Editor’s Note: Developing improved turfgrass varieties has been an integral part of the work of the Green Section since its founding in 1920. Looking back at the article “Experimental Greens” – published in Timely Turf Topics, issued by the United States Golf Association Green Section – we find that in 1939 and 1940, the Green Section laid out 40 “pie greens” all over the country to identify the most desirable bentgrass varieties for putting greens. Evaluating turfgrass performance at locations across the country is just as important today as it was in the past, and “pie greens” set the stage for future evaluation methods, including the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP).
Where turf is subjected to trying conditions, it is not uncommon to find small areas in which the grass remains conspicuously commendable. These limited areas usually consist of single plants which possess either unusual vigor or resistance to disease, drought, or even insect injury. Many such plants of creeping bent have been transplanted to nurseries and propagated by stolons on a fairly large scale. The Washington and Metropolitan strains, for example, have been developed in this way.