The Men’s Fall Scramble is in the books at Pike Lake for
2015. That means the golfing season is
unfortunately coming to an end.
Hopefully there’s some nice days left these last couple of weeks for a
few more rounds of fall golf at Pike Lake.Fall golf in our climate brings on the possibility of frost
– and with frost comes frost delays at clubs all across the country. Everyone knows that when there’s frost on the
ground it means no one can play golf.
But there are a lot of people who don’t understand why. Why can’t we go hit a little white ball
around the course while there’s a bit of frost out there? I shall explain.
Frost is basically frozen dew. When the temperature is right – water will
freeze. The water within the plant cells
is just as susceptible to freezing as the dew is on the outside. When pressure is applied to the frozen grass,
the cells within the plant burst – and it can result in permanent death of the
grass.
If someone walks on or drives on grass that’s
covered in a heavy frost – the grass will turn a blackish, purplish, blue
color. Grass turns the same color when
it bruises that you and I do. If the
damage is severe enough, it will eventually turn a tan color and will have no
chance of recovery. These two photos show
examples of some frosty grass that was driven over and walked over. 
Since it’s in the rough and the damage is isolated – these
areas will most likely recover. The
rough is cut much higher than the grass on the putting greens. The greens are our prize possession. The greens are delicate and any damage
incurred from frost will be permanent.
And as this video will explain – there’s a lot of traffic on each
putting green from golfer’s footsteps!
Once the frost has lifted ( or burned off! ) the maintenance
crew still needs a head start on the golfers to get some daily to do’s finished
such as cut the greens or change the pin locations. So please be patient during frost delays!! In case you don’t believe me - here’s a video
from the USGA summarizing what I’ve just explained. And if you don’t believe in the USGA then
call the R&A.
