While transition zone golf courses spent the winter in a deep slumber, the sight that awaited many superintendents in the spring should serve as a wake-up call that Bermudagrass in the upper South needs extra care during the offseason.That's the take-home message from this winter, says Fred Yelverton, Ph.D., of North Carolina State University, as many courses in several states, including Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia that grow Bermudagrass greens continue to struggle into late spring.
During the many site visits he has made this winter throughout North Carolina, Yelverton has seen a lot of winter damage and winterkill. It's the first time since 1995, Yelverton said, that he's seen since such widespread damage in North Carolina. What he hasn't seen much of on those visits, he said, are greens covers.
"I think we have to be careful to remember we are in North Carolina, and winter kill is a real possibility," Yelverton said. "We have to plan for it. If we don't, we're setting ourselves up for disaster.
"We've gotten complacent. Those who think this was some wild, cold winter, that's not accurate. Yes, it was cold if you look at records, but it was reminiscent of what we had in the early to mid-1990s."
In Raleigh, the average low in January was 25 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 6 degrees below the historic average, according to the National Weather Service. February's average low was 33, which is the average. March remained cold, with average lows of 34 degrees. However, the historic average for that time of year is 40 degrees. That didn't come close to the coldest winter in central North Carolina. The record low in January was minus-9, set in 1985. February's record cold temperature of minus-2 was set all the way back in 1899. And the coldest day ever in March in central North Carolina was 11 degrees on March 2, 1980.
"We tend to have short memories," Yelverton said. "If we haven't seen something in 15 years, we don't worry about it."
The story is a similar one in Arkansas, where Mike Richardson, Ph.D., says the last time there was significant winter damage there was 2000-01.
"This is only the second severe winter we've had in northwest Arkansas in the 16 years that I've been here," said Mike Richardson, Ph.D. of the University of Arkansas. "When you don't experience a problem for several years, people let their guard down and forget those basic practices and fundamentals. When you do that you set yourself up for a bad winter.
"If you're growing ultradwarf Bermudagrass anywhere in Arkansas and you're not using covers, frankly, you're a fool. This year, you could have lost your entire greens complex without covers, and you still could have lost some even with covers."
Equally damaging as winter's cold temperatures was a slow start to the growing season. Although average temperatures were pretty much in line with historic averages, according to the NWS, overnight lows dipped into the low 30s as late as the third week of April. That was 17 degrees below average. Cool conditions persisted into May as well.
"We had winter injury, followed by conditions that were not conducive to Bermudagrass growth," Yelverton said. "What we have is slow grass that is still painfully slow."
Winter conditions also led to a bumper crop of spring dead spot, and the only cure for that is patience, said Lane Tredway, Ph.D., senior technical representative for Syngenta.
"There's really not much you can do from a fungicide standpoint," Tredway said. "You really just have to wait."
As recovery crept along at a snail's pace, superintendents faced one of two choices: repair or wait. Areas left to recovery could take until July or August to fully recuperate. Areas that have been regrassed will be held out of play for almost as long. Which fork in the road each superintendent chose was a decision based on some combination of budget, damage level and golfer patience, Tredway said.
"It just depends on how much damage there is and if it's a private club or a public course," Tredway said. "If the damage is severe, a high-end private club will never have the stomach for waiting. They'll regrass."
There are agronomic practices, such as aerification, that superintendents playing the waiting game can employ to promote quicker recovery.
"I would suggest aerification, or spiking the greens," Tredway said. "You don't even have to go that deep; maybe an inch or so. Anything to break up that organic matter layer."
Richardson suggests that superintendents and other stakeholders should take a look at the big picture when selecting turf types in the transition zone where the summer growing season is shorter than it is farther south.
"If you go to Bermuda, you have to realize that for some of the traditional golf season you are not going to have green putting greens," Richardson said.
"For us in Arkansas, four-and-a-half or five months is all you are going to get out of Bermudagrass greens, so we're looking at seven months of dormant, painted Bermudagrass. On the other hand, bentgrass struggles here from July through September, but the rest of the year it looks great.
Among the reasons so many courses throughout the mid-south have made the switch from bent to Bermuda is cost of maintenance. That is an ill-informed decision, Richardson says.
"First and foremost, Bermuda is not going to be cheaper to manage, so you have to get that out of your head," he said. "You might sleep better in summer because Pythium is not killing bentgrass, but there are still costs associated with it, such as covers, grooming, verticutting. The cost is a wash.
"You really have to decide whether the grass you choose lines up with your playing season. The most important thing in this area is winter survival, because it's not a matter of if you're going to get winter damage. It's a matter of when."
Yelverton agreed that Bermudagrass might have reached or even exceeded its geographic limits.
"First and foremost, Bermuda is not going to be cheaper to manage, so you have to get that out of your head," he said. "You might sleep better in summer because Pythium is not killing bentgrass, but there are still costs associated with it, such as covers, grooming, verticutting. The cost is a wash.
"There is a hard push for Bermuda greens into the northern limits. There are a lot of people in the industry who haven't been around long enough to experience anything like what had this winter. And there are some concerns among some of us who have been around a while that it might be too aggressive in places like North Carolina and Arkansas," Yelverton said. "I don't know how unusual this winter was. It's unusual if you look at it in the context of the last 18 years or so. But winter injury is not unusual for us, and you have to take a broader look at things."