WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – The Wilmington Municipal Golf Course closed on Monday to prepare its putting greens for the cold temperatures expected this week.

“One covering event every year for the past three years,” said golf course superintendent Matt Smith.

The covering event is when about a dozen people show up to cover the greens with black tarps. This time the group bundled up about 26 greens.

“Whenever temperatures get down in the low twenties or close to the teens and not get much above freezing for consecutive days, that’s kind of our threshold for covering our putting greens,” said Smith.

And because that threshold is on par with the local forecast Smith says it was time to get preparations for the course teed up.

“We’re protecting our investment of having good golf course greens for the public come this spring,” he said.

Smith says the grass is a warmer grass, which means it doesn’t do well when temperatures drop.

“If we didn’t cover it during this cold snap there’s a possibility to have what you call ‘winter kill,’” said Smith.

The tarps will keep the grass insulated and make sure it’s healthy once it warms up again.

“We’ll keep them near the golf green until about March when we know cold weather is over, that way we don’t have to drag them back out again,” said Smith.

For now, Smith is just hoping the cold weather is only one stroke away from leaving and they can open again soon.

“Kind of a waiting game to see what that forecast is going to do right now,” he said.

Smith says the tarps will be there for the next few days but they’re keeping an eye on the forecast.

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