How is your course in the winter ?

[G1z1]

Question for people who’s home course really suffers in the winter. How bad does it get and does it make you travel to play better draining courses ?
My home course is lovely in the summer and would say it’s easily the best in the area but come winter it’s by far the worst ive seen never mind my area. I Was supposed to play this morning and 15mm of rain made it close. Starting to think about switching to a better draining course that I don’t like as much.
I find myself now travelling down to ayrshire most mornings to play links golf. Frustrating as I really enjoyed my local course the most but it’s unplayable mostly in winter

 

[Canary Kid]

Mine is very wet and has been closed for a week before today … it is open today, but carry only. This is not unusual. If a course is on land which doesn’t drain well, e.g. clay, it will always be a problem. Most courses are wet at the moment, it is just a question of how wet. I often play other courses, but this year I have decided not to play for a couple of months until, hopefully, it dries out.

 

[Oddsocks]

Ours is chalk based and is advertised as the best in the area, so far it’s been the most closed. ?

Due to its location I can only hope that they are trying to allow the course to recover fully as during covid lockdowns last winter, a lot of people walked the course and it hurt it badly.

I support their decisions if come March the course is ahead of others condition wise, but from what I’ve see men I doubt it, at which point I may have decisions to make.

 

[IanM]

We will close after heavy rain, but it tends to reopen the following day. Any inland cause not on sand/chalk will be similar. Played on Saturday carry only, and it was in decent condition.. Chucked it down yesterday, and it is closed this morning. Meant to be playing Wednesday, forecast for that is encouraging!

 

[Voyager EMH]

We've got holes 1 to 8th and 18th open. Can't be bothered to get clubs, shoes and trouser bottoms mud-covered. Once they open all 18, I'll know it is not too bad.

 

[Orikoru]

It's been closed for 5 of the last 7 days I think. It doesn't drain hugely well and becomes boggy. They are quick to close it after a heavy rainfall.

 

[AliMc]

Question for people who’s home course really suffers in the winter. How bad does it get and does it make you travel to play better draining courses ?
My home course is lovely in the summer and would say it’s easily the best in the area but come winter it’s by far the worst ive seen never mind my area. I Was supposed to play this morning and 15mm of rain made it close. Starting to think about switching to a better draining course that I don’t like as much.
I find myself now travelling down to ayrshire most mornings to play links golf. Frustrating as I really enjoyed my local course the most but it’s unplayable mostly in winter

Don't want to jump into your thread and gloat but yes get yourself to a links, Dunbar where I play is superb just now, as it always is ?

 

[clubchamp98]

Ours is usually very good .
But the water table atm is really high and it’s showing.
Getting a bit worn out in the pinch points.

 

[IanM]

Don't want to jump into your thread and gloat but yes get yourself to a links, Dunbar where I play is superb just now, as it always is ?

I could set off now, but it'll be dark when I get there!! Been a while since I played Dunbar... too long. Over due a drive along that coast too!

 

[BiMGuy]

My course is well designed to deal with the water, but there is only so much it can take and at the minute it is very wet in places I didn’t notice last year. Being at sea level in the fens doesn’t give much scope for drainage.

Last January the bottom part of the course was completely under a few feet of water as the local area flooded. It recovered remarkably well.

It’s been closed a few days recently, but only after a particularly bad spell of rain. We are supposed to be carry only, but that seems to be being ignored by a significant minority which is annoying.

 

[chrisd]

We're on clay so its gonna be wet. We've had a few closures but not that many given how much rain we've had, but it is quite muddy now

 

[nickjdavis]

Ours used to be an excellent course over the winter....drained really well. But over the last 7 or 8 years (I've been a member for 20) it has become more noticeable that the course is getting softer and softer in the winter....obviously there are some low lying points close to lakes and at the bottom of hills that have always been soft, but in recent years other areas are also becoming very soft underfoot.

Whether we are simply seeing more and more rain each winter is perhaps something that needs investigating (Suffolk is arguably the driest/2nd driest county in England) or whether there have been changes to local irrigation systems in neighbouring farms that have had a knock on effect I dont know.

