Staying open while staying ready

Superintendents in cold-weather climates are increasingly finding themselves trying to strike a balance. Their members and customers want to play golf through the winter and advances in turf science and changes in the climate are making that a viable option, even in locales where it might not have been in the not-too-distant past.

But the turf professional must still prepare for the variabilities that accompany winter weather; cold temperatures, biting winds, and the possibility of snow and ice. All of this must be considered with an eye on their facility’s bottom line.

How do they strike that balance?

Greg D’Antonio is the superintendent and facilities manager at Concord Country Club, a private facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Philadelphia. His views on winter play have evolved over the course of his career.

“I think ultimately what I’ve realized is the course is here to be played,” he says. “The members pay dues and they want to play. So, I think, ultimately, revenue and member satisfaction is kind of top priority, and agronomically we have to find that balance. But I think it’s also our job to find that balance while letting them play.”

D’Antonio implements his fall agronomic program with winter play in mind. He aerated greens on Oct. 31 and fairways the following week.

“Having those freshly healed or, at times maybe not even totally healed holes, allows water to move through the profile better to kind of keep (the turf) more playable as well as less susceptible to any winter damage,” he says.

D’Antonio was involved in a 2021 renovation at Concord Country Club. Those areas receive extra attention with the approach of winter weather.

“I think we’re more aggressive with our aeration in those areas,” he adds. “We try and be more proactive. And there’s times where we back off. We’re not mowing all year or anything, but I definitely think if we’re going to get a nice day and there’s 80 people playing golf, we’ll try and go out and roll the greens and smooth them out and make them more playable, cut fresh pins and stuff like that.”

Golf cart usage is prominent at Concord Country Club. Of the approximately 30,000 annual rounds the club supports, 87 percent involve carts, according to D’Antonio.

Patrick McMahon, the superintendent at Eagles Ridge Golf Club, a public facility in Lakewood, New Jersey, 15 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, takes things a step further during the winter months.

“We go cart-path only after Thanksgiving to limit the abuse that the course takes and we then just kind of vary the traffic pattern,” he says. “We have 27 holes, which is nice. We actually close a nine weekly and rotate that throughout the wintertime to break up the play a little bit.”

On mild winter days, when temperatures reach the 50s, Eagle Ridge might host 100 rounds on a weekday or perhaps 150 rounds on a weekend day. McMahon does his best to minimize wear and tear on the course.

“It’s tough on the par threes mostly,” he says. “I try to aerate those a couple extra times; get a little more seed into those, try to move (the tees) around so we don’t get as many spots that are beat up.”

Mike Dunk is the director of grounds at Coyote Crossing Golf Club in West Lafayette, Indiana, a semi-private club open for play all year if conditions allow.

“After Thanksgiving until probably around March 1, if the greens are completely frozen, and we can’t stick a tee in them, then we do not play golf,” he said. “If we can stick a tee in them, then we’re open to play golf.”

Dunk’s agronomic preparations for winter are straightforward.

“Just the normal aerifying in the fall,” he says. “Fertilizing, and then the last thing we do around Thanksgiving is spray our snow mold app, which is a fungicide app which we hope will last the whole winter. After we do that, we don’t mow or anything. It gets cold enough here that we really have no growing conditions in December, January and February.”

Mark Knapke, the superintendent at the Mercer County Elks Golf Club in Celina, Ohio, makes sure to get his winter preparations done early.

“Ninety percent of our dry fertilizer is applied the last week of November,” he says. “We also do a topdressing depending on the weather before the first permanent snow fall. We also do a wetting application sometime in late November or early December.”

Mercer County Elks Golf Club, a public facility with a membership component receives, minimal winter play.

“Anything after December 1 is bonus golf,” he says. “Members are just glad to get out and exercise and play. We try to make sure all the leaves are taken care of, but all mowing has stopped. If we get some real warm weather, we will roll the greens and change the cups, but still no mowing until March. Maintenance of the golf course is more of the priority this time of year with projects and fertilization.” 

Superintendents’ tasks are complicated by the fact that the golf season in northern locations has seemingly become longer at both ends.

Dunk, who has been a superintendent for 25 years and has worked in the golf industry for 30, emphasizes how circumstances have changed from the early days of his career.

“By Thanksgiving you were completely done, and you didn’t really start until around April 1,” he says. “Usually by mid- November, everybody was done playing. But here the last four or five years, it seems like we’ve added a week in the spring and week in the fall at least.”

D’Antonio has noticed similar changes.

“When I got out of college in 2004, you kind of got to Thanksgiving and started winterizing your irrigation system and putting your snow mold apps out and stuff like that,” he says. “Now we’re doing that around Christmastime because we still have sod out there we need to irrigate, or the ability to water frost off of, and are still mowing later into the year.”

D’Antonio says superintendents are less concerned with the possibility of winter damage today than they would have been 15 to 20 years ago for two reasons.

“I think one is the climate,” he says. “The temperatures are mild. Even when it does snow, I feel like we’re not staying snow covered for months on end like we used to be. It seems you get that day in the 50s or something where a lot of it melts pretty quickly. But I think the second reason is just the advancements in technology and agronomy, and maintenance.

“Most (clubs) by now have removed the trees to get the sun on the greens, so you’re able to get the greens to kind of thaw out quicker. We have better grasses that are less susceptible to winter damage. And then advances in equipment. We have the ability to put deep tine holes in to kind of put water and stuff through, as well as the research done, so we’ve been able to do stuff more preventively.”

Rick Woelfel is a Willow Grove, Pennsylvania-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.