Course conditions in Texas

[SB]

I know it's pretty low on everyone's list of things that are important, but does anyone know how courses in Texas were able to handle the insane weather?  There are a lot of clubs with Bermuda Greens and the extremely low temps, combined with the duration of the cold, is a bad combination.  Adding insult to injury, I suppose. 


It looked like Dallas had a decent amount of snow, which is good, but Houston may not.

[Tom_Doak]

Yes I am curious to hear how the new ultra dwarfs have survived, but it's probably too early to tell for sure, if they aren't dead they are certainly still in shock.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Agree with TD, most wont know for several weeks, but via twitter, the photos of those courses that covered have a visible different in turf color than those that didn't.

[Don Mahaffey]

Looks a little scary right now but time will tell

[JLahrman]

They have to be in better shape than the cacti and agave!

[Steve Lang]

   Tom & Don, what's the word at Memorial Park?  Was 0 degF in your grass design spec for temperature range?


Well there were "drifts" of 2-4 inches up here on the north side of Houston in the Woodlands    hard to believe folks even use the term, but hey its TX and its been a couple years since we saw any snow accumulation.  Most years February is just waiting for the last Canadian cold front to come down and visit for a day or two, not set up camp...


For the week or so leading up to the big chill, it was lousy weather, wet and getting cold, 40's, 419 Bermuda fairway and TifEagle green grasses were fully dormant.  Our WCC courses shut down early in advance of the storm as no one was playing anyway.  A couple new greens got tarps over them...


Everything is back off the paths today, it's been 40-50's at night last couple of days,  70's yesterday, forecast next week is back in 60's night to 80's high so things should be coming back in March... 


Fruit trees look a little burnt, even though covered.


Major damage to water systems if folks didn't know to drain pipes, water softeners, etc. , we thankfully only had 12 hrs power outage on Monday, 11AM to 11 PM , but were huddling around the gas fireplace, got down to 50 degF, were ready to draining things if it got below 40 in the house..


without internet for couple of days, listened to radio...  luckily sun came out or it would have been very depressing.  Dangerous with snow & ice pack on roads, being from Ohio/Mich we know dangers of snow driving and things like black ice, its scary watching locals drive too fast and ending up doing bumper car maneuvers and ending up along roadside..  grocery store shelves pretty empty last few days, but coming back, worse than hurricane periods.

[Paul Carey]

It seemed that almost every course around Fort Worth had green covers and used them.  Not just the private clubs but public and municipal courses as well. 

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Weather nerds, what was the severity and duration of this cold snap with the one that hit the Carolinas a couple years ago? Lots of UD bermuda got smoked in that one, but I think courses in that area are less likely to have covers than TX?

[Don Mahaffey]

I’m hearing the grass wasn’t the problem, it’s the clubhouses that got hurt bad. I know of two private clubs that had their fire sprinkler systems burst and cause major damage.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Briggs National

[mike_beene]

Royal Oaks in Dallas has Bermuda greens and had covers out. Dallas Country Club had a pipe break in clubhouse.

[Lou_Duran]

Mike,


Numerous clubs had water damage to their clubhouses.  Apparently fire suppression systems failed at several places.  Clubhouses at my home club and at our residential community sustained serious water damage.  The golf course had black tarps on all the greens for 14 straight days to protect the TifEagle greens.  The covers were lifted yesterday, but the course remains closed.


I played The Bridges (Jeff Brauer design) 50 miles north of DT Dallas today.  Its MiniVerde greens were outstanding, smooth, and running around 10'.  Carts were off the paths and the course was in B+ condition, a lot better than my home club.  I have seen winter kill many times in the past and saw none at The Bridges.  I think that the snow cover helped.


The bermuda (something earlier than Tifdwarf) greens at our little community par 3 went uncovered but were very playable by Sunday.  I played 9 holes with my wife yesterday and they are as good as they have been for the past 11 years. 

[mike_beene]

Lou:
There is a hose on the faucet in my back yard. Probably been on there 20 years. I tried every tool I had( which isn’t much) to unhook it with no luck. Wrapped a wind shirt around it and it didn’t break. I am trying out our course tomorrow. Our new pro came from St. Louis for year round golf and spent his first week in 20 degree weather.

[SB]

Weather nerds, what was the severity and duration of this cold snap with the one that hit the Carolinas a couple years ago? Lots of UD bermuda got smoked in that one, but I think courses in that area are less likely to have covers than TX?

Tom, it looks like the temps and duration were similar to the Texas storm.  Lows near or below 10 degrees for multiple days, highs not getting above freezing.  You are correct, many did not have covers in NC, particularly in Myrtle Beach.  Another thing that NC had was sleet and freezing rain.  Based on the damage I saw, it looks like they also had an issue with the freeze thaw cycle.


I've dealt with it a couple times from desiccation, cold temps, and ice, and it's always a bit of a crapshoot.  As someone else said, it usually doesn't show up for a few weeks.

[JLahrman]

Not sure the grasses here will suffer too much. But in Austin at least, we had a dose of freezing rain that iced up the foliage pretty good right before the temperatures dropped to well below freezing for about a week. Lots of trees and bushes were weighed down to the ground. Now that everything has thawed out, there are a lot of broken limbs and even broken trees that didn't make it. The cactus and agave plants are shriveled and limp. So that is where the damage will likely be.

[mike_beene]

It was playing firm and fast with two putts finding their way 30 yards off green. The fairways are very thin but firm. Some of trees look burned out. I think Dallas had five days in the 20 F range. It was 72 today LLP

[Lou_Duran]

2.5" of rain overnight and :15 of hail.  Course partially flooded.  Locust plague next?

[JMEvensky]

2.5" of rain overnight and :15 of hail.  Course partially flooded.  Locust plague next?

Too Jewish.