Autumn Leaves

While much different from spring, the fall season can be very beautiful with the striking fall colors radiating from the various hardwood species growing here in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.  For some, especially kids, it can even create fun and memorable moments.  But for a lot of us, homeowners and golf course managers alike, the beauty comes with a price.  The price being all the hard work spent blowing leaves and collecting them for removal.  As most golfers know keeping up with leaf removal on a golf course this time of the year is all but impossible at times, so I thought I would share a few thoughts on how leaves can play out in certain situations with the rules of golf.

I am certain that if you play enough golf over the next many weeks you will lose more golf balls than any other time of the year, some of them even on the fairways, because they are hidden under leaves. When playing a casual round of golf with a group of friends, one option to clarify on the first tee is enacting the local leaf rule.  If a ball is seen to go into an area that is heavy with fallen leaves and cannot be found and is deemed to be find-able under normal playing conditions your group may take the option of allowing a free drop to speed up the pace of play.  Other rules that may apply to a round of fall golf may include some of the illustrations below:

 
First of all, leaves are loose impediments, providing they are not fixed or growing, solidly embedded, or adhering to the ball (Definition of Loose Impediments).

Photo a): Except when both the leaf and the ball lie in or touch the same hazard, any leaf or leaves may be removed by any means, without penalty, Rule 23-1.

Photo b): A leaf that is resting against a ball may be removed, as above. 

Photo c): A leaf that is adhering to a ball is not a loose impediment and may not be removed, Definition of Loose Impediment.

Photo d): A leaf that is lying under a ball should be left as it is. It is unlikely that the leaf could be removed without causing the ball to move, which would incur a penalty of one stroke, even if it only moved one dimple from its spot.

Note that if a player’s ball lies on the putting green they do not incur a penalty if they cause their ball to move while they are removing a leaf (or any loose impediment) and the ball must be replaced. However, if they cause their ball to move while removing a leaf when their ball is not on a putting green they incur a penalty of one stroke and the ball must be replaced, Rule 18-2a.

While I hope the staff does an extraordinary job this fall and you never run into any of the situations illustrated above, if you do, I hope these explanations prove helpful.  And don't let a few falling leaves prevent you from taking advantage of this great time of the year to get out and play not just a little but rather a lot of golf!

Frost Is Just Around The Corner

Frost is formed when the temperature of a solid surface is cooled below the dew point. Frost on objects is just water vapor in the air that has condensed as ice onto a surface. Frost forms on objects close to the ground, such as blades of grass.

At night, a blade of grass loses energy by emitting a non-lethal kind of radiation, but it absorbs energy emitted by surrounding objects. Under clear nighttime skies, objects near the ground emit more radiation than they receive from the sky, and so a blade of grass cools due to the net energy loss. Once a grass blade gets cold enough, frost will form on it. Overnight cooling of air near the ground causes morning frost on grass and car windshields.

Frost Damage
The photo to the right illustrates what can occur on a green when foot traffic takes place on a stand of turf that is covered in frost.  The resulting damage on turfgrass leaves is due to the mechanical disruption of the protoplasm inside the turf leaves by the existing ice crystals. It is very important that golfers avoid the temptation to walk across the greens when frost is still visible or temperatures remain at or near freezing.  When the forecast calls for night-time temperatures near freezing please be sure to check with the Pro Shop for any possible delays to your tee time.

Fore the Golfer: Use of a Stimpmeter

President's Cup is Always a Busy Time of the Year

With our annual President's Cup  (Member-Member) coming up this weekend the staff is busy trying to get the two courses into top tournament condition.  In an effort to get to what we call tournament conditions we expect to put in over 400 overtime hours spent on extra mowing, trimming and grooming of the two courses. But in order to get a course into top shape there is more involved than just a little extra work the week of an event.  The past several weeks the two staffs have been hard at work trying to wrap up some small but numerous repair or improvement projects, which includes but is not limited to:

Aerfication
Both courses underwent extension aerification during the month of June.  A second aerification of our fairways is scheduled to begin the Monday (7/28) following the Presidents Cup at the Farm and the following Monday (8/4) at Irving Park.

