Greens Update 2/17/16

Just when I thought we were looking okay given this year's weather, of course we had a warm up shortly after which led to some ice formation on greens.  Thankfully this occurred at the end of January and not the beginning of December.  Given the history of winter kill on a few greens, my staff removed snow and ice from those selected greens.  I did notice pockets of ice which appeared to form at a previous date, so the jury is out on how those areas will fare once we warm up.

Shade issues and winter kill go hand in hand.  It will be interesting
to see what comes of 16 green with a large Norway Maple inhibiting
melt during the afternoon.

This coming weekend will bring another warm up with temps reaching 50, 45 and 42 degrees Friday through Sunday.  We have removed snow on greens this week which did not have snow removed from a few weeks ago to help with the coming snow and ice melt.

11 green has always had issues with winter kill being a short par 3
with a small green.  Ball marks that are not repaired and a previous
history of shade issues encourage annual bluegrass establishment and
 a more susceptible surface.

My pulse for winter kill this year is less than what it has been in the past.  However, I am uncertain what will come given the lack of hardening off our turf had prior to snowfall.  It would not surprise me if we had areas of damage, but I am not anticipating the widespread damage we have had in previous years.  Hats off to my incredible staff who has done what they can to help decrease our chances for problems.  Hopefully their efforts pay off this Spring!

This close up shows what typically happens with winter kill.
You can see how bentgrass can tolerate marginal conditions
much better than annual bluegrass (Poa).

Another photo depicting typical winter kill on
a putting surface.  All of the tan area is Poa
that could not handle ice cover.