
For all the rave reviews Logan has throughout the country. If Poa is re-
received, the majority of superinten- moved from putting surfaces, greens
New, Innovative Solution...
Nation... dents approached by him refuse to try become "islands of bentgrass," with
the program even when prominent superintendents having to constantly

SI superintendents tout the method.

" I f we're not intelligent enough to
question the status quo, we'll never
fend off the intruding Poa, he says.
"This notion that we can somehow
make Poa magically disappear; it does
Away With Geese evolve," Zoller says, pointing out that not work," Cook adds. "All you're
Pond Float disrupts what Logan advocates were methods doing is making sick Poa, but you're
geese sleep patterns with a
used decades earlier. "This isn't any- never going to kill it."
blinking LED light, causing
thing new. This is a retro program." In his article, C o o k predicted
them to move to another pond
The USGA Green Section magazine courses that change agricultural prac-
• Maintenance Free
• Solar powered
from April of 1924 touts the use of iron tices to what Logan advocates would
• Environmentally Safe sulfate to eradicate dandelions. Zoller see increases in problems such as an-
• Floats in the water and had an English dandelion problem until thracnose, Fusarium patch and nema-
works at night Logan came into the picture. todes. He also expects courses with
"It works!!!* Poison is surprised Zoller's success sand-based rootzones to encounter
- Tim Kelley, Superintendent
Wetherington G&CC has not changed more minds in the problems when nitrogen in the root-
West Chester, OH Monterey area. "If I was one of the guys zones is seriously depleted.
"They're gone!!!" next door, at Pebble Beach, I'd be jump- But Logan remains undaunted. He
- Russ Cbamberlin, Superintendent
Countryside GC ing all over that," he says. thinks the future will prove him right.
Mundelein, IL Another reason for the hesitant "I've always said time is on my side,"
CALL TODA Y and get 24/7 attitude may have to do with general he says. "There was skepticism the first
eco-friendly protection tomorrow!
misunderstandings of the program. one or two years, but it's becoming more
Phone: 800.932.5223
Email: twcejw@[Link] "They haven't embraced it because and more irrefutable that we can attain
[Link] they don't know how to implement it," Poa control and eradication." •