Golf in cold weather?

[JWinick]

In another topic, I remarked how I've seen people from Utah golfing in freezing conditions.    Is this ok?   Does it ruin the grass?   Under what circumstances can you play in the cold, providing your body can handle it?   I'd like to hear some architects and professionals weigh in.   

[John Moore II]

As long as the turf can handle the cold conditions, there is nothing else to really prevent golf in cold conditions. In NC, our turf on the greens stays green all year, so playing when it is freezing will break the turf leaves. Beyond that, the only thing preventing play in exceptionally cold weather is just an individuals judgement. I usually don't play golf when it gets much below 35 (which is rare here) but if I lived in Utah where it stays cold for long periods of time, I would probably drag myself to the course as often as possible in the winter, regardless of temperature. But here in NC, the only thing that prevents us from having play all the time is frost and occasionally snow on the ground.

[JWinick]

So, it's the frost that's a problem?   If it's cold but dry, play away?   I know the Masters had a frost delay this year.   Is that due to protecting the course, or is it due to fairness?

[John Moore II]

If there is frost on a course that has actively growing grass,  you can't play because it will pretty much kill the grass where ever people step with thier feet. As for dry and cold, I don't know, we rarely get pure freeze delays, but it happens every so often. Our problem is with overseeded fairways and cool season grasses on the greens that never really go dormant. Those grasses will be torn up really bad if they are walked on when frozen/frosted. If the entire course is dormant, as I would assume happens in Utah, I suppose play is ok, but here, when its freezing, golf is not happening.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Is this a sign of global warming? In my youth, in the 60s, courses in the UK were often frosted. You played as if nothing were different apart from the bounce of the ball. You even played with a coloured ball in snow - totally pointless, as the thing was white when it landed and rolled itself into a white snowball.

Nowadays you have winter greens, dropping zones, winter tees and all sorts of local rules, but it doesn't affect your handicap, which only applies in decent weather. I could now be a 64 handicapper instead of 15 if only we didn't have this miopic handicap system. Point-One per card below SSS buffer.... I can be 45 below SSS...

[Jason McNamara]

And what was it like at Royal Blackheath back in the late 1600's, when the Thames would freeze over?

No mention of golf here, unfortunately:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames_frost_fairs

Jason

[Lloyd_Cole]

I played (and actually won!) a friendly tournament at a course near Stockholm Arlanda (airport). It was mid winter and all the lakes were frozen over. There were a couple of no playing members of the party who would pop up every few holes with aquavit! Great fun - I got a Viking helmet as the prize, but I must have lost it somewhere in Stockholm in the ensuing drunken haze. That was a long time ago, BTW.

[Jon Wiggett]

Mark,

I think alot of the problems these days in the UK is using the wrong sort of grasses/maintenance programme and over protection of the course.

Also, in days gone past there was less play in the summer, the turf had less damage to recover from, the clubs less money and courses had fewer greenkeepers. On top of this players weren't as colour driven and the disaster of Agrostis palustris (Penn A's, L93, etc.) had not reached our shores.
Due to this the courses used grasses that were optimal for our climate and for golf. They want alot of growth as the 2 or 3 greenkeepers couldn't keep up with mowing and the clubs generally couldn't afford more staff. As a result the grass was dormant during the frost periods and little to no damage was caused.

These days courses often have budgets in excess of £250 for maintenance and do not play the full course all the year.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I played at Royal Ashdown Forest in the frost in winter 1999/2000 and the members were saying that they always play the greens, never having temporaries. There is a school of thought that you should play the greens, but make players enter and leave via the back of the green rather than the front.

[Kirk Gill]

I've played a number of times at a local course here in Colorado that drags its fairways in the winter time to break up the snow and get down to grass level. Of course, the grass is dormant. The ground is frozen solid so you have to tee off of little styrofoam cups, and the greens are literally ice. The course isn't in GREAT condition at the best of times, but I don't know that the cold weather play is doing any extreme damage.

Note, green fee not reduced when playing on the frozen course. But for purity's sake, they don't allow carts in the snow.

[Bob Jenkins]

I live in the Vancouver BC area and we can usually play each month of the year. The grass always stays green except when covered with snow.

In the winter, it is not unusual to have frost, either overnight or for a few days. Usually the courses will shut down but sometimes play on temporary greens. I understand the most dangerous time to be out on the links is when the surface melts and the root structure below is still frozen. That is more common if we get a cold spell for a few days and then it starts to thaw out, as opposed to an overnight frost.

Bob Jenkins

[Steve Wilson]

From 1986 to 1991 I never went more than two weeks without playing golf, and that's saying a lot since I'm on the north side of the Appalachians.  We often played with the temperature in the high 30s, but when you're walking and carrying you generate a lot of heat.     
 A few times we had to wait for the frost to clear, but I never noticed any damage to any grass on the course.  In fact, the greens at the little nine holer we used during the winter were among the best in the area.   

But that was when I could still walk, 36 if need be, and when my golf buddy was still alive.  After he died, golf in the winter was never quite the same. 

     

[Kalen Braley]

A few pics i found of Frost damage:

[Wayne_Kozun]

A double bogey on the par 5 6 gets her back to even, but what does this have to do with cold weather as it is 23C or 73F in Ottawa today?

[Jon Wiggett]

Kalen,

apart from the visual, what was the damage done in the two cases you show? Did the grass die next spring or are you a pure optical man?

[Kalen Braley]

I'm by no means an agrnomist, but I'm assuming the grass died but eventually grew back!!    I assume mgmt wants the grass on the course to be alive for the most part!!

[Kyle Harris]

That first picture is especially damning as it's obviously a triplex mower.

The superintendent and operator should have known better.

[Kalen Braley]

Blatant threadjack - but it's semi-on-point:

Don't look now, but Michelle Wie is -2 through 4 holes in Canada... 

Finished with a +3 75...only 9 strokes back.....after day 1.  Fantastatic!! 

[Greg Tallman]

Golf and cold weather do not mix. Played Troon North whilst following my beloved Mountaineers at the Fiesta Bowl in January. Miserable, horrible, awful, humiliating, disgusting and painful experience... and it was 55 degrees supposedly.

But I did make a 70 footer on 17 to win the money... so all in all it was just a bad day leading up to a great night as the mighty Sooners looked as though they were wearing lead shoes as we ran over and around their vaunted defense.  Football and cold weather - yes. Golf and cold weather - no thanks.

[Richard Boult]

During a recent trip to Colorado, I played Lakota Canyon with 3 locals.  They told me they played golf in Colorado at least once every month last year... sometimes they had to travel to remote corners of the state to find an open course.  They played in miserable conditions a number of times.  Colorado is now officially a year-round golfing location.

[Jon Wiggett]

I'm by no means an agrnomist, but I'm assuming the grass died but eventually grew back!!    I assume mgmt wants the grass on the course to be alive for the most part!!

Kalen,

just because it is brown doesn't mean it is dead, but you've been around on this site long enough to know that I would imagine it is purely leaf damage and would grow out in the spring. Kyle you are probably correct but sometimes frost can occur in a matter of seconds. I have had occasion when I have been stranded in the middle of the fairway for 5 to 10 minutes due to sudden frosts.

[JWinick]

For those of you who belong to private clubs, what does your club do in the winter?  Do they allow play in January when its freezing?