Winter Effects on Courses

[b_kim777]

This question clearly shows how much I am itching to play a round of golf...

What is better for a golf course during the winter season?

1) A mild winter where the course is not covered in snow?
2) A golf course that is consistently covered in snow throughout the winter?

I have heard different things (i.e. bad to have exposed grass throughout cold weather and better to have a covered course so the grass is not exposed, and vice versa).

Thoughts? Any greenskeepers here that might know?

Bottom line... with all the snow is this favorable to an early season start or a delayed late start?

[Lefty17]

Last year we didn't get good snow coverage on our greens and we suffered for about a month with winter kill.

I've worked on a grounds crew before and from what I understand snow coverage is the best.

The start depends on the thaw. If we get a warm end of the month then into March we should get a early start.:shhh:

[Richard]

Farmers who have similar needs to golf course greenskeepers (they grow grass) like to have everything snow covered. The snow acts as insulation for the ground.

If not then frost will penetrate the ground as much as it possibly can, leaving the highest possibility for winterkill to occur. Winterkill is what happens when the frost heaves and breaks root systems. Killing the grass.

Good drainage will work to help control frost too.

I think a moderate amount of snow with a warm spring is best of both worlds, not too much snow to melt away and let the ground dry out, yet enough to protect the grass.

[hogannut]

THe best thing for a golf course is to get snow early and have that blanket cover the ground the entire winter. When you get melting, and then freezing and you have no snow covering the ground is when you get the real severe winter kill. A few winters back (I think it was 2005) that scenario happened to most GTA courses. We got snow, but it melted and turned into ice, and we didn't get much snow after that. The winter kill that year was brutal and on some courses it didn't grown in until almost June.

Obviously a lot of snow like this year will make the ground very wet and could delay opening dates due to wet conditions, but snow is what a greenskeeper wants, and they want it to stay on the ground all winter. This protects the grass for an early growth in the spring.

[ProV1Kenobi]

a good buddy of mine is the 2nd assistant at Rebel Creek in Kitchener, and he was also an assistant for a couple years at Rattlesnake, his big worry is mould.... he likes there to be a consistant amount of snow on the ground so the fungicide doesn't have to be re-applied... this year at Rebel he's had to re-apply twice, he's told me stores about when grey silo was just getting off the ground one spring the mould on the fairways was so thick you could sweep it like tumbelweeds with a broom!!!

[Shadow]

Ideal circumstances:
1. the ground freezes
2. heavy blanket of snow
3. no winter thaws
4. gradual spring melt with no sudden, severe drop in temperatures.

If the ground does not freeze then there may be too much moisture at grass level making it susceptibe to various fungi. Fall spraying is hugely important.

If a thaw, followed by a prolonged period of very cold weather, produces solid ice at grass level, then the grass may suffocate, winter kill, as it produces some sort of sulphfur gas which needs to percolate up through the porous snow. Bent grass will survive roughly 90 consecutive days under solid ice and poa annua about 60 days.

Frost in the ground will not cause a problem but walking on a course where there has been an overnight, surface frost, will break the plant stem but not damage the roots.

Those of you in the GTA and further west and south have a much milder, less course damaging climate than those of us here in the Ottawa Valley. Here in Ottawa, the ground did not freeze before the snow came and so after the January thaw, the ground absorbed a lot of the moisture. There is still relatively little frost in the ground so after the spring runoff of our near record snowfall, conditions should improve quickly. A deep frost keeps the ground cold and for the grass to grow it obviously must be warm.