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Annual Jan / Feb shutdown?

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Doodle

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I must confess that I am not too bothered about the latest lockdown.
Most parkland courses inc mine are a bog this time of year & we are on temps due to frost.
Our temps must be the worst in the country so I am not bothered about playing anyway.

I think most parkland courses would probably benefit from being rested annually in Jan / Feb ready for the new season.

Obviously there is an element in every club that would play in ankle deep mud & monsoon conditions, but to my mind all there are achieving is churning up the course.
 
Like yours, my course is a bog in the winter, being based in London which is clay based. I wouldn't mind it one bit truth be told, but know it will never happen.

Loads of courses that don't have these problems, and I'm very much envious of them. :)
 
This is the start of week 4 of golf lockdown in Wales. I am sure that the course would have been closed/or the weather too horrible to have played on most the Saturdays over this period anyway. I don't see a need to have formal closure this far south, the management of my course are usually pretty sensible. You can get cold dry spells this time of year that are great for golf
 
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Courses wouldn’t be able to afford formal closures. And many courses despite not draining well still find ways to open to give people a game of golf in some ways

Also the last couple of years have been a huge increase in rainfall with water tables quite high

If clubs want to stay open and healthy then drainage systems need to be improved but if the course is on clay then doesn’t matter what’s done the water is going to sit there - no doubt the water will help keep the course lush in the summer

Very fine balance - we have had a variety of holes open , carry only , some temps just to get the members a walk around hitting a ball.
 
Based in the South West we do suffer a fairly high level of rainfall but where I play it is largely hilltop/hillside course on a sand base so in the main it is not a problem.

Our two worst hit holes get taken out of play in the wettest areas and we have winter a winter green for one followed by a winter tee for the other.

We do close when it gets really poor but are rarely closed more than 2 days in a row.

Our 9 hole course is a totally different story because it is built between two parts of the same river and the Environment agency has the right to treat it as a flood plain. Frequent course closures that can last for days with the current Course Manager. Previously it was up to a member to decide if they wanted to play it but even I would not want to play when it it is like this


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Certainly wouldn't bother me as mid-November to end of February my clubs remain in the cupboard other than a Christmas outing.

I did feel differently when I was a member of a seaside club.

But if others want to play I don't have a problem as long as no significant damage is being done to the course.
 
I used to be a member of a parkland course and didn’t play from December-March due to the conditions but many still did and trudged through the mud and puddles with their trollies churning it up even more and when spring came the course looked a mess for first few weeks!

Then one year (2010?) we had a lot of snow and it lay for 5-6 weeks through most of January & February and obviously course was closed with a nice blanket on top keeping people off it!

When the snow cleared and spring came the course was in relatively great condition and a lot more ready for the season ahead!

A winter shutdown would be beneficial to every parkland course and I’m sure any loss of income will be partially covered by less work needing done by greenkeepers trying to fix all the winter damage!

Yes I know the club needs to balance the books so get clever during the time of shutdown and have other ways of bringing some income in!

A lot of members will moan and complain but hopefully on seeing the course they return to after the break would appease them a little!
 
My course tends to stay open whatever, although this current period has tested even that. Parts get churned up, particularly around tee boxes and walks between greens and tees, but give it a few weeks of decent weather in April and all looks good again. Grass recovers strongly.
 
I think a rest period for the course is good, also a time to do some work on structural parts of the course without being pestered by members playing, is good.
My course is well drained, it has been a prerequisite for when I select a course. I get little opportunity to play being of working age and a parent /family man. So it being shut because of poor drainage is not acceptable. I am now content with my garden net, but I will want to play at some point but I am happy to stay at home for January and February.. late March and I might be getting a bit grumpy!
 
We're a 12 month/365 day course.
Very, very rare that we shut for rain, it's only snow that does it.
Virtually every other course in the area could easily shut for 2 months, finances depending of course, as they're mostly unplayable.
I doubt that any would as they'd have to offer a 10 month membership.
Also...what if, during Jan and Feb the weather is great but March and April are a write off..?
Do you pick the same months every year or move it about accordingly?
Could cause chaos.
 
I wasn't thinking of some sort of organised national 2 month break, as others have said, different courses vary.
But, undoubtedly some (mainly parkland courses) do suffer unnecessary damage in traditionally the 2x worst months of the year & I personally think that these worst affected courses would benefit from giving the course a rest in Jan & Feb.

The clubhouse's could still have evening social & fundraising events, but from a personal point of view I would sooner come back to a rested course in March.
There is no doubt that some courses do bend to pressure to stay open when they really should be shut.
 
