Is this an especially wet Winter where you play?

[2blue]

In Leeds here it seems to be the wettest the course has ever been though shortened by some 200yds & all bunkers GUR, we are still able to play 18 holes on full greens & grass tees though some of the latter would give grounds for casual water relief.
How is your course doing? Any special measures in place to keep going through these difficult times?

 

[jim8flog]

Not especially.

Trouble is there is enough rain on on some days of the week for us to have several temporary greens and buggy bans.. 9 hole course is closed due to flooding but that even happens during July as the Environment Agency has the right to treat it as a flood plain (or should that be pain). So when the upstream weir gates are altered we get a deluge quickly goes away though when the water level in the river subsides.

One of the things about living in the West Country is we may get milder weather but often that means wetter weather in winter.

 

[Deleted member 3432]

Can't say it's any worse than normal but living about 25 miles from the wettest village in the UK we are used to poor weather.

2 closest clubs to me have been shut for at least a week, fortunately I play at a links track so although its soft it is still very playable.

Problem is that I ain't prepared to play in heavy rain and wind.....

 

[Mandofred]

I've only been playing at this course for 5+ years....but yeah, this is the worst I've seen it. Not a lot of rain....but it's consistent enough that it is really getting mucky. At this time I would love a good hard freeze.....much nicer to play.... putting on frozen temp greens can be amusing...putt the ball and watch it pin-ball its way towards the hole. There was the hard flooding my first year at this course (and around the country) 2015-16 which closed things for a while.....but I don't remember it being this bad. I'm carrying....but I'm thinking about just packing it in until it dries out a bit. Guys I play with quite often agree to just use mats everywhere....hitting out of the rough creates a trench that you could hide bodies in and finding enough of the divot to put back is difficult.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We seem to have had persistent rain for the last 6-8 weeks. Not torrential but regular and it is not allowing the ground to recover. The water table must be right at the top.

I haven't played for a while but my regular pp messaged me yesterday to say he played but really the course should have been closed. The fairways and greens drain very well but off the fairways, coming off tee boxes and the walk between holes can go very bad.

We play off the usual tees, yellows only in winter, regular greens, no mats. The bunkers have been gur for a good while. No buggies right now but trolleys are fine, no need for hedgehog wheels.

We are a proprietary club, that makes a big difference in the decision making process. They want to encourage visitors to come and play, they want to say you can play and have the same experience of playing the course no matter that it is winter.

 

[Old Skier]

Not sure, but our green keeper has asked what a cubic is.

 

[2blue]

We seem to have had persistent rain for the last 6-8 weeks. Not torrential but regular and it is not allowing the ground to recover. The water table must be right at the top.

I haven't played for a while but my regular pp messaged me yesterday to say he played but really the course should have been closed. The fairways and greens drain very well but off the fairways, coming off tee boxes and the walk between holes can go very bad.

We play off the usual tees, yellows only in winter, regular greens, no mats. The bunkers have been gur for a good while. No buggies right now but trolleys are fine, no need for hedgehog wheels.

We are a proprietary club, that makes a big difference in the decision making process. They want to encourage visitors to come and play, they want to say you can play and have the same experience of playing the course no matter that it is winter.

Yes, this is exactly our situation.
Building winter teeing-areas is costly, rather unsightly, increases maintenance & does not make money as well as it's sending the wrong message to visitors. No shortage of spending on modern machinery, treatments etc that will encourage damaged areas to recover as quickly as possible. There is always a measure of 'scarring' that rarely happens on Private Members courses.

 

[HampshireHog]

Today was the wettest I’ve ever seen our course and we didn’t even have a trolley ban. Given the state of it this morning it should definitely have been closed yesterday. Still thankful to be enjoying a 4 ball as we are in tier 2 still.

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Ours doesn't hold up well in sustained wet weather and yesterday was a tough slog. Luckily we are now in lockdown from today so I don't have any decisions to make about whether to play or not for the next three weeks.

 

[backwoodsman]

Round here, average rain is between 65-75mm of rain per month for Sept, Oct & Nov. So about 200 to 210mm for the three months. This year we've had 250mm. Which means its wet - but not quite as wet (yet) as last year. But December might change that as December has been pretty grim so far.

 

[patricks148]

play at a links course that drains very well, so considering the amount of rain, its pretty good, in saying that a few of the new fairway bunkers have water in, i think that may be down to how they were made as none of the old pot bunkers they replaced ever did and they were deeper.
the other club i.m a member at in Inverness, sodden though,

 

[Deleted member 15344]

The level of rainfall has significantly in increased over the past two years

Just before 2016 we spent over £250k on course drainage - then we had three very dry years

In 2019 we decided to spend £500k on an sprinkler system to help get water to fairways to stop them burning out- since then a huge increase in rainfall ???

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Couple of years ago I joined our club, and the blurb said Thant the course was proud of the fact it never closed because it drained so well.
Well these last two winters have changed that, and to be fair, they are not average winters. But we are told they will be. Wetter warmer winters, and hot dry summers is where global warming is taking us, it seems.
Better get used to it, I suppose.

 

[BubbaP]

View attachment 34066
The level of rainfall has significantly in increased over the past two years

Just before 2016 we spent over £250k on course drainage - then we had three very dry years

In 2019 we decided to spend £500k on an sprinkler system to help get water to fairways to stop them burning out- since then a huge increase in rainfall ???

Please persuade them to do some more drainage work! ??

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Please persuade them to do some more drainage work! ??

?? yes we are hoping to redo the drainage on one hole

Only issue though is we are completely the sprinkler system on the remaining three holes ??

 

[Orikoru]

I seem to remember last year's winter was exceptionally wet, it felt like more rain than I could ever remember. And this year isn't quite there.

 

[rulefan]

We closed for one day last week. First time ever except for when the river overflows the flood prevention bank and we are under 2m of water. We have been recording between 15 & 25mm a day. The high river is keeping the sluice gates closed and the water table high so the normally excellent drainage (50cm down is shingle) isn't working. Sloppy walking, no trollies.

 

[BubbaP]

Being close to two rivers that regularly flood, we've not seen any warnings yet. But the ground does seem very sodden, and there seems to be more moss than usual - maybe there's been fewer of those bright breezy days that dry things out.

 

[USER1999]

Wetter than an otters pocket out there.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I am not too far from Chipstead (about 30 miles) and it would appear to be pretty according to Chipstead GC's greenkeeper

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340618079034875905

Ours is wet on the back nine (but infinitely better than before the additional drainage) and borderline unplayable. I hadn't paid too much attention to how much it has rained as I've not played too much but clearly given the amount that Chipstead has recorded it has and would explain why the course is as wet as it is