Frost Delays!?!?! Again!?!?!

Frost Delays!  This time of year I feel that is a golfers worst nightmare!  Believe me, nobody likes frost delays, including the Grounds staff!  Why do we have frost delays?  That is a good question, and one that I will try to answer as clearly as possible. 

These two pictures above were taken Saturday morning at 10:10 am within 2 minutes apart.  The top picture is of #11 green, while the bottom picture is of #12 green.  As you can see the picture of #11 has no frost, while the picture of #12 has a lot of frost.   This is a great example of what shade does on cold mornings to allow the frost to "linger" on even longer.  The putting surface on #11 green is free of frost and ready for play, but the following hole #12 still has a heavy frost.  When the greens are under a heavy frost, walking on the grass can damage the frozen leaf tissue.  The damage caused from walking on the frosted greens can range from unsightly footprints to complete turf loss.  This is why we try to limit any foot traffic as much as possible when frost conditions occur. 

These two pictures of #7 green were taken 22 minutes apart.  The top picture shows a great example of the frost line in relation to the sunshine.  The quicker the sun shines on the green, the faster the frost burns off.  The second picture shows some frost still lingering in the shade, even at 10:30 am!  I hope this helps to show why sometimes the frost delays take so long.  Even though it may be late in the morning, the greens with heavy shade still are susceptible to damage because the frost is still present.