From the publisher’s pen: The golf guilt trip

Business travelers begin studying weather forecasts for their destination around a week before a trip. The checks become more frequent closer to departure day.

Our team left for the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference & Show in Providence, Rhode Island, on Tuesday, March 4. The Friday prior to the trip we noticed an encouraging weather metric: it just might be golf weather when our flight was scheduled to land at T.F. Green International Airport.

What classifies as golf weather? That’s a complex question with varying perspectives depending on one’s long- and short-term geography. We’re based in northeast Ohio. This winter proved more frigid than its predecessors. We couldn’t play outdoors in January or February, as snow and ice covered many of our local courses and temperatures sparingly nudged above freezing.

Once the calendar hits March, cold-weather golfers get antsy. Those of us with incredible zest for golf begin playing again whenever courses make the call to open for play. We trust superintendents, general managers, pros and owners to collaboratively make the best decision for the long-term health of the turf and the business.

Due to being near the Atlantic Ocean, Providence features a more temperate climate than northeast Ohio. But frigid weather — at least frigid enough to limit winter golf — has been an early 2025 theme throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

Could we find an open course on the day we landed in Rhode Island? One day before departing we scrolled websites and found multiple courses were planning to be open on March 4.

We booked an afternoon tee time at Triggs Memorial Golf Course, a municipal facility less than three miles from downtown Providence. Triggs is a popular, authentic and affordable Donald Ross design. Securing a tee time at Triggs, even in early March, should be celebrated.

We walked the back nine, which features three par 5s with magical fairway and green contours, and the only time our feet got wet was when somebody on our team played a shot from a creek after underclubbing a tee shot into the wind on the 195-yard par 3 12th hole. The creek and a pond fronting the 16th tee were the only places we observed any ice.

"Can you ground your club in a creek?" -- @GCIMagazineGuy to @jimmyclark_22 at Triggs in Providence. pic.twitter.com/fCMFZL3ICr

— GOLF COURSE INDUSTRY (@GCImagazine) March 4, 2025

The Triggs team thoughtfully arranged the course for late-winter play. Carts weren’t permitted and holes included just one set of tee markers. Each green featured three hole locations, with golfers responsible for moving the flag to a different hole after putting out, thus dispersing traffic and wear.

It’s important for industry professionals to visit and play different courses. Curious minds learn from every step they take on a golf course. Learning expands whenever those steps come at an unfamiliar spot where one of the Golden Age greats designed a course in the middle of the Great Depression. Walking Triggs simultaneously satisfied a golf itch and made us better at our jobs. We also injected $78 into the golf economy.

The experience, though, produced an oyster of guilt. A day later, I sat in a room with superintendents and other industry professionals, listening intently to University of Massachusetts associate professor Dr. Michelle DeCosta’s presentation, “Winter Injury in a Changing Climate: Challenge and Opportunities for New England Golf Courses.” DeCosta revealed how warmer falls add to the winter challenges turf managers face and the research being conducted to study winter stress. Warmer weather makes it tougher for DeCosta and her peers to study winter stresses. “Because we don’t have winter damage every year,” she told conference attendees, “we need more data.”

During and immediately following DeCosta’s presentation, I started feeling like a jerk whose impatience to play golf might contribute to the angst that cold-weather superintendents endure as spring approaches. I casually asked superintendents on the show floor if I should feel guilty about playing on turf that was frozen a few days earlier. One superintendent with a dry wit immediately responded, “Yes.” Yikes! Nothing like damaging a reputation among superintendents by playing a game you love while financially supporting the industry.

Other superintendents were more diplomatic when asked the guilt question. A few were stunned to discover a Ross-designed course was so close to the Rhode Island Convention Center and regretted not bringing their clubs to Providence.

.@jimmyclark_22 and @GCIMagazineGuy take a quick break at Triggs in Providence to talk some Donald Ross, some @NE_RTF Show ... and some March golf. pic.twitter.com/O3SS4rWOix

— GOLF COURSE INDUSTRY (@GCImagazine) March 4, 2025

“It depends” easily represents the most common answer to any golf maintenance question, including the one about when to open a course in late winter and early spring. Climates, turfgrass varieties, expectations and finances vary by facility. The variabilities make golf a fascinating industry to cover.

What is right for the business of one course might hinder the goals of another course. As golfers, we must trust decisions made by facility leaders. Courses open — and close — for valid reasons.

As somebody who immensely respects superintendents and listens to the education they receive, it’s OK to feel slight guilt when roaming sensitive turf. But experiencing guilt stemming from supporting the business of golf doesn’t necessarily make somebody a nuisance to the game — or a certifiable jerk.

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief.