Friday, January 13, 2012

Winter Golf

It has been much too long since I last wrote in this column and my apologies are in order.  The shortage of staff that plagued the golf course last year meant less time for writing and I relied too heavily on my Twitter posts.  Hopefully, I will learn to better manage my time so that my thoughts can find their way to you.

Winter golf is always at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Up to this point, the weather has been friendly and you have taken advantage.  Yesterday a winter storm blew through the area with a little snow but more importantly cold temperatures.  The ground, especially the greens, is frozen solid today.  Not really a problem because the temperature today will struggle to get to freezing and that alone will discourage most if not all golfers.  The problem will be this weekend when the temperatures are expected to reach the 40's and maybe higher.  This will cause the ground to start to thaw and it will occur from the top down.   This is the most dangerous situation agronomically because as the top thaws, traffic (even foot) will cause it to shift against the frozen layer below where the turf roots are.  This shifting has the potential to shear those roots off at that interface meaning all the care given to the greens last fall to grow a deep root system will be for naught.

In order to be out of danger the soil needs to thaw to about a two inch depth.  With 19 different locations, every green thaws at different rates according to shade and orientation to the sun. Once the ground freezes solid enough that it can not be penetrated with a knife blade, it only takes the temperature getting close to 32 degrees at night to refreeze starting the cycle over again the next day.  At this point, it looks unlikely that the course will be open this weekend due to this freeze/thaw cycle on the greens.  The greens will be checked each morning and if the course is not playable, signs will be posted at #1 and #10 tees and that information will also be Tweeted.

Warm weather during the winter always has its drawbacks usually in the form of bad weather during the spring.  I would just as soon have bad weather now and nice later.  Have a great weekend.