New Sod at 7 Tee IP

Turf Repairs and/or Replacement

Replacing Shade Damaged Sod

The staff on both the courses has been very busy making repairs to thin damaged areas of turf.  Most of these areas were repaired by cutting up the thin or dead turf and replacing with new sod.  The whole process took place much later this year than we would have preferred due to a very limited supply being offered by our sod producers.  Despite the timing not being to our liking the majority of repairs have been finished at each course with close to 33,000 sf of new sod being installed between the two courses.

Soil Prep

Landscaping
In accordance with our long term landscape plan the Farm staff finished up the new installation of ornamental grasses on hole number 5.  The new plantings included a combination of Little Bluestem, Purple Lovegrass, Pink Muhly grass, and Panicum.  Nearly 6,000 new plants were added to both the left and right sides of the hole and by the end of the summer everything should begin to take on a more mature and fuller look.

New Plantings Going In

Irving Park Course Planning Committee
A new committee has been appointed to evaluate long term planning needs associated with the Irving Park course.  The Irving park course was renovated in 1998 by Kris Spence.  That 1998 renovation was relatively small scale in scope coming in at around 1.5 million and dealt a limited scope of features, which included greens, tees and bunkers.  There has been a lot of discussion as to the drainage needs of the Irving Park course as well as other considerations such as converting to an ultra-dwarf putting surface and how expanding the parking needs at the clubhouse could affect the existing routing of the course.  The first initiative related to improvements and long term planning was approved last year by the Green Committee, which was to contract with Turf Drainage America for a Master Drainage Plan on the Irving Park course. That Plan has now been completed and will serve as a valuable planning tool as the Planning Committee moves forward.  With a myriad of additional issues facing the course beyond just drainage it became very clear early on the Club would need another consultant to help the integration of all the possible considerations on the table for the improvement and strategic positioning of the Irving Park course.  The Committee's first recommendation was to interview architects to aid the club in it's long term planning.  With Board approval the Committee has now interviewed three candidates and has three more on the schedule. The goal of the committee is to have someone selected by sometime this fall who can serve in an advisory role as the Club updates and develops its next Long Term Capital Strategy.

Doug Lowe’s Top 5 Reasons Why Aerification is a Must

Now that we find ourselves in the midst of the active growing season the membership will certainly observe the staff engaging in a several highly intensive cultural programs.  At the top of that list is aerification.  Most people accept the long term benefits but that does not always make it any easier to agree with the process. As we recently completed a large scale aerification on the Farm course and are set to aerify those same areas on the Farm course I think a thorough understanding of the reasoning behind aerification would be appropriate.

5 Top Reasons We Aerify
1. Control thatch
2. Ability to provide increased firmness and corresponding green speeds
3. Extract excessive organic matter accumulation
4. Improve Soil Gas Exchange
5. Allow the plant the ability to maintain an effective root system throughout the growing season

Aerification is an important cultural practice. If you read the newsletter you will see we discuss this topic several times each year.  Through aerification we; 1) extract excessive accumulation of organic material; 2) improve soil gas exchange; 3) stimulate new root development; 4) stimulate microbial activity; and 5) improve the plants ability to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses.

Greens Aerification

Having said that, there are still plenty of golfer skeptics! Aerification is one of the most despised cultural practices when it comes to the golfer as it disrupts the playing surface; is usually done during the prime playing seasons; and according to most golfers has no redeeming features other than to decrease green performance and raise one's golf score. On the other hand, aerification is likely the most important cultural practice that a turf manager can perform. Why? Simply put to maintain a root system under the target plant. The plant's response is to maintain density enabling it to tolerate traffic, and resist ball marking; maintain a deep effective root system to withstand limitations on water quantity and water quality; maintain healthy plant growth to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses. 

Aerification Plugs

Aerification is an active process of removing excessive organic matter (OM) in the upper root zone. As plants grow; roots, stolons and rhizomes will develop increasing the level of organic material in the upper soil profile. The more plant growth, the healthier the plant in providing a superior playing surface. The down side is organic accumulation. Left unchecked, the level of Organic Matter can actually create a high OM layer which by itself can change the dynamics of the root zone. Periodic monitoring of the root zone is proactive in maintaining a uniform balance in the amount of OM, Sand, Silt and Clay throughout the soil profile. If an organic layer accumulates near the surface it can restrict water and air flow into the root zone. During periods of high abiotic stress (heat stress) the plant demands much more plant available moisture and soil oxygen. Restrict either and the root will also be restricted.

