Dear Bentwater Members,

In preparation for the upcoming cold temperatures forecasted for the first week of January 2018, I wanted to take a moment to explain what things we must do in order to protect our greens.  First, Ultradwarf Bermuda grass such as TifEagle and MiniVerde do exhibit cold weather tolerance, but it is readily accepted by the USGA that when temperatures fall below 25 degrees, we must do additional things to protect these green surfaces.  The best method that we can utilize is what is known as “icing” the greens.  It is paramount that we increase our moisture levels in these sand based greens.  The water acts as an insulator keeping the soil temperatures above freezing.  Also, the worst thing that we can have happen is allowing our greens to dry down prior to the sub 25 degree nights with high cold winds.   This desiccation of our putting surfaces could have severe adverse effects on how we go through the rest of the winter and also affecting our spring green up.  Having said all this, we will need to water nightly over the next week.  This normally is not our practice this time of the year, but during this cold snap we must do this.  This will cause the soil and turf surrounding the greens to be wetter than normal.  I understand that this is not optimum for playing golf shots around the greens, but understand that this is necessary to protect the greens growing in a sand based (faster draining) medium.   I hope this bit of information can help you understand why it seems to be wetter around the greens than normal.  If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to email me at dlatham@bentwaterclub.com.

 

Regards,

 

Donny Latham

Director of Agronomy