NHCC Greens Department: While You Have Been Away

For those of you who have remained on the island this winter there really is no need to go into what a harsh winter it has been- we have lived it! The course has been snow covered for over a month now and we are experiencing one of the coldest winters on record. Snow melt, spring and the 2015 golf season cannot come quick enough!

Many of you that I have seen over the course of these past few winters have asked if the snow cover is good for the golf course? Yes and no. The snow cover does offer insulation from cold winter temperature extremes, of which there has been no shortage of this winter. It also buffers the turf from wind desiccation like a ski mask buffers your face on the ski slopes. However, after about 60-70 days, we do start to become concerned with prolonged snow cover. This is because the snow cover creates a toxic green house effect in the soil. Gas exchange is greatly inhibited under prolonged snow cover leading to an accumulation of trapped carbon and nitrogen gas in the soil. This gas slowly builds up in the soil over time creating a toxic environment for the turf. Ice accumulation compounds this problem by suffocating the turf and can greatly exacerbate the gas entrapment leading to turf death.

Currently there is about 10-12" of snow and 3/4-1" of ice under the snow throughout the property.

Hole dug on 14 green to evaluate snow cover and ice formation

Ice layer exposed on 14 green

Not ideal, but the hope is that the snow's and ice's effects on the turf will be negated by the fact that this did not start taking place until the week of January 26th. This puts us at about the 30 day mark of consecutive cover. Prior to winter we did a great deal of verti-draining and verti-quaking with the hope that this would elicit better gas exchange during the winter and help expedite snow melt and drainage whenever that may be- sooner rather than later we hope!