Golf Random Irritations

Orikoru said:
I was just about ready to jump in the car and head down to my club today, when they finally put a message out saying course was closed - at 7:30. Bit late isn't it?? First tee time is 7:30, the roll-up goes out at 8 - there must have been a car park full of disgruntled members! I'm only lucky I live 5 minutes away otherwise I'd have been on the road on the way there, as my 3 mates were.
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Backache said:
What time is it light enough to inspect the course?
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First light today and forecast for tomorrow is 06:43am, but actual sunrise wasn’t until 07:18am. So between those times I guess it would’ve been hard to do a full assessment but I guess that they would have been looking at it and waiting for the sunrise to confirm their thoughts on playability.

You can’t blame the course for not sending it out until 0730, end of the day it’s more important they get the call right than upset a few people that turned up early. They can’t account for everyone! If they hadn’t made the call there’d be even more people moaning it shouldn’t be open. Greenkeepers and course managers cannot win in these situations.
 
Orikoru said:
How much light do you need to stand in a puddle? They've got torches haven't they? 🤣
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If you think it’s as easy as standing in a puddle by torch light then maybe volunteer to go help the greenkeepers one day and see what actually goes into deciding if a course is fit to play, if it’s going to cause excessive damage to the turf and if it’s safe for members. Greenkeeping and agronomy is a lot more than just cutting grass and looking for puddles.
 
Every course has its wet areas. Anyone checking the course just needs to go to those key areas and make a judgement from there. Our course decided to open yesterday at 7am. It was pitch black at that time, sunrise here is currently 7.40am.

I certainly don't suggest looking for a couple of puddles only but you don't need full daylight to make the judgement.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Every course has its wet areas. Anyone checking the course just needs to go to those key areas and make a judgement from there. Our course decided to open yesterday at 7am. It was pitch black at that time, sunrise here is currently 7.40am.

I certainly don't suggest looking for a couple of puddles only but you don't need full daylight to make the judgement.
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I don’t necessarily agree, whilst I take your point and understand it every course is different yours may drain better, be in an hill, different bedrock and topography compared to others so each course must be taken on his own merits. There may well be a few key known areas but they don’t account for every concern. With the deluge that happened those known areas may have been easily enough taken out of play as GUR, but other less known areas may have suffered damage, not drained as well as they should have. Could be several more factors we aren’t aware of that they wanted or needed the light to confirm it.

Those guys are the experts despite members thinking they know better. Its better to defer to the knowledge of the green keeper and if that takes extra time so be it, regardless of what a few disgruntled people think surely. Better to have the course closed for one day than damaged for weeks just to appease a few early birds.
 
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Completely agree that each course is different but each course will have it's worst spots. I could go through my course and identify the problem areas quite easily, I'm sure you could do the same for your own course.

For example, our first hole drains brilliantly. No point walking that hole, if that's under water so are the other 17 😄. Go to the problem points straight away, gauge from there. They are the worst areas every time at my place, it isn't rocket science. (One of the big frustrations at my course is the problem areas are consistent but nothing gets done to resolve them 🙄)

I have no problem in the course being closed due to rain incidentally. I'm not one who says keep it open whatever. If the GK says keep it closed, closed it is. I just don't think you need full daylight to make that decision (you certainly don't at my course anyway)
 
Early tee time yesterday, and it was one of those mornings when you are racing against the clock to get the dog walked, get some breakfast, get your gear in the car and set off for the course.

Got there about 15 minutes before we were due off. Got the stuff out the car, bag on the trolley, pressed the button, nothing happens. Look down, I’ve forgotten to fit the battery. Open the boot up, no battery, obviously forgot to pack it, what an idiot.

Never done that before, and couldn’t understand how I did it as it’s always left out in the utility room where I charge it.

Gets home, the missus sheepishly confesses she had put it in a cupboard when she was tidying up a few days earlier 🤬

Out of sight, out of mind …
 
rudebhoy said:
Early tee time yesterday, and it was one of those mornings when you are racing against the clock to get the dog walked, get some breakfast, get your gear in the car and set off for the course.

Got there about 15 minutes before we were due off. Got the stuff out the car, bag on the trolley, pressed the button, nothing happens. Look down, I’ve forgotten to fit the battery. Open the boot up, no battery, obviously forgot to pack it, what an idiot.

