Why are there lengthy frost delays during the fall season?
What determines the pin location for a given day?
Q: Why are carts restricted to the path?
A: Four main factors determine the decision to keep carts off the fairways:
- Excess moisture. When the turf is saturated after a rainfall, cart traffic has the potential to rut the soft ground. These ruts result in an inconsistent playing surface for golfers in the following days. Our rule of thumb is that when it is too wet for our fairway units to mow, then it is too wet for golf cart traffic.
- Fertilizer/chemical application. We apply certain liquid fertilizers/pesticides and the product labels state that the solution needs to be allowed to dry completely before being trafficked. Keeping carts off the turf prevents tracking of the chemicals to undesired locations and allows the plant to fully absorb the active ingredients without disruption.
- Prolonged excessive temperatures. This is very rare and only applies to the cool-season bentgrass fairways on the Norman and Shark Bite Courses. If we encounter a long stretch of triple digit heat, we may make the decision to pull the carts to prevent further stress to an already extremely stressed turf plant.
- Dormancy. As the temperatures drop throughout the fall, the turf begins preparing for winter by slowing down all its biological processes. Eventually this leads to dormancy and the plant shuts down, leaving it a light brown color. During this time mowing ceases and the turf loses its ability to recover from stresses like divots and cart traffic. For this reason, carts are usually restricted to the paths from late October to late April. This time window fluctuates annually based on temperatures and turf variety.
Q: Why are there lengthy frost delays during the fall season?
A:
“Go home and
place a piece of lettuce in the freezer over-night. The next morning, take it
out and stomp on it a few times. Then observe the resulting tissue damage. This
is what happens when we walk on frozen turf.”
– This was how frost damaged was bluntly
explained to me many years ago. As simple as that analogy is, it clearly
exemplifies the effect that foot and cart traffic can have on frosted turf
grass. The leaves of a turf grass plant are made up of cells consisting of 85%
to 90% water. As temperatures drop in the fall, temperatures within the plant
drop as well. This time of year, especially early in the morning, air
temperature rises quicker than the temperature of the turf plant. This results in
the accumulation of water vapor on the surface of the leaf blade (similar to a
cold drink sweating). When the temperature of the turf plant falls below
freezing, the existing surface moisture freezes and produces frost. If traffic occurs
before the frost has melted, the frozen cells of the leaf blade are shattered, resulting
in tissue damage. For this reason we routinely ask for golfers to be patient and wait until our staff has determined that the frost has lifted before walking or driving on any turf grass surface.Q: What determines the pin location for a given day?
A: Our pin location is on a simple 3 step rotation: A - B - C.
The easiest way to determine the location for a given day is to look at either #1 or #10. If the flag is on the front of those greens then we are in position A. If it is in the middle on those greens the position is B and the back is C. Once that is established, the golfer can follow the Front-Middle-Back sequence throughout the course. If the pin is in the front on #1, it will be in the middle on #2, the back on #3 and the front on #4.
Our pins are changed daily throughout the season for two main reasons: 1. To give the golfer a varying degree of difficulty from hole to hole. 2. To evenly distribute foot traffic throughout the green preventing uneven wear patterns.