But it does seem to recover well. I played Christmas Eve and whilst I would say it was playable, it was very very soft in places and I wouldnt have wanted to play if it was any wetter. Given my experience, I played on Wednesday at a local club up the coast which is well regarded as a course playable through the winter as it is on predominantly sandy ground. I was actually surprised at the level of softness in quite a few areas and the patchy nature of many of the fairways....it wasnt as dry as I was expecting. I played again back at my place on New Years Eve and it was markedly drier than the course I played on Wednesday....yes it was still soft in places but overall it was a lot firmer underfoot and had a far better covering on the fairways. Just off out to play now....weve had a couple of dry days but last night saw a lot of rain come down, will be interested to see how it is today.

 

[Ethan]

Bearwood Lakes has not been closed, but the daily 7am email recently has variously advised or required carry rather than trolleys, so the going must be fairly soft.

 

[NearHull]

We are suffering badly with a wet course despite a lot of drainage work. We seem to be closed more often than not at the moment.
I’m intrigued to hear that some courses are allowing ‘Carry Only’. We believe that the Disability Acts require that if a facility is open to able body persons, it must be also accessible to disabled people and hence we have a restriction that states ‘Carry Only, unless you hold a medical certificate allowing the use of a trolley or buggy.’ The two other conditions are ‘Open with no restrictions’ or ‘Closed’.
I know some local courses to us do not interpret the Disability Acts in the same way as we do - does any other club do the same as we do with regards to Trollies/ buggy use?

 

[Imurg]

We get slightly softer than we do in the summer....
Hardly ever need a trolley ban but we have a trolley park halfway up the 13th - Park up, take clubs to finish the hole and start 14 and then collect your trolley on the way.
Its the wettest part of the course as its lower than the rest and at the beginning of the clay vale but its like most parkland courses after a light shower...
There was a puddle on the 10th green this morning which show how much rain we've had but it will be gone by now.
Built on chalk and it shows.
One of the reasons we joined.

 

[Deleted member 31467]

My course has been open right through the holidays but it shouldn't have been. Very wet in a few places and starting to get churned up from trollies.

 

[timd77]

Our back 9 is mainly at the lower end of the course and always struggles in heavy rain, often only the front 9 open with 2-3 winter greens. In the run up to Christmas it was fully open, I think it only closed when we had snow but other than that it’s been decent. However, I’d booked the whole of Christmas off, pretty much 2 weeks, hoping for a festival of golf. It hasn’t happened, even the front 9 has been shut, I’ve played twice, which is the same number of times I would’ve played normally (ie, once a weekend)! Bloody annoying. We don’t seem to have had that much rain and the times I have played it’s not been too soft, and so I’m wondering whether they’re trying to protect it. Frustrating.

Trouble is, its a lovely course and it’s £800 a year for 2 courses (sister course is about 5 miles away, similar problems there) and so for 9-10 months of the year it’s hard to beat that deal. Annoyingly, enville is only a couple of miles away, free draining, unfortunately I can’t justify the fees there.

 

[pendodave]

London clay, so it's pretty grim december through march.
We do a bit more away action in the winter to compensate. Was lucky enough to pay Ipswich yesterday (purdis heath), what a great winter course that is. Obviously, very pleasant in summer as well!

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We get wet, parkland course, but generally stay open unless the water is laying. We do close at times, no question.

Drainage is good on all but a few holes but go off the fairways on any and you will get soggy. Walks between holes are bad, why do so few courses look at drainage between holes?

All in all, pretty good for a parkland course and good enough that it sees me through the winter without too much of an issue.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We're really wet this year and struggling. We have had the odd day closed and had carry only but this weekend we have had trolleys and it has been a mud bath especially on the back nine. Anymore rain and I'll think they'll close the back nine and make it carry only. We had a lot of money a few years back from the Red Bull air race being at Ascot and we invested most of that into drainage on the back nine and it has made a difference to where we were 10 years ago

We seem to have a lot of fusarium on the greens this year and it has become an issue. I know the green staff are working hard but wondering how much damage having the greens open every day is being done. I am a little disappointed in the state of the course this year. Is it more wet this winter compared to others? Not sure but the course is struggling and is only 6/10 at the moment