“Crews have been out there all week picking up all the winter debris, and the course looks like it’s in good shape,” said Kim Brunetti, a manager at Blissful Meadows Golf Club in Uxbridge, which opens on Sunday. “The ground is still thawing out, so hopefully heavy rain holds off, and we stay in good shape heading into April.”
A look down a fairway at Shining Rock Golf Club in Northbridge, Mass.Shining Rock Golf Club
Golf courses spring to life, but swings in weather can make things tricky
More than 40 courses across Massachusetts and another 10 or so in Rhode Island have opened their tee boxes, including Crosswinds in Plymouth, Cedar Hill in Stoughton, and Newton Commonwealth, just to name a few. But make sure to check ahead of time because most courses are walking-only or have cart restrictions.
Coming off a harsh winter, groundskeepers and operators take a cautious approach on when to open and how long to stay open. They’ve faced and managed the good and bad from the coldest and snowiest winters since 2014-2015. For example, one benefit this year is that the rapid snowmelt, paired with the warm temperatures and increasing sun angle, helped the topsoil quickly replenish grass across many Southern New England courses during March.
On the flip side, nightly temperatures have generally been colder than usual, with temperatures slipping below freezing. This makes the moisture in the freshly grown grass blades sensitive to breakage should frost form. And it looks like we’ll be seeing generally colder than normal evenings for the last stretch of March and through the first week of April.
The first full week of astronomical spring, which started March 20, may be cooler than average across all of New England.Boston Globe
Another component? After a spring rain, the wet, saturated ground can’t handle heavy foot or cart traffic simply because the ground doesn’t dry out as quickly as it does in the summer. It’s an ongoing issue since we usually see recurring storms enter the region during springtime.
The last two springs have been much wetter than average, setting up soggy conditions across golf courses that kept cart restrictions in place for many courses through May. And while this spring’s forecast precipitation is expected to be closer to normal, too much rain can still hinder healthy grass growth.
Soggy golfing conditions at the George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park in April 2018.John Tlumacki
Concerns of frost delays and drought
Frost is one of the biggest concerns for the early portion of the season. Ground crews do not want to damage the freshly grown grass. Frost occurs when temperatures sink below freezing, and the moisture in the grass turns to ice, expanding and damaging the blades. Just one step can break the grass, let alone a golf swing or tires from a golf cart.
Early-season damage to the grass can result in brown patches that can last all season. That’s why early tee times are often delayed, sometimes by hours, until conditions improve. We usually see the last freeze occur during the first half of April in Southern New England.
The dates when New England typically sees its last freeze.Boston Globe
And lastly, there’s drought — which has become a growing concern as we enter the second straight spring under a drought, even after the rapid snowmelt we experienced in early March. Simply put, drought conditions put pressure on maintenance teams to manage water carefully to keep courses playable.
Can late-season snow put a damper on the start of golf season?
I had over a dozen emails come in about late-season snow and its impact on the start of golf season, and I really think that we’re going to avoid any significant snowfall, even though we had such a snowy winter.
Sure, the temperatures are trending a little bit colder than normal to close out March, but I still think that it will remain warm enough where the worst-case scenario is a coating to an inch of snow that will basically melt the next day.
In the end, it all comes down to balancing playability with protection, of both the course and the players. So check in with the course the day before or the morning of your round.
The weather may not fix your swing, but it can definitely affect your round. Enjoy it, folks!
A haze hangs over the Boston skyline, as seen from the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy in 2024.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
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Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.