Course Meltdown

Over the past couple of days we have experienced temperatures in the 60's and a rapid melting of the snow and ice on the golf course. Prior to this melt we had a tremendous amount of ice on the course and have experienced many rapid freeze cycles. Some greens are still holding ice, but a majority of fairways and tees are now clear. I suspect the weather early next week will remove the remaining ice from greens.

4 fairway 10:00 am yesterday 2/17

4 fairway 10:00 am 2/18

8 green 11:00 am 2/17

8 green 12:30 PM 2/18

Over the past 10 days, membership has asked a lot of questions about the ice on the course, greens covers, and clearing greens.

Ice on greens is not a major concern of ours, but something we do monitor. The greens are compromised of a very high percentage of bentgrass which has excellent winter and ice tolerance. Our collection areas on greens are monitored for standing and pooling water. When this occurs my staff and I make our best efforts to move this water off of the greens surface. Bentgrass is by no means bulletproof as far as winter goes, but is far more tolerant of harsh winter conditions then the weaker poa annua (annual bluegrass). This is a major reason for the time and resources we put into managing bentgrass.

I have also been asked about greens covers, and more recently about clearing greens. Without going into too much detail, I am not an advocate of turf covers on greens. They do have a place in certain environments, but I believe the widespread use of greens covers can often do more harm than good. I am definitely not an advocate of clearing greens, which should only be considered under certain circumstances.

Ice is more of a concern on our tees and fairways which are made up of higher populations of poa annua (annual bluegrass). Tees have been aggressively overseeded with bentgrass over the past three years and no ryegrass is used on tees or any play areas. Ryegrass is also susceptible to ice and winter damage. Our tees are now comprised of higher percentages of bentgrass making them less prone to winter injury, but do still contain some poa.

Fairways have the highest percentage of poa annua (annual bluegrass) on the golf course. While a lot of work has been done to fairways this is where we would most likely see winter damage if any where to occur. Fairways are in various stages of the transition process to bentgrass. A lot has been done culturally to the approaches to greens and these areas have very high percentages of bentgrass and not very susceptible to winterkill.

With that being said, there is still a lot of winter to go. Anaerobic conditions were noted during the thaw. While it was nice to get the ice off the golf course and hit the proverbial reset switch, it is too early to tell if the ice, or the many rapid freeze and thaw cycles have done any damage. We will be monitoring turf in the coming weeks to see how it emerges from the snow and ice cover.

Course work will start to switch from projects to course opening preparations in the coming weeks. My staff and I are also hopeful we can start the 2022 topdressing program soon, but need to have all the frost out of ground before we can start.

Think Spring!