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Golf Random Irritations

Millionaires golf this morning. I forgot me towel, so went into the shop to scrounge, well anything really. Our Pro lent me a Ping towel that is softer than my bath towels at home!!!!! 🤯

You’re easily pleased 😂

Never heard of a ping product being associated with luxury. Add it to your Xmas list!
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
Some clubs only have themselves to blame. My club has put in a path around the majority of the course in the past 2 years to ensure that we can have trollies and buggies all year round. We should only shut for flooded greens (temporarily through the day) and snow - fingers crossed!
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
And yet some are still with a hosepipe ban!
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
At least the reservoirs are filling up again 😄.

My course was closed on Monday, open today but with warnings it is slippy. We never have trolley bans, if it is too bad for a trolley, it's too bad 🤷. The water table isn't high yet, we've just had a lot of rain in a short space of time, which was much needed.
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
We've had closures already at both courses plus 70mm of rain in November so far.
 
Some clubs only have themselves to blame. My club has put in a path around the majority of the course in the past 2 years to ensure that we can have trollies and buggies all year round. We should only shut for flooded greens (temporarily through the day) and snow - fingers crossed!
I’m not sure that’s an entirely fair statement. Not all courses will have the budget without impacting members fees to put a path in the entire way round a course. It’s also not potentially feasible at some older courses due to lay out and design. My old club the lay out simply wouldn’t work it wouldn’t be able to fit a path all the way round without impacting holes or creating potential dangerous cross overs.

Another I play often near home wouldn’t be able to fit it in due to routing and would leave some huge walks between the path and where the balls end up which would impact pace of play massively between trolleys left on paths and your ball. It’s a great idea in theory and can see the logic but in practice I’m not convinced it can be feasible everywhere.
 
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And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....

This is what happens with a mild winter , SW winds bring in the rain

The other way is for the easterly and northern winds to increase in strength which helps keep those sw winds away - but brings with it - cold , snow , frosts etc

It’s why we are completing a path all round the course to ensure trolleys and buggies can be used all over the course
 
I’m not sure that’s an entirely fair statement. Not all courses will have the budget without impacting members fees to put a path in the entire was round a course. It’s also not potentially feasible at some older courses due to lay out and design. My old club the lay out simply wouldn’t work it be able to fit a path all the way round without impacting holes or creating potential dangerous cross overs.

Another I play often near home wouldn’t be able to fit it in due to routing and would leave some huge walks between path and where the balls end up which would impact pace of play massively between trolleys left of paths and your ball. It’s a great idea in theory and can see the logic but in practice I’m not convinced it can be feasible everywhere.
That's why I used the words "some clubs" ;)

I know that my club is very lucky financially, we have a nice money pot due to selling some land to a building developer for retirement flats and also the new Top Tracer range is bringing in loads of money, but clubs need to invest in the course otherwise people will leave as they won't want to pay 12 months fees for 6-8 months golf if their course continually closes due to weather. A bit of short term hurt for long term gain or, in military terms "No pain, no gain" :cool:
 
That's why I used the words "some clubs" ;)

I know that my club is very lucky financially, we have a nice money pot due to selling some land to a building developer for retirement flats and also the new Top Tracer range is bringing in loads of money, but clubs need to invest in the course otherwise people will leave as they won't want to pay 12 months fees for 6-8 months golf if their course continually closes due to weather. A bit of short term hurt for long term gain or, in military terms "No pain, no gain" :cool:
You’ve managed to unearth one of my work language irritations using the phrase no pain, no gain 🤣

I get that point, that’s why I said not entirely sure 😉. But what your club is doing sounds very good and progressive hopefully you guys are reaping the benefits. That’s not to say whilst it isn’t always feasible others can’t learn from it, by ensuring they put signage, little rope fences etc directing people to always walk the same way off tee boxes, around the approaches etc to minimise overall damage to the course and reduce wear and tear around the greens.

My biggest winter irritant with golf is walking onto greens and having to repair dozens of pitch marks that people don’t bother doing! It takes seconds to prevent long term damage.
 
