January has reminded the Low
Country just how brutal winter can be. The season has brought 14 days with
temperatures dipping below 32 degrees and even some wintery precipitation. The
golf courses are now showing full dormancy and with that the turf can show
tendencies that we here at Colleton River are not usually accustomed to in the
winter months. The cool season turf, or the overseed on the Dye greens and tees
and the Nicklaus fairways and tees, is trying to conserve energy and maintain
its current mass. Therefore, the growth rate of the plant has slowed down
extremely and will return with warmer weather.
Some of the
practices the Colleton River Agronomy team has put into action to aid in
recovery include raising mowing heights in order to reduce stress on the plant,
increase fertility applications to provide the plant with adequate nutrition,
and place tarps or pine straw to trap heat and raise surface and ground temperatures.
Alternating play off the front or back nine will help reduce traffic as well
and will be implemented throughout the remainder of the winter. Please contact
the golf shop for more information. As the temperatures begin to rise and we
continue to paint the turf grass will return to a more active and aesthetically
appealing manner. We appreciate your patients through this challenging winter
and we look forward to sunnier and warmer days.
The warm season turf will be a
full tan or yellow color and will take longer to break dormancy. Areas of the
turf will seem thin because of the loss of leaf tissue to the plant. The
plant's older leaves shrivel and become weak in colder climates and this delays
the ability to recover in these cold temperatures. This will be very evident on
the Dye greens where the IJGT event took place this past weekend. Hole
locations from the event and common high traffic areas on and off the greens
will be most worn. While the playing surface is "beat up", sound
practices will return the turf to original quality but only when soil
temperatures and day time temperatures meet the plants required growth
temperatures. This could take duration of thirty to forty days. 