Greens Topdressing

OM will seal the soil surface from water and air infiltration; accumulate salts from Evapotranspiration (combined loss of water through evaporation & transpiration) and effectively cause suffocation of the root zone. Ever wonder why roots are shorter in the heat of the summer, in short they suffocate. The OM restricts the availability of soil oxygen, which under high soil and air temperatures is quickly depleted due to a rapid level of root respiration. A simple resolve to this problem is to recognize that aerification is not an annual event; it is an event that should occur frequently and with a purpose. Aeration does not have to always include extracting cores, it can also be accomplished by using solid tines [VENTING] to continually create vertical shafts of air space deep into the root zone profile. These VENT shafts are in reality MACROPORES, the site of gas exchange, excessive moisture evaporation, and points of moisture and soil gas infiltration.

Fairway Aerification

Root growth and maintenance requires frankly a lot of soil oxygen, one of the best ways to deliver is to aerify and especially during the periods of high demand. Aerification for the purpose of OM extraction should be done during the period of time the plant is most active. This assures that the physical hole created by removing OM will heal rapidly. The USGA in their wisdom has suggested that 20% of the upper root zone cavity should be extracted on an annual basis.

Aerification during the most active growth period of the year will aid in extracting OM. The timing is really species dependent (Bermudagrasses and Zoysiagrasses have the most active period during the summer, whereas the Bentgrasses are the most active in the early spring or late fall). Periodic monitoring of the organic layer will aid in determining how frequently core aeration is required. Maintaining an OM layer of 3/8” –1/2" in depth or 3-4% volume by weight is acceptable and will provide good plant response, excess of that can cause problems during the heat of the summer. 

Solid Tine versus Coring Tine

VENTING the greens through the summer months to generate and maintain active macropores is most important and must be done frequently. Along with providing excellent moisture and gas exchange, the improvement in soil gas exchange also supports and stimulates microbial activity and therefore enhances the rate of OM decomposition. Combined with light frequent top dressing (dilution of OM), the core removal (extraction), and the microbial activity (decomposition), the root zone will be supportive of a deeper more effective root and healthier Turfgrass plant.

Fore The Golfer: Bunker Etiquette (+playlist)

Everything is Now in Full Swing

The warmer the weather gets, the closer we get to the summer solstice, the longer the days get - the longer the work list gets.  Both courses have ramped up their seasonal staffing levels to account for the additional workload we face each and every year during the busy summer months.  Basic jobs like mowing, trimming, edging, watering and raking dominate the schedule on a daily basis but in between those jobs we seem to mange to get a few repair and improvement projects completed.

A List of various and recent projects completed includes:

Mike Ross Garden

The Irving Park staff recently completed the landscaping around the new Donald Ross Terrace adjacent to the pool area.  This work included several new plantings, the installation of new brick and bluestone pavers throughout the area as well as a small area dedicated to Mike Ross.  Mike was a long time employee of the club who passed away in recent years and numerous had donated to his remembrance for when the right project came along.





Two new memorial plantings were added to the Irving Park course.  Mike Staton now has a tree planted in his remembrance on hole #4 and Betty Brantley has a tree planted on hole #3 in her remembrance.

Michael A. Staton Memorial

Betty C. Brantley Memorial

Winter Damage
The Farm staff removed 150 Hawthorns around the Farm clubhouse that were damaged from the cold temperatures this past winter and replaced them with 'Carissa' Hollies.  While the damage to our turf this winter was less than expected there are still plenty of small areas that will need to be repaired.  The Bermuda this year has been extra slow to grow-in due to the cool nighttime temperatures we continue to experience. This not only affects the grasses on our course but the regional sod farms are also having a tough time getting their grasses up to a high enough quality to where they can harvest it and have it hold together.  We expect that by the latter part of June we will be able to order high quality sod and move forward with all the much needed repairs.

'Carissa' Hollies

Winter Damaged Turf

Annuals
Nearly 3,000 annual flowers were planted around the courses in late May.

Chemical Damage
The majority of our collars on both courses experienced significant damage from a product applied in December that was designed to kill winter weeds.  The product was labeled as one that would not move once applied but it failed to live up to it's advertisement.  The product is very toxic to cool season grasses and the winter rains caused it to move into our Bentgrass collars creating a lot of damage.  The staff worked hard this spring to mitigate the damage spending nearly 600 man hours removing damaged turf and replacing it with a combination of sod and plugs.  As a small consolation to the damage the chemical manufacturer has agreed to reimburse the club for expenses related to these repairs.

