Golfers hitting the course due to warm winter weather

GRANGER, Ind - With warm weather right around the holidays, golfers are out here at the Knollwood Country Club in full swing.

Friday is the first day in a couple weeks that the club has been open, and they say there hasn't been a shortage of people looking for tee times.

Robert Vanderheyden, a member here, took full advantage of the good weather to hit some balls.

"It's a really nice day today, decided to come out with a few of my buddies and play at least nine holes,” said Vanderheyden.

Lilly Ball, the Assistant Pro here, says the club usually closes its west course right around Halloween, but the east course with 18 holes is open.

"It's high real estate trying to get a tee time, trying to get as many people as we can, trying to squeeze them out and all that,” said Ball.

Even two golfing buddies, TJ Treat and Chris Merill were out here practicing their short game.

When it comes down to it, there’s a science behind golfing.

John Oppenheim, the Director of Agronomy at Knollwood, delves into the factors involving soil and turf quality to explain what makes this weather perfect for golfing.

"So, if it's around 30's at nighttime temps, the following day is when we get close to 50, I know that's the day that we won't have as thick of frost delays and allowing for golfers to come out at 11,” said Oppenheim.

Oppenheim follows national and local weather forecasts to determine optimal golf-playing weather.

He even showed me his technique to tell if the grass is good to play on.

“If you go like this and you see chunks of ice or just frozen white, that's when you know there's frost present and you have to wait till the sun rises and melts, so it turns into water,” said Oppenheim.

Cale Bolinger, the General Manager at the country club here, says nothing beats some golf right before the holidays.