From Flooding Disaster to Championship Conditions
Greenbrier Classic Wows With an Assist from BASF
Talk about pressure. Josh Pope had exactly one year to recover and rebuild from a devastating 1,000-year flood that literally ravaged the Greenbrier Old White TPC course in 2016, rendering it unplayable.
The challenge? Have the course in championship condition in time to re-open the course and host the 2017 Greenbrier Classic in July — a PGA tour event with a field of 156 professionals. Down to the wire? Definitely. Total success? Absolutely.
“Many of the PGA tour pros and tour agronomy staff could not believe the condition of the golf course,” Pope says. “And people not associated with the tour at all said that the course was in the best condition they’d ever seen.”
The achievement is all the more impressive considering that the decision was made not to rebuild the course to the way it was before the flood, but rather, to build the course according to its original 1914 design. A rebuild meant the turf would be quite young and immature during the 2017 tournament. Many things had to align to assure championship caliber conditions come July.
One important pillar of this effort is a fungicide spray program in partnership with BASF. Pope is utilizing multiple BASF products, including Lexicon® Intrinsic® brand fungicide to prevent summer patch, and Xzemplar® fungicide for the prevention and treatment of dollar spot.
“We have a belt of bluegrass around each hole, mowed at .75 inches, and summer patch has not appeared at all this year. I also have not seen roots on greens come back up yet — they are still healthy and strong,” Pope said. “Xzemplar has held up as well throughout various weather conditions, and dollar spot has been kept in check.”
Pope’s prevention program also includes Honor® Intrinsic® brand fungicide, which controls many top diseases while also boosting plant and root systems, maximizing turf health. Honor Intrinsic delivers 21- to 28-day control of most diseases. Pope says the product has elevated the health of his bunker banks by keeping them disease free through stressful weather conditions and frequent tournament mowing.
Pope is about two months into his treatment and prevention program, the 2017 Greenbrier Classic is in the record books, and Old White TPC is open again to for play.
“Use of these BASF products has helped maintain the quality of turf we had going into the tournament. They have gotten us through what has been the most stressful time for the turf thus far,” Pope says. “Through tournament stress and weather-related stress, our turf quality has remained in championship condition.”