WHY ARE THERE TARPS ON THE RANGE TEES?

If you have visited the range tee this winter you may have noticed that the range tees are covered with a giant black tarp. This is a new addition implemented this year in an effort to reduce the impact of winter weather on the turfgrass. The range tee surface is a warm-weather-loving bermudagrass called Latitude 36.  Lat. 36 is actually one of the more cold hardy bermudagrass varieties but, as you can see the images below, it is not immune to cold northern VA winters.

There are several risks to bermudagrass during the winter months but they can be grouped into two primary categories. The first is winter injury and can be attributed to multiple sources including but limited to fungal attack, drought and desiccation, mechanical injury from equipment or foot traffic, or suffocation from water or ice. Winter injury can cause thinning and delay spring green up or, in the most extreme cases, turf death. The other big winter threat to bermudagrass is Winterkill.  Winterkill, as its name clearly implies, results in dead turfgrass. Winterkill can be very hard to predict and prevent but it is directly related to cold temperatures.

Covering the range tees, although not a guarantee, can significantly increase the winter survival rate of  bermudagrass. The tarps help by collecting solar radiation, reducing desiccation by blocking wind, and reducing mechanical damage by restricting access.

To give your turfgrass the best chance at surving the winter the range tees will remain covered until temperatures are consistently above 30 degrees.

This is an example of winterkill from spring 2018...the turf just never greened up following a winter with several nights with single digits temperatures.

Winterkill and winter injury can sometimes be hard to differentiate but in this case it seems apparent that this turf was injured by foot traffic and not able to recover.