More winter survival information from Chicago.

Here is another post from the Chicago area on winter damage. This one is from Ben McGargill at Wynstone Golf Club. He posted last week on the effect of covers under ice on Poa survival.

Nick

At Wynstone, our greens are primarily Poa annua. Some are 50/50 bent/poa while several are 90% - 95% poa. The club had purchased tarps for all 18 greens in the fall of 2009, and we spent the first two days of December tarping all of the greens on the golf course.

Since December 1^st was my first day at Wynstone, I was only able to see the greens as we tarped prior to snowfall on the 3^rd. When deciding which greens to clear of snow and ice, I relied heavily on recollection of ice damage in the past.

Most of the greens were covered in ice following a 1.5 inches of rain followed by a hard freeze at the end of December, but in January we received two days in the forties. Several days before the warm temperatures were predicted, we began snow blowing our problem greens in hopes that the ice would melt, and it seems to have been successful. Our only problem was on #17 Green, which we did not clear, and all of the death occurred where the tarp failed to cover the edge of the green (see last week’s post).

The picture below is of a low spot on the front of #11 green, which has been one of the most problematic areas. This is an area we monitored and removed ice in January. As you can imagine, we were happy to see green turf.

Ben McGargill
Wynstone Golf Club
Barrington, Ill.