What all goes into setting up a golf course each day? And how is that affected by a frost delay?
Below is a list of a typical morning in season, and the amount of time each job takes to complete:
2 people changing cups (~4 hours)
2 people moving tee markers, filling divots, picking up broken tees, emptying trash, etc. (~5 hours)
4 people taking bunkers (~5 hours)
2-4 people mowing greens (~3 hours)
1 person mowing collars (~5 hours)
1 person mowing driving range tees and approaches (~5 hours)
2 people mowing fairways (~6 hours)
1 person mowing rough (all day)
1 person blowing grass clippings on fairways and approaches (~6 hours)
1 person blowing grass clippings in rough (all day)
1 person dedicated to spraying all turf areas (all day)
On an average day, we have a ~2 hour head start on golf, but only ~45 minutes of that is after the sunrises. Because of this, more than half of our morning set up is done in the dark. This brings us to the one and only positive of a frost delay; we are able to complete all of our morning set up in daylight. That said, a frost delay puts a tremendous about of strain on our maintenance operation. The pressure to get play out at a reasonable time, mixed with a dedication to protect the grass, means many maintenance practice is forgone. There are many times that the course is generally safe for foot and cart traffic, but not mower/sprayer traffic. Or, greens are safe to putt on, but their subsurface is frozen solid, making changing a cup next to impossible. In addition, on Wednesday and Thursdays, you may not see a delay to the tee sheet, though we face a delay in golf course maintenance access.
When determining the length of a frost delay, we obviously factor in everything from player access, to golf course health, to maintenance needs, but I would be lying if I said that player access didn’t usually take precedent. When we have the occasional frost delay, forgoing certain maintenance practice is not a big deal. But when we have prolonged periods of frost, the cumulative effect can be noticeable on the golf course. And while there’s not much of an end in sight to “frost weather” eventually it will warm up and eventually we will get caught up on some of the maintenance practice that is missed in the height of the frost weather.