Winter Injury Alert!

By David A. Oatis, director, Northeast Region
February 17, 2011

(L) Once the turf was exposed to air, the foul odor of decomposition could be detected.  As the ice melted, the water turned green, indicating cellular damage. (R) Ice can be chipped away in a variety of ways.  Turf plugs can then be removed with a hole saw or Sawsall.

In recent weeks, Green Section agronomists have been speaking with superintendents all over the Northeast Region with respect to winter injury and various strategies associated with possible removal of snow and ice layers from putting green turf.  Although we currently are still several weeks away from understanding the extent of injury, damage already has been documented at a few courses.  As the snow and ice recedes and/or is removed, more damage likely will come to light.
At least at a couple of golf courses, it appears that significant injury occurred in late December and early January and likely can be attributed to crown hydration injury.  A thick layer of ice has covered many putting greens since then, and some superintendents who have cut through the ice are discovering signs of anoxia.  Toxic gases build up slowly under ice layers after prolonged cover, and even courses with ice layers intact for 35-40 days have discovered the tell-tale foul smells.  On at least one course, the water from the melting ice quickly turned green, a sure sign that plant cells have been ruptured and the chlorophyll is leaking out.
Thus, if the “smell of death” is present under the ice layer on your greens, the ice should be removed as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, some damage has already occurred, and the process of ice removal itself can further injure the turf.  Exposing the turf to additional freeze/thaw cycles also can result in more damage.  However, leaving the ice alone with anoxic conditions would practically guarantee damage, too.  Courses facing this dilemma clearly are in a no-win situation.
Recovery obviously is weeks and perhaps months away, so the only thing that can be done now is to assess damage by uncovering the turf and bringing plugs inside for incubation.  Within a week or so, you should get a feel for whether or not damage is present and how extensive it might be.  Taking plugs from low areas and high areas will provide an indication of the extent.  Armed with this information, you can begin preparing your golfers and developing recovery strategies. 
There are many different ways to promote recovery, and some courses quickly will resort to sod, whereas others will aerate and seed.  Regardless of the chosen method, keeping damaged greens closed until the turf has recovered is the most important first step.  Damaged turf that is subjected to play will recover much more slowly, and this prolongs the aggravation.  Furthermore, winter injury is an opportunity to establish new and improved bentgrasses in putting greens, so, although there clearly is plenty of short-term pain, there can be long-term gain.
If you have questions or would like to discuss damage prevention and/or recovery strategies, give us a call.  We are always ready to help.
Mark your calendars for two upcoming USGA regional meetings:  The New England Regional Turf Conference in Providence, RI is March 7-10 and the USGA/MGA conference at Wheatley Hills GC in East Williston, NY is Tuesday, March 22.  See you there.
Source:  Northeast Region Green Section- Dave Oatis, Director doatis@usga.org; Adam Moeller, Agronomist amoeller@usga.org Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist jskorulski@usga.org.

Looks like this upcoming storm is the kind that we dread. Heavy rain on top of this snowpack will most likely result in some ice. The rain will soak in to the snowpack settle near the green surface and most likely freeze before it has a chance to drain off. Its almost the start of March and the time when freeze and thaw cycles are more prevalent. Thankfully this type of event didn't happen in early January.

Took a walk today to check a few greens after last weeks thaw. Last week I peaked at the 1st, 9th and 18th. Today I walked out to the 2nd, 7th, 13th and 16th. The 13th and the 16th both had very little or no ice. If I found ice it was brittle and broke easy. These greens both have enkamat covering these greens. The 2nd and 7th greens contained a bit more ice. The front of 2 had several inches, while the back of the green had very little to none. The 7th had several inches right in the middle. Both these greens have the impermeable plastic covers. The impermeable covers don't allow the water to penetrate into the green surface. This probably explains the accumulation of ice on these versus the other greens I have checked. At this point it is obviously a wait and see approach. March is the most critical month, and how we melt off will determine what kind of spring conditions we can expect.

