A great example of Frost Damage!

Take a close look at the grass in this picture.  No doubt one of the first things you will see is the tire tracks from a truck who must have cut the corner when leaving the Club.  Next to the tire tracks, those are foot prints from someone obviously walking across the grass.  This is a great example of frost damage on turfgrass!  The reason the tire tracks and footprints are visible and a yellowish color on the grass is because when the temperatures were 25 degrees last Wednesday morning and frosted, these people chose to walk and drive across the grass.  The grass had started to green up after a record warm February, and then when we had a hard freeze on March 15th, this grass became very vulnerable to damage!

This grass should recover fine over time, but there is always a chance of it being damaged further.  This is one of the main reasons we have frost delays on the golf course throughout the winter months.  The warm season grasses such as zoysia and bermuda are very fragile in the spring time when coming out of dormancy.  The abnormally warm weather has made the grass wake up earlier than normal, and therefore it is very important we are careful to not damage the turf with golf cart wear or even foot prints.  

This picture is a great example of what can happen when it is below 32 degrees to the grass if it is even walked on!