Never done that before, and couldn’t understand how I did it as it’s always left out in the utility room where I charge it.

Gets home, the missus sheepishly confesses she had put it in a cupboard when she was tidying up a few days earlier 🤬

Out of sight, out of mind …
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Ah I’ve never done it but I’ve pulled over many a time to check 😂
 
Each course will be assessed differently depending on the make up off the course , how many greenkeepers and if they look to maybe open a reduced course

We made the choice the day before that we will be closed , it’s risky but we have to trust their judgment, our greenstaff do everything they can to keep it open

Sometimes that call is as the first tee is opening but if that’s when they can make the judgement that’s when they will decide
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Completely agree that each course is different but each course will have it's worst spots. I could go through my course and identify the problem areas quite easily, I'm sure you could do the same for your own course.

For example, our first hole drains brilliantly. No point walking that hole, if that's under water so are the other 17 😄. Go to the problem points straight away, gauge from there. They are the worst areas every time at my place, it isn't rocket science. (One of the big frustrations at my course is the problem areas are consistent but nothing gets done to resolve them 🙄)

I have no problem in the course being closed due to rain incidentally. I'm not one who says keep it open whatever. If the GK says keep it closed, closed it is. I just don't think you need full daylight to make that decision (you certainly don't at my course anyway)
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Out of interest LT is there any reason they’re not addressing those problem areas if they are so well known to everyone.
 
For me, if the greenkeeper says the course is unplayable, the course is unplayable. Frustrating but I’m more interested in the longer term view that when the weather is good, the course doesn’t have areas that are showing damage from being played on when it shouldn’t have been. 365 days of playable course is a monumental ask.

The greenkeeper will occasionally get it wrong but experience and an eye for what his boss might say makes it rare. At the end of the day he’s paid for his expertise. Members can disagree but what expertise is their judgement based on?

On the issue of draining wet areas; I guess it’s a little more involved than sticking in herringbone drainage & sumps. A course I was a member at many years ago had a good few wet areas after excessive rain. They put drainage in which improved it dramatically but an area that had been reasonably dry became worryingly dry in the summer.
 
Our place do it's best to keep the course open, so few closures, but we have temp greens and this year the quality of the temps are much better. The aim was to get players out there, so with good prep they have succeeded.
 
I say it here every winter, but because ours drains pretty well it takes a lot for it to close. The result is that it is heavily overplayed.

Yesterday it was one of only two courses within a twenty mile radius which wasn’t shut. The consequence was that every tee time was booked and, by 1pm when we went out, there were already some badly churned up areas. The back nine in particular should not be open.

I dread to think what it will be like come spring when, once again, those visitors who have contributed to our mud bath of a course will return to their pristine courses.

We don’t even have a buggy ban in place because it would drive the green fee paying visitors away. Ridiculous.
 
I'm a member at 2 courses. The one nearest me puts out the course info fairly late (in my opinion)....maybe 7:30 if they do it at all. The other course we all get a phone notification nice and early....even at this time of year usually close to 6am. It's possible for all courses to do it....I guess it just depends on whether they WANT to.
 
woofers said:
So many experts on green keeping and all it entails but sadly no volunteers to be part of the greens committee.
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With respect, there are times when you really need to have no expertise to know when a course should not be open.

When there are multiple parts of a course, in play, where you are ankle deep in water, and green and tee surrounds, and regularly used routes are reduced to a quagmire of mud in a little over 48 hours, having been roped off for most of the year to allow them to recover from last winter, then even the untrained eye can see a course should not be open.

At ours it’s got nothing to do with greenkeeping expertise, and everything to do with keeping tills ringing. I would venture to suggest it’s false economy because I suspect they are spending more money rectifying the damage caused in a couple of days than they would lose in green fees and associated income if they were to shut when things are really bad.

And as a proprietary club there is no greens committee. A previous head greenkeeper told me himself one of the reasons he moved on was because he was not involved in decisions regarding course or hole closures - it was a matter for the club manager. That should tell you everything you need to know.
 
woofers said:
So many experts on green keeping and all it entails but sadly no volunteers to be part of the greens committee.
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I did that for 15 yrs .
You get so much crap of the members.

The GK is in charge ,sadly they try to please everyone .
If they were firmer and shut the course to protect it I’m sure most members would back them.
 
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