Doodle said:
I wasn't thinking of some sort of organised national 2 month break, as others have said, different courses vary.
But, undoubtedly some (mainly parkland courses) do suffer unnecessary damage in traditionally the 2x worst months of the year & I personally think that these worst affected courses would benefit from giving the course a rest in Jan & Feb.

The clubhouse's could still have evening social & fundraising events, but from a personal point of view I would sooner come back to a rested course in March.
There is no doubt that some courses do bend to pressure to stay open when they really should be shut.
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Can't see it. Being subjective, I think members, particularly the seniors will want to play regardless. Yes the course suffers but with some creative work, green staff should be able to filter trollies off well before the approaches to the green and towards the next green via the rough. We have done just that on some of our historically badly affected holes like the 9th. Players now have to go right about 80 yards short of the hole and back toward and existing path rather than up to the edge and then off between bunkers. Similarly on the 16th where we come off a long way before the green and exit via the right hand rough.

If people can't play when they want especially 7 day members, or are playing some sort of reduced course, then they won't want to be paying full price. I don't see how clubs can make it work and expect full fees for 10/12 golf. There are a couple of holes that have struggled (right of 7 is never a place to miss as it is bare and hard to get up and down from when baked in the summer) but if holes were roped off and marked as GUR and helped to re-seed and left alone I am sure in a short period they would recover.
 
Our place stands up really well to wet weather, so I’m happy to play all year round. But it’s not just the golf I miss during closure anyway.

A crowd of us regularly get together one evening a week. A few holes in the summer, or the range in winter, followed by a bite to eat, a pint, a game of cards and the football on the big screen. I so miss that sort of social interaction, as much if not more than actually getting out and playing.

There’s only so many times I can sit through Titanic during lockdowns with my daughter. I keep telling her the bloody thing sinks at the end but, so stir crazy have I become, even I now find myself hoping it will avoid the iceberg in the nick of time. Maybe........
 
Billysboots said:
Our place stands up really well to wet weather, so I’m happy to play all year round. But it’s not just the golf I miss during closure anyway.

A crowd of us regularly get together one evening a week. A few holes in the summer, or the range in winter, followed by a bite to eat, a pint, a game of cards and the football on the big screen. I so miss that sort of social interaction, as much if not more than actually getting out and playing.

There’s only so many times I can sit through Titanic during lockdowns with my daughter. I keep telling her the bloody thing sinks at the end but, so stir crazy have I become, even I now find myself hoping it will avoid the iceberg in the nick of time. Maybe........
Click to expand...

Spoiler alert. In the remake Di Caprio and Winslet make it to the comms room and send a morse code SOS and Dr Who picks up the message and the Tardis flies back. Some tension filled moments as the doctor and the companions fight the Cybermen in cold storage in the hold before rescuing the films heroes and most of the crew and passengers
 
Sadly, I left a parkland course that was a bog in winter for a course that was playable all year round. Hindhead was absolutely immaculate last Saturday - ok so the heather wasn’t bright purple but you know what I mean.
On the plus side the green keeping team will no doubt get a head start on some of the jobs that are planned and it’ll be even better at the end of lockdown.
 

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The best thing that has happened to my club is this current lockdown, not for the sake of the course, it will recover in the spring as always, no, for the sake of the club.

These last three winters have all been the same, very, very wet, and the consequence is that this year the course is struggling to contain it more than ever. Last year it started around the end of September and over the following months the course slowly shrunk as holes deemed unplayable were taken out, 15 holes, 11 holes, 10 holes, 9 holes and then the closures.

BJ closed it in November during a period where we saw the best period of weather we were going to see all winter, not his fault how could he have known. Since then, like all the parkland course here, it's been shut more than open. When it's open it hasn't appeared to be in too bad a condition, very soft but not too clarty. And as always when spring comes it will be mint again.

The issue is the wellbeing of the club. There is a sense that the members are getting restless. The bill for subs go out at the end of November, they are due now, the course has barely been open. This is a whole new experience for all of those new members who joined last summer and are now being asked to pay full wack for the first time.

Some members have left and joined one of the local links courses, always open. The club hierarchy have taken to emailing the members with photographs of the water on the course and requests to be patient.

Now imagine that the club has a planned hiatus for golf in January and February, to protect the course. Imagine that we have a winter like this one where the weather in Decembers forces course closures, that's three months, and imagine that it gets no better in March, that's four months, a quarter of the year. You might as well start planting turnips now because there'll be no golf club there.

Which is why this lockdown is probably the best thing could have happened to my club. It's a level playing field now, nobody is playing golf in England, no matter how dry your course is, and of course the course itself is being rested.

Who knows, it might even open when this is all over.
 
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