PGA Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary at Bellerive Country Club
LebanonTurf keeps course looking lush in national spotlight
When you are hosting the PGA Championship, it’s a big deal. But when you are hosting the 100th PGA Championship, it becomes an even bigger deal. So, it isn’t surprising to know that Carlos Arraya, director of grounds and agronomy at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri, had preparations going months in advance of the championship.
“I told the staff and the entire volunteer team, that it’s the 100th — so we had been preparing for that for some time. It was a special day on the calendar and anniversary for the PGA, and a lot of hard work had gone into that,” said Arraya.
Bellerive Country Club is a unique course that features different varieties of turfgrass like zoysia and fescue. Both do well with high traffic and stripe nicely, meaning Arraya knew the turf would present well visually both in person and on television. Zoysia, a warm-season turf is tolerant to heat and wear. Fescue is a cool-season turf but shares many of the same attributes as zoysia such as being more resistant to heat and wear.
Senior assistant superintendent, Jared Brewster thinks Bellerive Country Club might have the densest rough he’s ever seen because of the LebanonTurf fertilizer applications.
“You can get zoysia tighter but not as healthy as we have right now all throughout the course,” Brewster said.
Meaning that the turfgrass is as thick as it can be while still remaining healthy. Brewster attributes this to the Lebanon ProScape® 25-0-5 1% Fe 51% MESA® which they use a half-pound Nitrogen at a time.
“It’s a good blend of ammoniacal, nitrogen plus urea — little bit of slow release so it gives us about a month’s worth of feeding for the turf and keeps it lush. It does have a lot of iron in it too and gives it that good color so, we like it.”
Bellerive Country Club uses this slow-release product on their roughs and fairways in the fall and spring to keep their turfgrass in good condition.
“We find ways to incorporate it every year because it’s done a good job for us. Basically, that’s the exclusive brand we use on those surfaces,” Arraya said about the ProScape 25-0-5.
ProScape 25-0-5 1% Fe 51% MESA® is one of Lebanon’s proprietary fertilizers that use MESA technology. MESA is an innovative nitrogen source that combines the benefits of methylene urea with ammonium sulfate in a single, homogeneous granule. Meth-Ex® 40 slows down the release of the ammonium sulfate. This combination provides brilliant color, quick initial response and long-term feeding all without excessive surge growth while iron adds additional color benefit.
Overall, the 100th PGA Championship was just as thrilling as it is every year but something about the anniversary made it even more special — as well as the whole staff and crew at Bellerive Country Club.