If you're just getting to the Tampa Bay area looking to play golf, or if you're a local getting on a course for the first time this winter, you may have one question: What happened to the courses? They sure don't look like the pictures on their Web pages. But before you start berating the course superintendent, know that nothing is wrong with them. Bermuda grass, which grows on Florida courses, generally goes dormant during the winter. Throw in a deep freeze in early January, and the grass looks brown and unattractive. To combat the dormant grass, most courses overseed fairways and greens with winter-tolerant grasses such as rye. That has left most courses with strips of green fairways and greens with brown grass framing it. Don't worry. They may look uninviting, but it won't last.
"(Cold weather) doesn't really kill the bermuda or bahia grass that's out there,'' said Brooksville Country Club director of golf Roger Eppley, whose course survived several mornings of weather in the teens.
"What it does is just knocks it back and becomes dormant until the weather warms. It will all come back. It's a lot more evident this year because we've had such cold weather for a long period of time.''
Kevin Burnsworth, head professional at Heritage Pines Country Club in Pasco County, has a good description of what area courses look like now.
"It kind of gives it an Arizona effect, which is pretty cool,'' Burnsworth said. "It looks like you're playing golf in the desert.''