And so it begins....
Buggy and trolley bans popping up, requests to carry only and it's not even the middle of November...
With the deluge that's due on Friday it wouldn't surprise me to see courses closed...
Could be a long winter....
I played yesterday and some of the fairways are looking way worse than they ever have at this time of the year.

The incredibly dry summer which left them burnt and grassless didn't recover enough in early autumn. Now the rain is here it is falling on bare soil and which is chewed up in an instant.

I'm currently looking at new shoes, with some spikes. It is also slippier than ever.
 
My biggest winter irritant with golf is walking onto greens and having to repair dozens of pitch marks that people don’t bother doing! It takes seconds to prevent long term damage.

Unfortunately, certainly where I play, this is an all year round problem.
Absolutely no excuse for it, consider my piss well and truly boiled.
Nobody should be allowed to tee off without proof that they have a pitch-mark repairer.
 
I played yesterday and some of the fairways are looking way worse than they ever have at this time of the year.

The incredibly dry summer which left them burnt and grassless didn't recover enough in early autumn. Now the rain is here it is falling on bare soil and which is chewed up in an instant.

I'm currently looking at new shoes, with some spikes. It is also slippier than ever.

That’s going to be the biggest issues for many clubs and it was something we faced years back before we put in a watering system - burnt out fairways just turn to mud

The winter it happened to us we decided to go to Mats

Would recommend any club that has the same issue should do the same

We are also looking to add some permanent mats on tees to protect them
 
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That’s going to be the biggest issues for many clubs and it was something we faced years back before we put in a watering system - burnt out fairways just turn to mud

The winter it happened to us we decided to go to Mats

Would recommend any club that has the same issue should do the same

We are also looking to add some permanent mats on tees to protect them
The club first mandated maps many years ago, they were introduced this year on the 1st Nov, a couple of weeks too late in my opinion.

They also provide bags with a divot mix at the 1st tee throughout the summer, which helps massively in the upkeep of the course. Unfortunately, they weren't as effective this year as in past years, they were never watered in.

Fairway irrigation would be a good solution but not one within our financial means, plus who ever thought that any course in the North East would ever require such a thing.
 
Unfortunately, certainly where I play, this is an all year round problem.
Absolutely no excuse for it, consider my piss well and truly boiled.
Nobody should be allowed to tee off without proof that they have a pitch-mark repairer.
I pretty much exclusively play during peak times on a weekend, the tee times open to members the week before and there’s a scramble to get them. Non members can’t book into any free slots until a couple of days before, and so they probably have to settle for non peak times.

With this in mind I can’t understand why I’m always repairing other people’s pitch marks when I get to most greens, because surely everyone in front of us is a member? Does my head in.
 
Unfortunately, certainly where I play, this is an all year round problem.
Absolutely no excuse for it, consider my piss well and truly boiled.
Nobody should be allowed to tee off without proof that they have a pitch-mark repairer.


There are two types

Those that can’t see them and those that won’t see them

It’s the same with those that don’t put divot mix on the tee , don’t take bunkers , walk and take their trolley or buggy where they aren’t supposed too

There are selfish people in all walks of life
 
Unfortunately, certainly where I play, this is an all year round problem.
Absolutely no excuse for it, consider my piss well and truly boiled.
Nobody should be allowed to tee off without proof that they have a pitch-mark repairer.
Old club I was a member they used to always blame green fee players.....

One Saturday I did a song and dance in the clubhouse.....and told all and sundry there were no green fee players and I repaired 12 on one green.

It is a pet hate of mine...how many times you walk onto the green and there are pitch marks near the hole and no one has repaired them.
 
A couple of years ago we had a Saturday comp so there were definitely no visitors before 2.30 and we weren't a club that attracted many visitors anyway so it's likely there weren't any..
I played early on the Sunday morning and repaired nearly 30 pitch marks on the 10th green ( my first). The pin was at the back of the green, people were pitching on the front, running to the back and going straight there with their putter... forgetting to look for their pitch mark.
Unbelievable Jeff...
 
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