Tree Work

Our expectations were once we got past the cleanup efforts related to the ice storm we would be done with the worst of the tree work for the spring.  But since then we have had numerous large trees fall at each property and have been forced to remove several additional large trees that posed a risk to the safety of the golfers.

Fallen Oak #11 IP

Greening Up Slowly

It's April 16th and the trees have seemingly leafed out overnight and the cherry trees are in full bloom.  It seems ages from the recent ice storms and massive cleanup efforts we endured for nearly a month on the Irving Park course.  None the less, with leaves and blooms on the trees we know the courses will soon be once again green and growing.  The spring green up for our warm season grasses is different each and every year.  Green-up is mostly affected by soil temperatures.  Once temperatures are consistently in the 50's the growing mechanisms in the plant will be activated.  This time of the year soil temperatures tend to fluctuate back and forth and don't really reach a consistent number in the mid fifties or greater until May, although no two years tend to be the same.  Early morning lows today were at or below freezing and much the same is predicted for tonight.  This will lead to cooler soil temperatures and create a brief pause in whatever little bit of green-up we were witnessing.  I would expect the two courses to be completely green by no later than the second week in May.  The great news is we are seeing much less damage to our warm season grasses than was expected due to the cold winter, which will free the staff to focus on general course conditioning tasks and other planned improvement projects.

April 16 #13 Irving Park

Damage to the Edge of #13 Collar

One of the unexpected things we are seeing with this spring green-up is damage to the perimeter of our greens complexes where we sprayed a chemical to try and green up the lines between the expanding Bentgrass collars and the encroaching Bermuda/Zoysia surrounds.  This was intended to just clean up the lines between the two playing surfaces but the product appears to have moved into the Bentgrass collar itself and caused damage.  The area is also showing signs delayed green-up to the Bermuda/Zoysia areas as well, which was not unexpected but is more significant than was thought probable. We expect the warm season areas to eventually green-up but will repair damage to both the cool season collars and the warm season surrounds as soon as possible and/or appropriate.

Spring Rain

The staff at Irving Park will spend most of today pushing up bunkers and cleaning up debris left behind from over swollen streams.  Tuesday's (4/15) rain totals came in right around 2 inches with the heaviest rains coming in the early morning hours.

Rain Washed Bunker at Irving Park

New Creek Bank Erosion

Debris Left Behind From Swollen Creek on #7

Family Tees
In coordination with the Pro Shop staff we will begin placing new tee markers throughout the two courses for a shortened and more enjoyable family friendly course.  The Irving Park course will have a full 18 holes set up with two different sets of tees.  The Farm course will begin with a nine hole course.  One 18 hole set will measure around 4,000 yards and the other will come in around 3,000 yards.  The course is intended for younger children and all beginners and should make for a more playable and enjoyable course for family outings. We expect the new markers to be in place by early May so contact the Pro Shop to find out updates and more information.

More Wind Results in More Debris and Fallen Trees

Last night's fast moving storm left a lot more small debris and a few large fallen trees in its wake.  The Piedmont International Airport reported a maximum wind gust of 61 mph and I certainly believe it as I was just a few miles away from the airport when the storm came threw.  The tables were a bit turned this time as far as which golf course was affected the most.  The Farm course had four large trees come down and plenty of small debris. The Irving Park course missed the worst of this storm and damage was limited to just small debris scattered across the property.

Ice Storm Recovery
The Irving Park staff is still working extra hours to try and  clean up all the fallen debris from last week's ice storm.  Some of the debris is being temporarily stored along the city streets for future collection.  Debris that is located on the interior parts of the course are being run through a chipper into mulched and strawed areas. The staff will come back later and spread those piles and neaten those areas. Our goal is still to have the Irving Park course fully restored by around the middle part of April.

Aerification
The aerification on the Farm greens is now complete.  The greens will be in better shape this weekend than next weekend because they have not started growing yet and we are rolling them daily.  When we finally start having to mow next week their quality will dip for about 7-10 days and then on the third week they will be very close to being fully recovered.  Don't forget the Irving Park greens are scheduled for aerification on March 31 and April 1.

