Battling Moss on the Putting Greens!

If you have been out to play golf recently, you may have noticed some black or white colored spots on the greens and wondered what was wrong.  Take a look at the pictures below and you will see an example of what I am talking about.

This is a picture of the Putting Green near the Clubhouse, the white area is the dying moss.

This white area is what the moss looks like after it is treated with a chemical designed to kill it.  The moss we are battling is technically called Silvery Threaded Moss, and is a nusanse in putting greens.  The  main reason it is such an aggressive pest is because it can tolerate very low mowing heights, such as putting greens are generally maintained.  Most of the time when you think of moss growing, it may be in the woods on old logs or on top of rocks in a pond.  On putting greens there is really no rhyme or reason as to where it shows up.  Some spots are shady and damp areas on edges of greens, others are in full sun, such as the putting green.  Another bad area of moss we are dealing with is on #3 green, in front of the large fan which blows all summer.  One would think that in full sun and with a constant breeze it would be a place that moss hated, but it actually grows very aggressively there.  

We are currently working with different herbicides which will effectively control moss, while still being unharmful to the creeping bentgrass turf.  That is the thing, there are products that will reduce and remove the moss, but they are also very dangerous to turfgrass.  So please be mindful when you see these areas that we are working to remove the moss by damaging it and allowing the healthy turf to fill in the voids.  We will plug some of the worst areas out, but will wait until the greens out grow the damaged moss in most areas!