How's your course bearing up in this exceptionally wet weather?

[HomerJSimpson]

Played London Scottish/Wimbledon Common on Sunday. You wouldn't have believed we'd had a drop of rain. Course was impeccable, not a single patch of mud. The greens were lovely once the sun came out, they were a bit frosty and bobbly until then. It was so much of a pleasure to play i'm thinking of becoming a member since I parted with my old club in December.

Which side did you play from. I may be biased (well yes I am) but I always found the London Scottish clubhouse a bit stuffy compared to WCGC and also liked the layout from that side with the long par 3 and long par 4 to open and then a par 5 to close

Speak to The Jezster who is a member on here. Think from memory he was last years captain (or year before) at WCGC so may be able to help smooth the membership process

 

[ger147]

Can grass drown? Asking for a friend... #stormciara

 

[Imurg]

The Zoo is open. Full course and buggies allowed - and knowing what it was like of friday, that is an absolute joke.
Nobody in their right mind is going to play today with 50-60+ mph winds so no damage will be done but......
Should courses close in the face of storm force winds?
Should any fool venture out they'll be in danger of falling branches and flying debris

 

[upsidedown]

Course closed due to severe weather

 

[IanM]

Closed this morning due to high winds.....very high

 

[McToot the Bandit]

So as I mentioned earlier on, I hd a 90-min course lesson booked yesterday at Haywards Heath GC. But after 2-3 hours of light rain overnight on Friday/Saturday they closed the course again. No rain from 8am and glorious sunshine from 11am. It was even quite warm.

Bloody infuriating. The limited driving facilities were full of grumpy blokes cursing the greenkeeper. The head Pro wasn't best pleased either. I mean why they don't shut it until 11am and then do another review I don't know. They just took one look and buggered off home. After storm Ciara has doen its work it'll be shut for most of the week I'd guess.

Grrrr

 

[Siolag]

Hasn't stopped raining all night, therefore course closed. Hoping to get to the range and work on a few things, but even that might be closed.

 

[Crazyface]

Closed. In fact the website has had the warning "very wet conditions" permanently displayed since the end of September.

 

[Blue in Munich]

Closed today. We have lost about 4 days over the winter, and the whining in some quarters, and the stupid suggestions as to the cause, have been beyond belief. Nearby the railway line was closed because of a land slip on the embankment it runs on, there have been stupid levels of rain, yet the entire cause of the issue is the tree removal programme, meaning the trees are not taking up the water. When we started on this programme & that issue was raised, we were told by the expert doing it that it would make no difference as the trees would not draw a lot of water in winter as it's not the growing season. But no, it's the tree programme that's to blame.

Personally I'd have been happier if they'd closed it a little more. There's a few areas of damage that will need dealing with that could possibly have been avoided. We are a golf club. Protect the main assets, the golf course, at all costs. Does it really matter if we lose a few days play in the middle of a grotty winter; not for me, but you'd think the world had stopped turning to listen to some of our members.

 

[Maninblack4612]

Glad it's rained today. We were going to have to put the water on the greens soon. The course was bone dry yesterday. I love playing there!

 

[Siolag]

Closed today. We have lost about 4 days over the winter, and the whining in some quarters, and the stupid suggestions as to the cause, have been beyond belief. Nearby the railway line was closed because of a land slip on the embankment it runs on, there have been stupid levels of rain, yet the entire cause of the issue is the tree removal programme, meaning the trees are not taking up the water. When we started on this programme & that issue was raised, we were told by the expert doing it that it would make no difference as the trees would not draw a lot of water in winter as it's not the growing season. But no, it's the tree programme that's to blame.

Personally I'd have been happier if they'd closed it a little more. There's a few areas of damage that will need dealing with that could possibly have been avoided. We are a golf club. Protect the main assets, the golf course, at all costs. Does it really matter if we lose a few days play in the middle of a grotty winter; not for me, but you'd think the world had stopped turning to listen to some of our members.

I fully expect the same people would moan like hell if the greens weren’t slick in summer, or the fairways had signs of damage.

 

[Blue in Munich]

I fully expect the same people would moan like hell if the greens weren’t slick in summer, or the fairways had signs of damage.

Didn't know you'd met them! Amazing how much more about greenkeeping they now than the bloke we pay to do it.

We happen to have a member of the European Tour as a member. A comment attributed to him is along the lines of 'whatever you do, don't lose this greenkeeper'. I know whose opinion I'd rather trust.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Rocked up at lunchtime to drop my clubs off in my locker. They had two people all morning before I arrived. Annoys me that the club can't have some common sense and post that it's closed and let the staff go home. The holes I could see were under water, as was the putting green and clearly no-one was going to play. I doubt given all the rain if we're be open at all tomorrow and probably down to nine for most of the week

 

[Billysboots]

We haven’t lost a single day to the weather this winter, although the course is as wet as I have seen it in the 15 years I’ve played there.

All other local courses have lost a considerable number of days. The one in my village cannot cope with any more rain - whilst it is currently open, it closes almost immediately at the first sign of more rainfall. Another course a few miles down the road has been shut more weekends than it has been open since October.

We’re very lucky, the course being built on a sand/gravel base with fantastic drainage.

 

[howbow88]

My course struggles with the rain. If the weather we have had since October carries on for the next few weeks, I will be amazed if the new season in April will start without temporary greens

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Despite more rain overnight just had a message saying we are open on the whole of the front nine and 10-14 and then 18. While I respect the judgement of the green keeper and management give the exceptional rainfall on top of already muddy ground when I played on Saturday that does seem a poor decision. Why not close it for a day (or two), and give it a chance to recover. There will now be a huge senior roll up (with trolley's that are also still allowed) going out and churning the ground up. I am sure we're not alone but sometimes it seems a narrow minded decision to keep members happy now rather than thinking about course condition going forward and the monetary and time cost later to fix the damage

 

[GB72]

Course closed yesterday, damage to trees and the halfway hut. Course closed this morning for a full inspection of the damage and to check on safety. Raining and still very windy today to guessing few would turn up anyway and they may as well close the place for the day.

 

[jamiet7682]

Matts for the tees and only the forward tees open, lift and place in the first cut but course was in good nick, not overly boggy and greens were good. Slightly surprised.

 

[Patster1969]

As we've got two 18's, they have amalgamated one 18 hole course out of it and avoided the worst holes. Before they put this in place, they kept both 18's going but some of the holes were horrendous, which meant they were terrible at the beginning of the season. Played on Saturday and remarkably good considering the entire course was shut for two weekends over December and the bonus of shutting the bad holes down is that they look really nice at the moment with no damage, so come the season starting, they will be at a decent standard pretty quickly.
However, I didn't play yesterday, so god only knows what it's like after Storm Ciara came in.

 

[Bigfoot]

Lodge was opened at 8.15 this morning after the debris was cleared. Highgate was opened at some stage after we had gone out on Lodge.
WP was closed.