The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.

Let them grow, or shave them short? A trio of greenkeepers explain how they care for a golf green during the colder months.

Height of greens – it’s a metric that many of us are obsessed about. We think it makes them quicker and we’d love for our putting surfaces to be slick all year long.

But winter brings challenges. Grass doesn’t grow as quickly, for a start, and courses need to be careful they don’t damage their plants by further stressing them when the weather is at its coldest.

For Your Course, produced by the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association, we spoke to three course managers from across the UK to understand how they overcome common problems that arise on golf courses during winter.

This week, we’re looking at the height of cut on greens during the winter. And we’re also going to consider how best to protect those vulnerable areas of golf courses that always seem to be at risk when the mercury seriously drops.

Tackling these debates are Mark Crossley, the course manager at Prestbury, in Cheshire; Greg Fitzmaurice, a master greenkeeper who is the course manager at Hunley, in North Yorkshire; and Chris Rae, who is the course manager at Orkney, in the Northern Isles.

What height of grass do you like your golf greens to be in the winter?

Greg Fitzmaurice: “We don’t cut that short anyway, but we do raise the height of cut on the greens. At the moment [August] we’re at 4.5mm, which is probably on the high side for the average club, and we’ll go up to between 5-6mm.

It’s a judgement call but we normally knock them up about a millimetre and time that with a bit of a feed and maybe topdress as well.”

Mark Crossley: “We’ll start to raise our heights of cut from early October from 3mm upwards in increments of 0.5mm until we hit 5mm at some point in November, and that just adds a bit of protection to the plant.

When growth slows down and you get the onset of disease pressure during the late autumn months, having a healthy plant is pivotal, especially now as we’re losing products left, right and centre. The stronger the plant is going into the winter period, the stronger it’ll be coming out of it.”

Chris Rae: “We normally cut to about 4.2mm and we can’t go much lower than that with the wind here. We don’t have irrigation so we can’t soften the greens, and we’ve got a couple on slopes so that’s borderline for us anyway.

Any lower than that and I’d probably get the sack because people will have balls rolling back to their feet. In winter we incrementally increase it until we get up to 6.5mm.”

What are the best ways of protecting vulnerable areas?

Mark: “We look at that from a pre-emptive point of view, as opposed to a reactionary point of view. We take preventative measures and get the ropes and the hoops out there sooner and make sure there’s no damage that could last all winter and into the playing season.

It’s about educating the staff as well in areas where they shouldn’t drive in wet conditions as that is just as important as educating the members.”

Greg: “We’re quite lucky as we’re able to get rid of water fast, so we don’t get areas of standing water all the time. It’s more about pinch points where there’s not much room for moving golfers around, and what we’ve done there is installed hardstanding paths. We’ve only got two or three areas of the course that could do with fixing from that point of view.”

The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.

Dr Fred Yelverton, a specialist in weed science and turfgrass at North Carolina State University, reveals the impact of warmer and wetter conditions.

Big storms. Rain that never seems to stop, and heatwaves when it does. Our weather seems more unpredictable than ever. And as the reality of climate change becomes more apparent with every flood or wildfire we see on our TV screens, it’s starting to have very real effects on our golf courses.

Dr Fred Yelverton, one of the world’s pre-eminent turfgrass weed specialists, is an expert on the effects of climate change on turfgrass management and pests.

Earlier this year, giving a speech at the BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition in Harrogate, he outlined some of the impacts he’s witnessing on the ground with golf and climate change…

Golf and climate change: Is it affecting the UK’s golf courses?

Our courses are getting wetter

“When we discuss global climate change, how that is impacting rainfall levels is a mixed bag.. Some places may get drier, and some places may get wetter. It appears that in the UK you’re getting wetter.”

Yelverton referenced figures which showed the amount of annual rainfall had increased by 100mm (around four inches) in the last 140 years.

For somewhere like Newcastle upon Tyne or Swansea, that’s the equivalent of an entire January’s worth of additional rainfall. For drier parts of the country, it’s an even more significant addition.

“The patterns of rainfall are also changing,” said Yelverton. “You’re also experiencing much more severe rainfall events.”

Longer summers lead to more growing days

We’ve had a global increase in temperatures of 1.4˚C in the period between 1880 and 2020. It might not sound a lot but its impact from a turfgrass management and weed standpoint are profound.

Yelverton revealed figures showing the UK growing season, when plants are most active, was 27 days longer from 2012 to 2021 than from 1961 to 1990.

“Longer summers is basically what it is saying,” he said. “So a 1.5˚C increase in temperature doesn’t sound like much, but when you put it in concepts like this, it is a big deal. Twenty seven days, that’s a lot. And that has profound impacts on turfgrass management.”

Warmer nights reduce turf recovery time

It’s not just during the day where we’re seeing the mercury rise. Night-time temperatures are on the increase and they’re on a steeper incline too.

“That has huge implications for turfgrass management,” Yelverton said. “Cool season turfgrasses, such as you find in the UK, rely on night-time temperatures to recover during periods of high stress, such as the height of summer.

“But as night-time temperatures start to warm, they don’t get as much opportunity to recover.”

Golf and climate change: Pests and diseases are on the move

Yelverton said: “In the US, we’re seeing pests moving north – insects, diseases, and weeds. If there was a weed that was common in Florida, we now have it in North Carolina. If there was a weed common in North Carolina, it’s now up in New York.

“We see this gradual movement of vegetation. I don’t think there is as much of that going on in the UK and it’s because you’re an island. That slows things quite a bit, but you’re already beginning to see weeds and diseases steadily creeping northwards as the climate warms.”

Hotter temperatures are changing the types of turf that thrive

Yelverton explained that in the 1990s in North Carolina, putting greens on golf courses were generally around 80 per cent bentgrass and 20 per cent Bermuda.

But as the state has warmed, particularly at night, so have the types of grasses now being used on golf courses. He said, as of 2021, it was around 70 per cent Bermuda and 30 per cent bentgrass.

“In my career, we have totally changed putting green surfaces and it is predominantly because our night-time temperatures are getting warmer,” Yelverton said.

“Particularly in southern areas of the UK, turfgrasses that traditionally formed putting surfaces are transitioning to species that are more accustomed to a warmer climate.

“These have different maintenance requirements, leading greenkeepers to adjust their practices and learn new techniques.”