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Frost delay
Holding play until frost has lifted, because footprints on frozen turf leave dead marks that show for weeks.
Frozen leaf cells rupture under traffic. The damage isn't visible on the morning it happens — it appears days later as a footprint-shaped brown patch, on greens, on the exact lines people walked.
The operational problem is communication. The decision is made at dawn by whoever is out on the course, and it has to reach the pro shop, the starter, the crew and everybody with a booking, in that order, in minutes.
What it means for a small course
This is the single most valuable thing to be able to broadcast from a phone at 5:40am, and the thing most courses do with a landline and a whiteboard.