The new year's start along (South Carolina's) Grand Strand was so chilly that golf course superintendents are likely to still be shivering when spring finally arrives.
Of course they will be warmer by then but they will be nervous, perhaps even a little scared.
Things were so cold for so long early this month that superintendents fear some of their bermudagrass, which effectively sleeps through winter, might not wake up when it's supposed to.
What has them biting their nails is golf's version of a silent assassin, an insidious threat known as winter kill that slays turf but is long gone before any carnage becomes apparent.
Winter kill occurs when conditions are, well, just like they were for most of the first two weeks of the year in Myrtle Beach.