Mike Coker and son Troy work on golf courses ... - Backed By Bayer

He typically overseeds perennial ryegrass
on bermudagrass fairways <strong>and</strong> aprons in the
fall, letting the ryegrass naturally transition
out the following June, July <strong>and</strong> August. Last
year, however, he decided to change his management
approach <strong>and</strong> followed a chemical
transition program with Revolver® herbicide
from Bayer Environmental Science. Revolver
provides postemergent control of cool sea<strong>son</strong>
grasses that appear in warm sea<strong>son</strong> turfgrasses,
including numerous cultivars of bermudagrass
<strong>and</strong> zoysiagrass. It is especially suited for
the removal of ryegrass <strong>and</strong> Poa annua from
bermudagrass during spring transition.
“I have to admit, we were skeptical at first—
we didn’t want to destroy our fairways,” Gardner
chuckles.“But wet,cooler springs <strong>and</strong> summers
the previous couple of years kept a lot of
the ryegrass from transitioning <strong>and</strong> the
bermudagrass was struggling <strong>and</strong> thin.” In addition,
Poa annua was raising its ugly head.
“Our members want to see wall-to-wall green
<strong>and</strong> we had the opportunity to accomplish it
with this new chemical technology so we decided
to give it a try,” he continues.
Herbicide accelerates transition
Gardner overseeded 275 to 325 lb. per acre of
perennial ryegrass on 30 acres of bermudagrass
fairways <strong>and</strong> aprons in the fall. He then
applied 0.4 ounces of Revolver per 1,000 sq.
ft. on 40 acres in early June. The results were
“outst<strong>and</strong>ing.” The ryegrass transitioned out
quickly, taking only about five weeks compared
to most of the summer with natural
transition, <strong>and</strong> the bermudagrass filled in <strong>and</strong>
thrived.
“The quick transition meant we had two
more months to push a thick, lush st<strong>and</strong>
which carried us later into the sea<strong>son</strong>,” Gardner
explains.
He notes that the effectiveness of the
application had a definite visual impact.
“We kept the product 20 yards away from
the green <strong>and</strong> you could see a difference in
the quality of the turf—the untreated area
didn’t look nearly as good as the fairways,”
he says.
Gardner adds that the Poa annua control
was also excellent. “Although we had some
Poa annua tracked across the fairways, our
greens were clean <strong>and</strong> we want to keep them
that way,” he says.“Our experience is that Revolver
is a highly effective tool that accelerates
spring transition <strong>and</strong> knocks out Poa annua
without harming desirable grasses.
“Tools <strong>and</strong> technology like this help us to
keep our course lush <strong>and</strong> healthy. Like I said,
we were skeptics at first,” he continues. “But
we’re believers now.”
Revolver ® made a
believer out of John
Gardner, golf course
superintendent, at
Bluegrass Yacht <strong>and</strong>
Country Club,
Hender<strong>son</strong>ville, Tenn.,
when it helped him
transition ryegrass
out of bermudagrass.
www.bayergolfadvantage.com Golf Advantage 17