Winters of change

The recent boom of golf over the last few years — or the resurgence of the game, if you prefer — has meant a big change in how golf course superintendents go about managing their operations. We all know this. But one of the more interesting wrinkles to this has not been how much busier golf has become in-season, but how many golf courses have indeed become busier in the winter months as well.

For those of us who actually have winter play on our golf courses, there has definitely been a “change in the winds” in recent winters. A recent online article by Rick Woelfel looks at this issue, specifically from the angle of increased winter play due to warmer temperatures, fewer trees and better technology.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, winter play used to mean something entirely different than it does now, and it certainly appears as though we are not alone in this phenomenon.

Ron Hass, the owner of the golf course where I’m superintendent, Avalon Golf Club in western Washington, used to tell me that a decent revenue for a winter month, like a typical February, wasn’t even equal to a busy in June, July or August. Although we have always stayed open year-round, winter golf used to be more of a perk for diehard members and local folks to play once in a while when the sun popped out in January or February and shake off the rust. It was not our money maker.

For us, winter play prior to 2020 was, for the most part, almost inconsequential.

Along came 2020 and things, for us anyway, went from a routine winter recharge to very quickly realizing we had to change how we went about maintaining the golf course in the winter months, which for us is basically November through February. No longer was it a few diehard members braving the 40-degree weather and avoiding raindrops, winds and saturated turf. Almost instantly, we went from that inconsequential play to a half-full and, on sunny days, often a three-quarters-full parking lot.

The initial late-winter play boost early in 2020 and through the entirety of that year was definitely triggered by the pandemic. People had few recreational options and golf took center stage.

Many of those folks who found the game during that time have stuck with it — and a lot of them found the game in winter so playing on a 45-degree day in January is as normal as playing on an 80-degree day in July.

For our situation here at Avalon, I think there are two other main reasons new “COVID” golfers have contributed to the increase in winter play: global warming and drier fairways.

Winter weather has become extremely less predictable. Warmer and wetter winters have become the norm, along with drier, hotter summers. We experience the extremes much more routinely. For us, though, the warmer winters are the biggest factor. Fewer frost delay days and, though we still get our winter rains, those rain events tend to come more in bunches. We’ll get a couple weeks of storms and steady rain, but then a week or two of warm and dry. That’s when the golf course starts to look like July in January.

The dry warm stretches combined with a better draining and more playable golf course have resulted in a busier course in those winter months.

The fairway topdressing program started here in the late 1990s and has paid huge dividends. The course is so much more playable than it was two decades ago. That twice-a-year application of sand on the fairways has turned this course, built on a 15-foot-thick layer of clay, into a well-draining machine.

Going 90 degrees off the cart paths was unheard of a decade ago. Now it seems we use the 90-degree rule for carts in the winter as much as we are cart path only. Golfers even get annoyed now when we tell them in January or February that we are cart path only for the day. Going to the 90-degree cart rule was unheard of in the winter just seven or eight years ago. Now it’s trending toward being expected.

This winter-play boost has definitely changed how we maintain the golf course in these off-season months, as well as the resources we now put into maintaining playability in winter. Our winters now include keeping a bigger staff, more mowing frequency, daily bunker upkeep — no easy feat in western Washington’s winter rains — changing cups and moving tee markers daily and divoting fairways, which was rarely an issue before. Even green speed, to a certain degree, has become a factor to consider.

All this winter maintenance got me wondering if superintendents in different parts of the country are having the same issues with offseason maintenance due to the combination of the golf boom and unusual winter weather. I reached out to a few peers for some clarity.

Eric Hutchins, superintendent at Forest Oaks Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, has a similar view that the pandemic-related golf boom has still not eased up, resulting in more rounds. But he also feels the winter weather down in North Carolina has changed as well. “Although we may get some cold stretches, the last few winters have been mild, and it has been more enjoyable for golfers to get out and play,” he says.

Hutchins adds that golfers’ offseason expectations seem to be changing as well in his location — like they are for us here in western Washington. “I would say golfer expectations haven’t been elevated too far from the normal. But when I say ‘normal’ conditions, I’m referring to in-season play, so trying to keep the same standard in the time of year where weather is the biggest factor has been a challenge. It has called for more work hours on daily maintenance and has definitely cut down on project time.”

One of the detriments to winter play for us has been signs of golf course wear when cold temps are not exactly conducive to healing. Hutchins has noticed the same thing at Forest Oaks.

“The wear and tear on the golf course has been a cause for concern, especially since we are mostly Bermudagrass,” he says. “The increased cart traffic leads to more days on the cart paths, even when conditions are leaning toward dry.”

He also experiences the same problem with divots, which are magnified on tees. “The amount of divots on our par 3s takes its toll to the point where last summer we had to expand some tee boxes or, in a few cases, build completely new tees to handle the offseason play.”

Ed Wachter is the superintendent at Franklin Country Club, a private facility in the Ozark foothills in Washington, Missouri. Wachter has observed the same story about the recent challenges of increased winter play.

“There are not many days in the winter that we don’t have golfers,” he says. “If the temperatures creep up into the 50s, you can bet the tee sheet will fill up. And 50-degree days now seem to be more common than below freezing temperatures are.”

Wachter agrees with Hutchins that the increased daily maintenance required on the course the past few winters has meant fewer finished projects.

“We are changing cups, mowing and rolling greens more often than we ever did in the past,” he says. “We just mowed our bentgrass greens on December 29. That has never happened before.”

Wachter adds that he doesn’t think increased winter rounds are going away any time soon. “With cart covers, portable heaters and lighter, better insulated clothing, golf in winter is here to stay,” Wachter says.

I think that the line that used to exist for many of us, between busy in-season play and slower off-season play, was important. It was a time not only for us to recharge, but for the golf course itself to take a break and heal. I’m afraid that for some geographic locations, losing that quieter time could have a long-term detrimental effect.

Golf in winter is very likely here to stay in many cool-weather locations.

Alas, we will, as always, adapt.

Ron Furlong is the superintendent at Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington, and a frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.