Is there a case for an off season

[drawboy]

I played Sun morning in the early morning frost and I have to say that even though we were the third group out there were early signs of wear on the greens, foot prints bobbling, spike marks et al. I was thinking that even though we all cherish our golf and heaven knows it's not cheap,is there a case for an off season in this country when the weather gets worse to allow all the vital work that is needed to be carried out by the greens staff in preparation for the new season.
Do we really need winter golf when the grass is not growing and any lumps taken out of the course are going to be there a long time waiting to heal.
Would you be prepared to accept a lay off for the good of the course?

 

[rickg]

no

 

[Wheyayeman]

no

Wot he said!

 

[chrisd]

It is just a big big field with some greens. The grass will recover with maintenance and, so long as the greens are looked after, they will be fine especially if we get good early weather in spring. Always important not to use them when it's frosty though IMO

I look forward to winter league golf and the chance of some friendly 4 balls which we don't seem to get round to during the competition season as well as trying out swing changes ready for the new season.

Chris

 

[jeardley]

my course has been played on in the winter for 150 years and its always mint come spring.
Greenstaff just need to be sensible IMO and shut the greens when frosty

 

[bozza]

Hmmm tough one but i'd say no. I think the majority of people that still play golf through the winter are not just the average person that just goes for a hack around a golf course a few times in summer with there mates and are not always sure how to look after the course propley such as repairing diviots and pitch marks etc. Whereas golfers that go out at the crack of dawn in -10 in winter tend to be people who have been playing golf for a few years and genreally look after the course abit better.

 

[Imurg]

As above....

Although replacing divots that just vapourise when you play your shot is a bit tricky - maybe portable mats are the answer...

 

[bozza]

I,ve played a course near me with them stupid little fairway mats you have to carry round and play your shot off if you land on the fairway and i promised myself never to play that course again if i have to use them as they are a complete pain in the arse!

Half the time i ended up hitting the mat further than the ball and by the time we finished our round the club shop was shut so we couldn't get our £3 deposit back.

 

[pokerjoke]

Our weather is so unpredictable when would you have it,it could last weeks on end,so my answer is nur greens last year were frozen solid for weeks,they looked terrible at the time,however the green staff have had them really good this year,so it didnt do ours much harm.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

Same as pokerjoke,we play our course all year round and the groundstaff get it back immaculate for the spring/summer,look forward to winter golf anyway....

 

[RGDave]

No. We don't have an off season and play all year round on full greens. I accept the greens are not as good as they might be until later, but our members seem to accept the cost in the main.

 

[kid2]

I played Sun morning in the early morning frost and I have to say that even though we were the third group out there were early signs of wear on the greens, foot prints bobbling, spike marks et al. I was thinking that even though we all cherish our golf and heaven knows it's not cheap,is there a case for an off season in this country when the weather gets worse to allow all the vital work that is needed to be carried out by the greens staff in preparation for the new season.
Do we really need winter golf when the grass is not growing and any lumps taken out of the course are going to be there a long time waiting to heal.
Would you be prepared to accept a lay off for the good of the course?

I agree with DB......
To a point maybe for not 2 or 3 months but as we all know if we put down the winter we had last year again this year.....http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=longrange;sess=...... then im sure that most of us on here will be doing alot more typing than we will be hacking

From now on there is very little growth in the grass so as was said above any damage done to the course now will likely be there for a bit........
We had a frosty start to today and when we tee'd off today at 12:30 the tracks left by the rangers buggy this morning to check the course for the early tee times had turned black......Clearly indicating the damage to the fairways from travelling on grass that had frozen

 

[HawkeyeMS]

My course, being a public one, is open just as often as as they can get away with it. In fact, despite the shocking last winter we had, it was closed a grand total of 12 days. It's also one of the busiest courses in the area and as a result gets battered. However, come april\may time the greens are some of the best in the area. The green keepers do a truely outstanding job.

We actually suffer more if we have a dry summer. We don't have fairway watering as until last year the only water we had was from a local stream and we're only allowed to take enough to water the tees and greens.

As a result, the fairways are terrible, have been for a couple of months, we have been playing pick and place since the end of August they are in such a state.

With the right green staff, you can recover from playing through winter, but with no water, there ain't much you can do to make the grass grow.

 

[clubchamp07]

Our greens for this time of year are great. Slightly bumpy but it is October. I think if the frost grips in then temp greens should be used. I'm all in favor of lifting off fairways during the winter to save fariwars from divots. One of our fariways early this season was full of divots. So hopefully that wont happen again this year. I dont understand anyone who wants to play golf in -4+ temps. I'd rather go for a walk.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We have greens all year round except when they are frozen. Common sense and a decent greenkeeper will tell you when to switch to temps. We have a similar problem to Hawkeye in that we don't have fairways watering and so a couple of holes really suffer in the dry. The greens however are pretty good (if slower in Winter) all year (despite what Smiffy thinks! )