The Anti-Augusta Syndrome | Golf Course Architecture

NEWS AND VIEWS ON GOLF DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

The Anti-Augusta Syndrome

15 February 2011

The par three ninth, with Kyle Franz's beautiful new bunker

Adam Lawrence was blown away on a visit to see the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2.
Led by the design firm of Coore & Crenshaw, the restoration currently under way at Donald Ross’s masterpiece, Pinehurst No. 2, might just be the most important project the golf world has seen for many years.
For Pinehurst, one of America’s most storied golf venues, with a century of top tournaments under its belt, including two US Opens, a Ryder Cup and two US Amateurs, is truly showing the golf industry its future. And it lies in its past.
Visiting Pinehurst recently, and spending time with director of golf course management Bob Farren, the scope of the project became apparent. Consider the figures: 26 acres of turf has been removed. Only 450 of the 1150 irrigation heads on the golf course before the work now remain, straight down the middle of the fairways. In place of the turf, the natural sand areas have been revealed, in what Farren calls ‘sandscapes’ (he doesn’t like the term waste areas); these sandscapes, which will be left totally unprepared, will have been sprinkled with over 100,000 wiregrass plants by the time the course reopens on 3 March.
There will be no rough on the golf course; the fairway grass will transition, at the furthest reaches of the centreline irrigation system (reinstalled with larger heads from Toro at a cost of US$500,000, significantly less than a normal irrigation system on a high-end US course), into the sandscapes. “We want the grassing lines to be defined by the limit of the irrigation system,” said Farren. Golfers who miss the new, wider fairways, will see their balls bound through the sand. They might find a good lie; or they might find their ball in the middle of a clump of wiregrass. If on sand, good ballstrikers will have a chance to recover; if in wiregrass, good luck! Nor will the course be overseeded in future winters; the commitment of Pinehurst’s management to see No. 2 play truly fast and firm is absolute (although it will be sprayed with a light green paint, to reduce the shock of seeing wholly dormant Bermuda).
Pinehurst’s famous crowned greens have not been touched during the restoration project. But the sandscapes, which in many cases extend very close to greens, will present entirely new short game challenges to players. Good luck, for example, trying to hit a flop shot from the hard sand to the right of the second green; with a bunker in the way and the green sloping away, a golfer who misses on that side will have to take his punishment. Course management, long a priority at Pinehurst, will become even more important.
All this, don’t forget, is happening on a course that will host both the men’s and women’s US Opens, in successive weeks no less, in 2014. Coore & Crenshaw have ensured that the playability that has made No. 2 the championship course anyone could tackle remains. Take the new-look seventh, a medium length par four (though a new tee will make it more of a challenge for the Open) that doglegs to the right around the drive zone. Sandscapes and bunkers narrow the fairway to 31 yards at the corner of the dogleg, where a professional would be looking to put his drive. But, short of the apex, there is a full 48 yards of fairway grass from sand to sand, allowing the tentative golfer to take an easier route to the green. At the eighth, by contrast, a new sandscape area on the right of the fairway is in play from the regular tees for resort golfers and members, who play the hole as a par five; the pros, for whom the hole is a par four, will have to challenge the sand if they want a good view of the green.
As is typical of Coore & Crenshaw’s work, the bunker shaping is exquisite. That bunker complex at the corner of the seventh hole merges beautifully into the surrounding sandscapes; shaper Kyle Franz’s bunker to the front of the par three ninth has to be seen to be believed. But aesthetics, though important, are not what makes this project so truly astonishing. No; the real value of the No. 2 works are to be seen in their potential impact on the golf industry as a whole. This is, let me remind you, a staple in most rankings of America’s top ten courses, a multiple major championship venue that will host two more in three years time, and part of one of the country’s greatest (and most expensive!) golf resorts. For a course of this stature to be embracing the fast, firm, open mantra so totally, with its consequent impact on environmental and economic sustainability, is the best news golf has received in many a year. Now it’s time for the rest of the industry to follow Pinehurst’s lead.

Snow

 Picture of the first green. Couple feet of snow and no ice, very little frost and green grass.

Trail we cleared so we could get down to the burn pile and begin burning brush.