Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04
LIKELY TO BECOME
POPULAR VARIETY
Scientists Enthused Over It.
viii Be Displayed When
Greenkeepers Meet.
BY WALTER R. McCALLUM.


two-day meeting of the United
States Golf Association at the Arlington
turf farm, near the east gate OF Airing
ton National Cemetery, they viii be
shown something new in the way OF
putting green grass, and grass which
many of them probably would not have
believed possible year or so ago.
AS yet this new grasS-which Is one
of the creeping bent grasses IN popular
use on putting greens all over the
country-iS nothing more than a letter,
or a number. It has not yet been given
a name, but judging by the enthusiasm
with which DR.. John Monteith and his
scientific associates speak Of it, and its
resistance to brown patch, 1t Will ul-
timately become one of the most popular
putting green grasses ever discovered.
About seven years ago the golf world
was elated when the late DR.. G. ".
Piper discovered on the old fourth green
of the Washington Golf and Country
Club a new grass which appeared to be
particularly resistant to brown patch,
and when planted in stolons, formed a
thick mat over putting green. The
true Washington strain has become d.
luted in the intervening years. and Is
not today truly resistant to brown patch.
Its strain has been intermingled with
Virginia bent and other creeping grasses
until it is diff1cult today to obtain the
pure strain of Washington bent.
Resistant to Brown Patch.
With the purpose of securing strain
Of that most esteemed of putting green
grasses-the velvet bents-which would
be highly resistant to brown patch and
the other grass destroying fungus
Pythian), DR.. Monteith set to work
several months ago to develop the High
land bent to finer and stronger strain.
He has been successful, and today there
is on the variegated turf of the Airing
ton turf garden patch of the new I'M
named velvet bent which shows not
the slightest trace Of brown patch, and
which makes the finest putting surface
We ever have seen.
Around this patch of bright green
grass, which stands out In its purity by
contrast with the Drowned grasses be-
side it, grow Washington, Columbia and
Virginia bentS, all more or less eaten
away by the fungus growths which are
the bane Of greenkeepefs. The new
bent remains green and pure today.
even though the treatments it has re-
ceived have been identically the same
as those for the other grasses. The
Columbia bent has held up well. So
has some areas planted to the true
Washington strain. But the Virginia
bent and the German bents have
withered and faded away under the
blasting blight of the fungus growths.
Truly, this new putting green grass, If
1t remains resistant throughout the ball.
ance Of the Summer to the fungus, Is
the finest putting green grass ever
found by scientists of the Department
OF Agriculture.
Ball Rolls Smoothly.
Over its smooth, velvet surface, a
putted ball rolled smoothly without
the slightest tendency to leap and hop
The ball, too. rolled truly to the cup,
pull of gravity even though it was
against per cent slope. The putt
can be struck firmer-must be struck
firmer-on this new grass, because it
makes slower putting surface than
the other bents, no matter how close
ly 1t is clipped. From our experience
Of putting greens In all sections of the
country, 1t makes the finest putting
surface we ever have seen. The patch
is so small that a pitched ball could
hardly be played to it. but Dr. Mon
teith assured Ills that it would hold a
pitch certainly as we'll and probably
better than the best of the Washing
ton bents.
Golf professionals (some Of them
have had a theory for years that greens
sown to bent make a more uniform
putting surface than greens planted to
bent stolons. We asked DR.. Monteith
about this, and to prove the fallacy Of
such a conclusion he brought out his
putter whose blade moves through the
same arc and the same length of arc
each time, striking the ball in exactly
the same way with each forward stroke.
First he put the machine on piece
of the new velvet bent, striking the
ball toward the upslope of 2 per
cent grade. The average of four balls
went IL feet 3 inches. Then he struck
them down the same slope, and the
average of the four went IL feet
inches. He explained that no golfer,
late the distance ball will roll with
in five inches, for the ball was barely
turning over for the last foot of the
roll.
Proves He Is Right.
Then he took the machine over to
. patch Of sown Columbia bent, and
the same thing was proved. In tieis
case the margin between the up-slope
roll and the down-slope roll was the
same-five inches-and the ball stop
ped as truly at the end of its roll as
1t had on the other bent.
The pros have claimed, DR.. Mon
teith explained, that a ball struck
with the trend of the grass on Wash
1ngton bent was hard to control, while
ball struck against the grain Of the
grass would not roll far enough. The
chief reason for the uncertainty Of the
professionals. Mr.. Monteith claims, is
the human factor, for the machine
strikes the ball exactly the same way
each time, while 1t is hardly physically
possible for a putter blade to hit the
ball the same way more than once.
Out at the Arlington turf farm a
plot about 100 yards long by 20 yards
wide is planted at all the known va
Tieties of bents, and even the Iowly Poa
Annua and the more lowly crab grass.
In some of these patches the brown
patch and other fungus have made
astonishing inroads. Some of them are
poek-rnarked like the face of a sufferer
from smallpox, while others have but a
slight peppering of the small brown
patch. And through 1t all the velvet
bents and the pure Washington and
metropolitan bents remain green and
true, with the same fungus eradicating
treatment the other grasses get.
New Bent Appears Best. -. y
The natural conclusion to be reached
IL that the velvet bents of the two
strains, the true Washington bent and
the metropolitan bent are most resist
ant to the fungus that attacks putting
greens. And the new bent is the best
of all. We predict the greenkeepers
and green's committee chairmen who
Come to washington on August 10 will
remain to marvel at this new grass.
The first day of the meeting will be
spent at the turf farm, while the pro-
gram for the second day will be In the
hands of the Midatlantic Association OF
Greenkeepers, who will take the visitors
to many of the local COURSES and show
them the work that Is being done In