As one of the new "super bents" recently developed at Rutgers University, 007 is setting a new standard for use on golf course greens, tees, and fairways. Superintendents are now selecting 007 over the likes of A-1, A-4, G-2, G-6, and T-1. In fact, the 2012 US Open and 2012 Ryder Cup will be played on newly renovated greens that were grassed using 007 and Tyee bentgrasses.

Why are the bentgrass varieties 007 and Tyee called "super bents?" Simply, 007 and the variety Tyee will far exceed the overall turf performance that one would expect from Penncross, Penneagle, and Pennlinks. Additionally, both 007 and Tyee bents have proven performace for use on greens, tees, and fairways that significantly exceed the A and G varieties.

Wichita Falls Country Club, TX - Completed a total course renovation in 2008, greens seeded with 100% 007 creeping bentgrass. Nathan Neumann, Golf Course Superintendent, Wichita Falls Country Club, Texas reports,

"The USGA Agronomist from our region visited the club a few weeks ago (spring 2011), and was extremely impressed with the 007. He told my greens committee that if they did not like this putting surface, they should probably take up bowling instead. He was impressed with the overall quality, performance, and turf heath with the daily speeds we are achieving."

At the recent 2011 US Open conducted at the Congressional Golf Club, Washington, DC, two neighboring courses, Burning Tree GC and The River Bend Club, were the "talk of the town." That is, "talk of the town" when it comes to their new 007 greens. Both of these two course received many visitors during the 2011 US Open week, all of whom "raved" about what they found with the new 007 bent. That being, the 007 bent used for total greens renovation at Burning Tree was dramatic in appearance and the new 007 greens at River Bend were extremely impressive to all.

With Congressional GC located only a few miles away from each course, the obvious comparisons were being made between A-1 / A-4 and the 007 bentgrasses. The first question of discussion by all was, "What happened to the A-1 / A-4 greens at Congressional?" For one, I will leave it to someone else to answer that question!

007 the variety: Parentage, qualities, and expected performance.

007 is an advanced generation creeping bentgrass with some of its 24 parents tracing back to plants collected from old putting greens on the following golf courses: Piping Rock GC (7), LI, NY; Spring Lake GC (2), Spring Lake, NJ; Northshore CC (2), LI, NY; Rumson GC, Rumson, NJ (1); Harkers Hollow GC (1), Harmony, NJ. Also, plants identified from the varieties L-93 and Southshore were used in the breeding of 007.

Expect a 007 bentgrass turf to be:

·More genetically diverse compared to the A and G varieties.

·Widely adaptable to both warm summers and cold winters.

·Provide excellent disease resistance (not weak against dollar spot like T-1).

·Produce a fine leaf texture.

·Produce a turf with greater density.

·Very good for salt tolerance (better than Seaside II).

·Very good with cool weather color retention, no purple color during the winter months.

Dr. Hurley and bentgrass breeding:

It was 1981, 34 years ago, when Dr. Hurley asked the ledgendary turf breeder, Dr. C.R. Funk at Rutgers, to join him in initiating a creeping bentgrass breeding program designed to improve the qualities necessary for golf course use.

After ten years of germplasm collection, parental evaluations, putting green turf trials and hybridization it was time to develop the first varieties from this bentgrass breeding program. It was the early 1990's, 24 years ago, when Hurley, working in cojunction with Funk and and later on (1989) Dr. Virginia Lehman, developed the very successful L-93 creeping bentgrass variety. The "93" in the name L-93 was selected to indicate the year (1993) the variety became fully commercially available for purchase by golf course superintendents.

007 has proven to perform on golf courses:

Recommended uses for 007 include seeding or sodding putting greens, tees, and fairways (photo right, fairways at Tavistock Country Club, New Jersey). This new creeping bentgrass variety will adapt well for low mowing on greens or for reduced fungicide use on fairways and tees.

007 has displayed excellent summer heat tolerance:

At the Wichita Falls Country Club, in Texas, 007 was selected for seeding all greens in a total renovation project in 2008. The green (photo below) was seeded August 23, 2008 and the picture shows the green 31 days old. The golf course was open for member play 105 days after seeding, in early December.

Success is in the breeding:

All individual parental clones of creeping bentgrass used in the development of 007 were selected for improved dollar spot resistance, medium bright green leaf color, not displaying cool weather purple coloration, and a vigorous, uniform, moderately dense growth habit."