Quail Hollow's Greens

As some of you have probably heard, the greens at Quail Hollow have been struggling this year. I spoke with Jeff Kent (superintendent) Friday night about what was happening to his greens. The greens have been thinning faster than one would normally expect, even in such temperature extremes as we have seen. The problem with Quail's greens is not due to this extreme weather, but is due to a bacteria wilt. Bacteria wilt gets in the plant and causes death of the plant, any stress encountered along the way only exacerbates the problem. Something as simple as mowing a green can cause stress to the plant. Being a bacteria, new turf is quickly infected when introduced into the green. The problem with bacteria is the lack of control, there are currently no curative measures for this (except for antibiotics) and these are no feasible to apply. This is as close to getting cancer as there is for turf. In the past Toronto Creeping Bentgrass was susceptible to bacteria wilt, but it now appears that it can infect others as well.