Does frost damage golf greens?

This is your chance to ask the experts to get the greenkeeping information that you really want. Whether you want to learn more about hollow-tining, or whether there is something going on at your course that you just don’t understand, we’ve lined up the experts to put you in the know in our Greenkeeper’s Question Time.

Answering your questions this time is Scott Reeves, veteran course manager and BIGGA head of membership. This week he’s asked: Does frost damage golf greens?

What is your view about playing on frost-covered greens?

At the last golf course I worked at, we played on frost-covered greens. We played on greens all year round. But that followed a trial process.

We tried it on one or two greens. This wasn’t something anybody asked me to do, I decided to try this myself. We played on a couple of greens throughout the winter, and we measured the effects.

We saw how they performed throughout the following summer – with no noticeable effects whatsoever.

Then we trialled four greens in different areas – one was surrounded by trees, and another was a different type of construction.

Again, there were no harmful effects. When I left that club, we had been playing on the greens for three or four straight years through frost with no negatives.

Now, that is what worked for us. I’m definitely not saying it would work for everyone. There are a lot of things to consider. You should trial it if you’re thinking of doing it.

There were one or two occasions where we had to close the course because we’d stopped using temporary greens. So, when we had a hard frost and then a thaw, where the top was very soft and there was some water, but it was frozen underneath, we closed the course.

But by and large, I’ve seen no harmful effects of playing on frost. Here is where I qualify this, because it is a subject people are very passionate about and I respect that.

You have to know your site very well. You have to understand why you’re doing it. If there is no call for it, and people are perfectly happy with the status quo of either closing the course or playing on frost greens, then don’t change.

If you’re inclined to try it then carry out a scientific trial – only use part of a green and then measure the effects later in the year, look at disease incidents, look at compaction and decide from an informed position. Don’t just rule something in or out without having done some research first.

How much damage can you do if you play on frost greens?

A number of things can happen. Walking on a plant that is frozen means the cell structure is also frozen, so you can crush those individual cells because they’re just not springing and they’re fragile and brittle when frozen. You are crushing cells that can’t just bounce back.

There’s leaf damage and that tends to manifest as black footprints or browning off. But there can be an issue if the root zone itself is frozen at different levels. If it’s soft on top or frozen hard an inch or two down, you can get root shearing.

It’s a bit like if a piece of carpet was laid on a smooth surface. If you walked on it, it would shift, so you might damage the root structure.

Pretty much everything causes some level of damage, from tiny to significant levels of damage. It’s all about deciding as a club what levels of harm you are comfortable with whilst reaching your goal of keeping golfers happy.

Grass species composition can come into it but a lot depends on how healthy your root zones are. We did an awful lot of aeration at my old club, and it meant we had good, healthy, resilient root systems and they recovered pretty quickly from everything. They also drained really well and there wasn’t too much moisture hanging around in the upper profile.

• This article appears in Your Course, the twice-yearly publication from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Your Course invites golfers to gain a deeper appreciation of what preparing and maintaining a golf course really involves. Head to www.bigga.org.uk to find out more.

Have a question for a greenkeeper?

What do you think? Does frost damage golf greens at your course, or do you play on them all year round with no effects? Let us know in the comments. Remember, it’s your course – want to send a question in about it? Email info@bigga.org.uk and we’ll put it to one of our experts.

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