Lost Green Area, Reclaiming Lost Green Area

[smashdn]

Local public track I have played on for close to twenty years now.  The greens are considerably smaller than when opened.  I am thinking in some places the mowing line has come inward 10 plus feet in places.

 

Is there a tactful way of mentioning that they would be well served to reclaim their lost green area?  These are bent greens in the mid-south so they take a beating in summer.  These definitely show it too.  Plus it sucks playing to a push up green that only covers 60% of the pad.  Starting to get some crabgrass encroachment in the fringe and out into the greens to boot.

 

I suspect you can't just spray and kill the encroaching stuff, but would also need to sod back the areas you want with nursery sod correct?

[sethdavidsdad]

1 minute ago, smashdn said:

Local public track I have played on for close to twenty years now.  The greens are considerably smaller than when opened.  I am thinking in some places the mowing line has come inward 10 plus feet in places.

 

Is there a tactful way of mentioning that they would be well served to reclaim their lost green area?  These are bent greens in the mid-south so they take a beating in summer.  These definitely show it too.  Plus it sucks playing to a push up green that only covers 60% of the pad.  Starting to get some crabgrass encroachment in the fringe and out into the greens to boot.

 

I suspect you can't just spray and kill the encroaching stuff, but would also need to sod back the areas you want with nursery sod correct?

It really tough to reclaim areas of a green in this case. First just cutting out the Bermuda grass is not enough and you have to be extremely careful if you use chemicals to kill. Overall it's not worth it to most courses. Usually Bent grass green need to be rebuilt every 20 years or so. These issues are addressed during the rebuild. 

[ArtMBgolf]

Either bad areas around the green edges or fairway bermuda
invading are reasons greens are allowed to get smaller.     
 
The lost areas can be sodded with grass matching the greens, but I
don't see that much, because by this time, the greens often need 
replacing, possibly with a new hybrid like Champions, etc.    
Usually courses reclaim lost green areas when they are upgrading 
the greens to new greens.  

 

[J_Birdie]

My local course just scalps the area and the grass grows back in after a couple months. Granted they are bermuda greens. Ugly collars for 2 months but worth it in the end 

[smashdn]

These are bent with zoysia surrounds.  Fair amount of crabgrass getting in the mix too.

 

This is just my non-greenskeeper mind working but if you waited till the zoysia went dormant could you not go in there with a turfcutter and chop out all the junk that has grown on the green base and sod back from the nursery?

 

There has to be a selective herbicide for crabgrass isn't there?

[sethdavidsdad]

4 hours ago, smashdn said:

These are bent with zoysia surrounds.  Fair amount of crabgrass getting in the mix too.

 

This is just my non-greenskeeper mind working but if you waited till the zoysia went dormant could you not go in there with a turfcutter and chop out all the junk that has grown on the green base and sod back from the nursery?

 

There has to be a selective herbicide for crabgrass isn't there?

We were always told can't spray for crabgrass on bent, at least not in hot times. 

Zoysia is just as bad if not worse about invading other grasses. It really a constant battle.