Ice Storms and Aerification

While the two together are not necessarily what we ordered, sometimes you just take what your given and do the best can to find a desirable outcome. Last Thursday (3/6) brought 3-5 inches of snow and sleet and more importantly somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 an inch of ice to many parts of Guilford County.  The ice proved to be too heavy for a great many of our evergreen trees, which resulted in a significant number of trees and huge numbers of limbs breaking due to the weight of the ice.  The vast majority of tree damage was isolated to the Irving Park course.  We see this temperature differential often between the courses.  The in-town Irving Park course can be 2-3 degrees warmer than the out of town Farm course.  That slight differential in temperatures must have been just enough to keep the snow and sleet from converting to freezing rain for long enough to accumulate to a significantly damaging level.

While the cleanup work at Irving Park has begun it will likely take the next 4-8 weeks before we will have the course back to its pre-storm condition.  The crew will be working hard this week on the exterior portions of the holes along the streets where access is easiest. Debris will be piled along the streets for future removal, which we hope will be aided by city debris collection services.  If not, we will eventually remove these piles through a combination of chipping and hauling.  Once the course has dried out enough to access the interior portions of the course we will begin collecting those areas for chipping and/or removal.  Last but not least we will repair damage to the turf left by fallen trees and grind the numerous stumps left from fallen and snapped trees.  The good news from all this, as I alluded to above, is the Farm course experienced only minor tree damage and that staff will not have to face the daunting cleanup effort faced by their peers at Irving Park.

AERIFICATION BEGINS ON THE FARM COURSE
As such, the Farm staff was able to begin aerifying greens yesterday (3/10), which was already one week late due a winter event last week that forced us to postpone this work.  While we got a late start Monday morning due to snow cover still being on a few of the greens and a few greens still being frozen they did make a lot of progress yesterday and expect to finish sometime later this afternoon.  As is typical for this time of the year the recovery window is expected to take a minimum of three weeks before green speeds are back to our defined roll standards.







SPRING WEED CONTROL
One of the items we have been focused on for the past several weeks has been applying our spring and summer weed control products to both courses.  While treating some 250 acres of turf with a sprayer is always difficult this time of the year, this year has been especially difficult.  Wind, rain, below freezing temperatures and snow cover has us way behind where we would like to be for this time of the year.  And despite the cold temperatures it only takes a small period of warm temperatures to heat the soil up enough for weeds to begin germinating. With that in mind, we may find ourselves in a position where we are forced to spray certain areas of the course with our sprayers that would normally be considered too wet for treatment.  As is often the case when working around Mother Nature sometimes the short term negatives related to things like tire tracks on any given hole are necessary to benefit from the gains of long term weed control and suppression.
 

Looking Forward to March

Everyone who has lived in this part of the world for very long knows wintertime snowfall can be a hit or miss. This year just happens to be one of those years where it has been a hit.  The kids certainly seem to enjoy the snow sledding opportunities the recent snows presented and one can't help but to take some satisfaction out of kids having a grand ole time in the snow.  But with the most recent snowfall event now past us my staff stands ready for the spring season right around the corner.  The courses were opened this week on Wednesday (2/19) after the 7-8 inches of snow that blanketed the two courses had mostly melted away.

Despite the warm temperatures this week the snow did need a little help getting off our greens.  The staff spent several hours watering the greens complexes with both sprinklers and hoses to get the course opened a day or two sooner than would of occurred had we waited on natural thawing.  While there is no guarantee we won't have another significant snowfall event the chances going into March are greatly diminished.

Aerification
The kickoff to our spring season is usually marked by our first greens aerification, which will take place on the Farm course on March 3-4, weather permitting.  This is always an important aerification because not only does it relieve wintertime compaction and remove unwanted thatch but it serves to provide an ideal growing environment for the root system over the next three months of ideal growing conditions.

The first spring aerification recovery time is always the slowest for the greens to get back to 100%, so golfers need to expect a full three week recovery time of the year before conditions return to our normal standards.  The Irving Park will be aerified a full four weeks later on March 31 - April 1 to allow for complete recovery for the Farm Greens.

