MELTDOWN!

The golf course will be closed until the greens thaw to a safe depth

I have 3 beautiful daughters, 9 year old twins and a 3 year old.  Sometimes they experience what we call a "meltdown" at home.  These are not pleasant times.  To make it through these meltdowns it's best to just stay away.  Currently the golf course is going through an unpleasant "meltdown" of another variety.  The weather has been terrible for golf, but the days ahead should be much more comfortable.  Unfortunately the ground will be thawing out and there is a very high risk of damaging the greens if play were allowed at this time. When the surface of the green begins to thaw and the frost line is somewhere in the top inch, the greens are very spongy.  Walking on them at this time would leave them very lumpy and likely shear roots at the frost line.  The short term damage of lumpy greens would be no big deal, but the long term damage of pruning roots just below the surface would be very bad.  This scenario plays out every few years and we generally err in favor of the golfer that wants to play and gamble that the greens will not be severely damaged.  The next few days, however, will present conditions that are extreme and beyond the usual few frozen spots here and there. It might seem as if we are being over protective in this instance, but I assure you that when we open back up it will be well before the textbook says they are ready.  It is difficult to be the unpopular one who makes this call, but hopefully the majority of you will understand that we don't have the resources to make repairs if in fact damage occurs and even if we did, you don't want to deal with disruption in the spring when these cost prohibitive repairs would be needed.

Yesterday we found this guy frozen in the pond.  After some effort he broke free and made it to a safer place.  Unfortunately the turf is unable to break free and go to warmer territory.