This past Saturday, December 31, we had the unusual situation of making a "No Carts" call when we hadn't received any measurable precipitation in a full week. To be certain, there was plenty of cart activity on the day prior to this, Friday, December 30:
So why would we need to go from carts, to no carts when there wasn't any rain or snow? Well, the simple answer is, to protect the golf course. With practically no turf growth this time of year, any damage done by carts will remain for several months to come. The deeper (both literal and figurative) answer is how this damage can occur.
If you remember back to the nasty storm a few days before Christmas, we received 1.2" of rain, taking us to a well above average 4.65" for the month. Immediately following this storm, temperatures took a nosedive. Before that water had a chance to runoff or infiltrate the soil profile, it became frozen near the surface. Over the next several days we experienced some extremely frigid weather, locking that water in place.
As temperatures slowly began to rise in the week following Christmas, the soil too began to thaw. But in the same way that the soil freezes from the top down, it also melts that way. Thus we find a soft melted layer at the surface, with a frozen layer beneath it, so for over a week, the majority of that pre-Christmas precipitation hadn't moved at all.
Allowing traffic under these conditions can cause damaging root shear, as described in this brief USGA video:
To summarize, fully frozen soil is typically alright to drive on, as is fully thawed soil, once it's had a chance to drain. However, traffic on partially thawed soil can lead to a very unappetizing turf stew.
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