Weed Control
In addition to aerification of greens this is also the time of the year spent working on weed control.  Weeds that escaped our fall pre-emergent weed control treatments are sprayed out and the whole course is once again treated for a whole new set of spring and summer weeds.  A seemingly never ending cycle that with nearly 250 acres of turf requires constant vigilance. For those homeowners who dare managed their own lawns we generally shoot for our pre-emergent applications to begin in late February and be completed by the middle part of March.

Cold Weather Damage Update

We have experienced two cold snaps this winter that when compared to previous winters where we have lost grass in some of our more difficult growing areas the overall temperatures are not that different.  The spreadsheet above illustrates the most recent cold snap had an average temperature of 17 degrees for a 7 day period, which is not far off from the 2000 average of 17.8 degrees for a 14 day period.  There are a lot of variables that go into whether or not Bermuda sustains cold temperature related damage but simply based on past experience here at Greensboro Country Club, I would definitely expect to witness some level of damage this spring when the grass begins to come out of dormancy.  A really critical period going forward will be the next 4 weeks and whether or not we can avoid one last really cold snap.  If so, I think our repair levels will be more than manageable.

Polar Vortex..... Douglas Lowe, CGCS

Polar Vortex - Despite my many years spent watching the Weather Channel I had to look this one up on Wikipedia!

A polar vortex (also known as a polar cyclone, polar low, or a circumpolar whirl^[1] ) is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near either of a planet's geographical poles. On Earth, the polar vortices are located in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere. They surround the polar highs and lie in the wake of the polar front. These cold-core low-pressure areas strengthen in the winter and weaken in the summer due to their reliance upon the temperature differential between the equator and the poles.^[2] They usually span less than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in which the air is circulating in a counter-clockwise fashion (in the Northern Hemisphere). As with other cyclones, their rotation is caused by the Coriolis effect.


As interesting as that all is, the only thing I know is we had some really cold temperatures descend on our small part of the world this week that evidently originated from the North Pole.  Despite the short nature of the cold spell temperatures were low enough to freeze over our ponds and cause water breaks everywhere.  Despite a strong awareness of the risk for bursting water pipes I think the club still had four pipes freeze in various facilities throughout the club. Our low Tuesday night was a record 5 degrees, which beat the old record  of 14 degrees.  The question most golfers who have lived in this part of the world for very long are quick to ask is do you think we will lose any of our warm season grasses?


Bermudagrass
The primary Bermudagrass variety on our two courses is Tifway 419.  Depending on the research you look at cold tolerance ratings range from 15 degrees F to 20 degrees F.  Most of this research is done in a controlled lab setting so there can be a wide range of variations that are actually witnessed in the field but based on past experience we typically see some level of damage when temperatures drop below 15 degrees F for an extended period of time.  The longer the duration then the more damage.  The colder the temperature then the more likelihood for measurable damage.  Our duration was just two days so we've got that working for us.  The fact the temperature dropped to 5 degrees F is what we have working against us.

Zoysiagrass
There are several species of Zoysia in use on our courses but the primary type is Zeon Zoysia, which is on the Farm course.  This strain belongs to matrella species and is classified as having moderate tolerance to low temperatures.  The cold tolerance of matrella species such as Zeon is slightly better than our Tifway 419 with ratings ranging from 16 degrees F to 12 degrees F.  Again, there are a lot of other variables to consider such as duration, drainage, and shade that will all affect how much cold weather a particular grass or an area of grass can withstand.


What does it all Mean?
What this means is with the record low of 5 degrees we recently experienced there is a real potential for some areas of grass throughout both the two courses to demonstrate some level of damage in the spring.  On the flip side, just because temperatures dropped below cold tolerance ratings does not mean that healthy turf will show any signs of damage.  It means we will need to be proactive with our first quarter expenses until we have a better idea of what we may be facing.  It means we need to wait and see if we have any additional cold weather anomalies that affect our region over the next two and half months.  In the end it means as of today we don't know or expect anything for sure.  Even if the plant was damaged it will take at least 6-10 weeks to deteriorate and develop symptoms that are visible.  All we can do know is hope for the best and plan for what could be.  If the remaining part of the winter season is closer to average or typical I think we will be O.K. except for some of the worst shady or wet areas,which is fairly typical.  If we get another round of cold weather later in the season when the grass has depleted all it's stored energy and it's defense mechanisms are weaker then we will definitely be looking to replace some turf.