Winter Frost Traffic Impacts on 'crenshaw' Creeping Bentgrass Putting Green in the Transition Zone.

Winter frosts often cause cancellation or delay of tee times resulting in revenue loss. A field trial was conducted at Clemson University from January 2014 to March 2014 on a ‘Crenshaw’ creeping bentgrass [Agrostis stolonifera L. var. palustris (Huds.) Farw.] putting green to investigate the effects of winter frost traffic on bentgrass performance. Treatments consisted of no traffic (control), 3x rolling traffic, 6x rolling traffic or 9x rolling traffic (A modified roller stimulating a golfer or worker) at 08:00 am on mornings of heavy frost or temperatures below 0^oC. Data collections included weekly readings of visual turf quality (TQ), chlorophyll index (CI) and ball roll distance (BRD) throughout the study. The three levels of traffic decreased TQ and CI, but increased BRD. TQ and CI were decreased more severely by 6x and 9x traffic than 3x traffic. All three levels of traffic increased BRD, but there were no differences among the three levels. The results indicated a negative linear relationship between traffic intensity and TQ and CI.