On Thursday we closed the greens, and are now using temporary greens for the winter. We do this before the soil on the greens begins to freeze. This practice prevents unrecoverable wear during winter months, turfgrass damage, and soil compaction or displacement. Reopening of the greens in the spring will occur as temperatures and soil conditions allow.
The main reasons for doing this, in no particular order are: (1) the inability of the grass to recover from wear, (2) traffic on frozen soils can cause much more damage to the grass, and (3) moist soils on the surface, and frozen soils underneath can result in compaction or foot print marks.
The unavoidable annoyance of cold temperatures and the cold soil temperatures in the winter causes the grass to stop growing. If the grass is not growing, it lacks the ability to recover from damage. Use of the green surfaces in the winter would cause thinning of the turf due to foot traffic. Thinning of the turf in the warmer months is not noticed because the greens are continually growing and will fill in the tracking and scratches left from golf spikes. Preventing all traffic on the greens will allow the surfaces to start the spring growing season in better shape for the coming year.
If the soil surface is frozen, this makes it much easier for the turf plant to be damaged. The crown of the plant, which is the growing point of the plant, is located at the soil surface. Any mechanical traffic over the frozen soil can cause much more damage to the crown of the plant.
In the spring, as the soils start to thaw, it is inevitable that the surface of the soil with be thawed, while underneath, the soil will still be frozen. This opens up the possibility for soil compaction or, if the soil is saturated enough, dents in the green from foot prints causing an uneven surface. (A picture is available of this in the file under "Further Reading" named Temporary Greens at NCC. Though the soils in the picture are different from what we have, you get an idea of how bad it could be.)
On the green, we remove the cup, and fill the hole with sand for the winter. Filling the hole with sand will prevent the edges of the cup from collapsing into the hole. This make is easier to replace the cup in the spring.
A temporary cup and flagstick are installed in the approach to give golfers an area to hit to.
The short flagsticks are used to preserve our wooden flagsticks that are used through the summer. It is also much more difficult for the wind blow over the shorter flagstick in the winter.
Reopening of the greens is dependent upon the conditions of the soil, and temperatures warm enough for the grass to begin growing. Historically, this time has been around the last week of March or the first week of April.
