The winter weather extremes are still the talk of Chicago area courses (especially with another blanket of snow today!), and likely will be for several more weeks while courses tend to the recovery process.  In this week's CDGA Turf Scouting Report posted yesterday, we learned the NOAA has declared this the coldest winter on record for Chicago.  I do not see anybody lining up to dispute that yet!  Several resources from several organizations have been produced over the past month regarding winter damage and the accompanying recovery process.  This is a result of the widespread winter damage across the upper midwest.  Courses from the east coast to Detroit to Chicago to Milwaukee are experiencing varying levels of winter damage.  Reports of reseeding greens and fairways are not hard to come by.

Here is a short list of recent publications on winter damage:

CDGA Winter Issues letter
Cool-Season Turf Winter Kill Potential
Winter-Weary Golfers need to be Patient
Recovery Will Be Part of the Preparation for the Season
MSU Ice Damage and Winter Kill bulletin
USGA Webcast: Severe Winter Concerns
MI Ice and Recovery Seminar Summary
Winter kill 2014: What to do now

We have not been immune to winter's wrath.  Evidence of the extreme weather is in our fairways.  Most obvious to me is the areas that have been damaged are areas that receive a longer duration of shade through the day.  This results in a weaker plant that will be less tolerant of weather extremes.  These areas also have higher populations of annual bluegrass (poa), which is less tolerant of weather extremes than bentgrass.

This picture clearly shows the the greatest area of damaged turf resides in the portion of the fairway that receives the most shade.  These trees are lining the south side of the fairway.

These areas of the fairways that exhibit the greatest level of damage have been over seeded in an attempt to expedite recovery.  Expect these areas to be roped off for some time until a decent stand of grass can be established.  These areas include spots in 2, 4, 5, 8 and 12 fairway.

The greens and tees on the course have come through the winter very well.  The benefits of the recent renovation are evident in these areas.  The greens and tees have predominately bentgrass which is showing its winter hardiness.  The 7th green is thinner to start the year.  It is no coincidence that this green had the longest duration of ice cover through the winter resulting in stresses, even on the bentgrass.  We will gauge the necessary recover efforts for this green as grass begins to grow.

 The spring will still be progressing slowly.  We will not be ramping up our manicuring efforts until the grass begin growing at a reasonable rate.  Though the grass is certainly greening up, not much is growing yet.  40s for highs and 20s for lows does not help any.  But, it looks like we will be back into the 60s by weeks end!

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Slowly but surely we are gradually seeing more grass on the course.  A favorable forecast this week looks like that slow and steady melt will continue.  With so much snow left to melt, frozen soil and saturated conditions, we cannot speculate yet on a potential opening date for the course.  One thing we are expecting - once the course is open, it will be a slow spring.

This picture was taken this morning and show how much is left to melt yet.  This picture also shows what we are seeing in spots as the snow does recede.  The brownish area of fairway grass in the middle of the picture exhibits signs of grass that has succumbed to the winter weather.  We are seeing small areas like this in fairway drainage areas around the course.  I suspect more areas will exhibit similar signs as more can be seen.  Plugs have been take from these areas to see exactly how much damage has been done.

This is not the first time this type of damage has been observed on the course.  This picture was take during the spring of 2010 (blog post here).  The brown spots are patches of annual bluegrass, similar to the picture above.  Annual bluegrass is more susceptible to winter stresses than the bentgrass.  I anticipate seeing several spots around the fairways display this type of damage.  If we do find this type of damage once the snow melts, we will take the opportunity to sod and seed bentgrass into these areas.  The result however, will be a slow spring start to the season.

These are the only observations we have to this point.  We still have several areas covered in ice and snow.  None of the tees or greens show any observable damage from the winter.  However, 1 green, 5 green and 10 green are still covered in snow.  We will have more pictures up this week.  I am sure you are just as anxious to see some grass on the course as we are.

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This year we have been using a plant growth regulator(PGR) for the suppression of annual bluegrass(poa annua) in our fairways. You may have noticed yellow spots in the fairways from time to time this summer.

These yellow spots are annual bluegrass and it's response to the PGR. The product selectively regulates the growth of the annual bluegrass more than the bentgrass, giving the bentgrass a competitive advantage.

Annual bluegrass that is growing slower than the bentgrass

Injured annual bluegrass leaves

An area that has been treated, and is currently noticeable, is in 1 fairway. This is an area of excessive overlap with the sprayer, so the injured area has received double the rate. This overlap, combined with the stress from the current weather patterns has resulted in the damage showing on the bentgrass as well.

This type of program is successful with the suppression of annual bluegrass, it will not eliminate the annual bluegrass. If this program is not continued through the season, the bluegrass will recover from the damage. This approach is a continuous effort that will be sustained from year to year in an effort to slowly reduce the population of annual bluegrass.

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