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Winter golf

9 posts
  1. Roach Adrian
    Roach Adrian avatar
    3/11/2013 12:03 PM
    I know that winter is almost over but I have a patron that is on a tangent about playing winter golf. I have, in the past at other courses, closed the golf course when the greens start to freeze. Does anyone know or have any info that will back my case up that playing golf on frozen turf can be harmful to the turf plants? I am located in Northern Indiana.


    Thanks,

    Adrian Roach



  2. Wydra David A
    Wydra David A avatar
    3/11/2013 2:03 PM
    This is a good informative article put out by the USGA a few years back.
    http://www.usga.org/Content.aspx?id=25962



  3. Kevin Girt
    Kevin Girt avatar
    0 posts
    3/11/2013 5:03 PM
    Adrian,
    If the soil is frozen but there is no frost, let them have at it just so long as there is no fear of the soil thawing out while they're playing. I was the supt at the Seymour Elks in Indiana and had to deal with it from December to March. No harm ever came to the grass that I could ever see.



  4. Timothy Walker
    Timothy Walker avatar
    0 posts
    3/11/2013 6:03 PM
    We are open everyday the course is not under snow or floodwaters...no issues in 12 yrs as a superintendent with these circumstances.



  5. Keith Fellenstein
    Keith Fellenstein avatar
    0 posts
    3/12/2013 8:03 AM
    Frost or frozen turf-closed. Frozen soil (only)- we let'em play. Freeze/thaw cycles-judgement call.



  6. Corey Eastwood
    Corey Eastwood avatar
    82 posts
    3/12/2013 11:03 AM
    The course down the street never has a frost delay, even with about ten days of a low in the twenty's this January. I have never seen any green or tee damage. A few brown/black cart tracks on fairways(all rye) on the first few holes.

    After holding play for over thirty years maybe it was not needed.

    Corey Eastwood CGCS, Stockton Golf & CC, Retired

  7. Ronald Conard
    Ronald Conard avatar
    4 posts
    3/12/2013 11:03 AM
    Corey Eastwood, CGCS said: The course down the street never has a frost delay, even with about ten days of a low in the twenty's this January. I have never seen any green or tee damage. A few brown/black cart tracks on fairways(all rye) on the first few holes.

    After holding play for over thirty years maybe it was not needed.


    There are too many variables to make a blanket statement that playing on frost is harmless. I can't figure out the exact combination of factors that go into making some nasty frost burns but it can, and does, happen. It's especially prevalent when the damage occurs in the fall and carries on through the spring.

    By the time frost season rolls around we couldn't fill a full tee sheet anyway so having the players expect a later tee time does not really equate to lost revenue. It would of course if the tee sheet would have been full from 7:00am on.



  8. Timothy Walker
    Timothy Walker avatar
    0 posts
    3/12/2013 4:03 PM
    We open the course when the frost burns off - some local courses have a 9:00 shotgun for the winter obviously delays occur when frost covered. In January with dormant turf we don't hold back play with frost on most occasions. Typically we will open the golf shop at 8:00 for winter. There were some weekends in January folders showed up at 7:00 and wanted to get out on the course when the temp was barely 20 degrees...have fun...



  9. Green Robert B
    Green Robert B avatar
    3/15/2013 2:03 PM
    When it comes to winter damage, winter golfers are not a big deal. We are open throughout the winter on Chicago's north shore and have been for many years. We would sweat the thawing days, with our course being the only one open, and we could end up with a full tee sheet on thawing greens. But with greens topdressed with sand for thirty years we dont get much damage.
    Winter damage - from ice cover - Wow those have been really challenging Springs.
    Winter damage from golfers - increased divots and ball marks but no large damaged areas.



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