Winter golf - I'm starting to have doubts

[billyg]

Bit of a king -sized whinge coming so look away now...

Played 15 holes today and then called it a day.

It's not the cold(well not directly) - that's nothing that a good set of thermals and a few gadgets can't resolve.
It's not even the grey skies - better than having to play a blind uphill par 4 with that piercing low sunlight right in your eyes.

I think it a combination of the following:-

If you're not in the first cut then it's often a boggy mudfest to get the ball back in play. Even if the ball sits up, the damp grass seems to rob you of a decent connection and any reliable distance.

After the first ten minutes your cleats clog up and you're slipping and sliding all over the place.

Leaves and other naturally occuring winter detritus acts as camoflage if you can't keep an eagle eye on the ball from 180 yards (I certainly can't)

The low sun knocks out you're eyesight when you play into it making it even harder to track the ball.

With all the extra kit you have to wear it seems somehow considerably more exhausting even though it shouldn't be.

Unless you get jumbo sized overkit (which then doesn't wick properly) you can't make a decent , unrestrained rotation.

If it's been raining and there's standing water on the green then you have no chance of making a decent fist of it (unless like Mrs. Billy and I you play a crude version of matchplay where at least putting through a lake affects us both equally)

If you put those factors all together it's just such a slog.

Wouldn't mind if it was fun but it just somehow ....isn't.

It carries so little relationship to any half decent conditions that I'm thinking of just playing the odd 9 once every 3 weeks just to keep my eye in until about March.

whinge over

Bill

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have to be honest and say I tend to restrict my winter golf to either a competition (twice a month) or a Saturday morning roll up with my mates. In competitions I just think that everyone is in the same boat and try and get my head down and make as good a fist of things as I can. In our social games I am really using it as a bit of on course practice to try a few things. If it works great and if not pick up and move on. We normally have a stableford between us but have been down to a regular 4 so switched to matchplay. This means that we can just have a good laugh and a chilled game whatever the course throws at us.

I do agree about the low sunlight and the leaves though but it has ever been thus and there are only a couple of holes where the sun is a huge problem and I'm afraid there is little that can be done about the leaves. We sometimes say that if a ball is just off a fairway and can't be found that another can be dropped (friendly play only obviously)

 

[Herbie]

I play when I get the chance, if the chance comes when its crappy weather I rarely give up on a game.

 

[viscount17]

billy, just look forward to bone hard frozen ground so no plugged drives and a good, hard, if erratic, skid up (or across) the fairway and noway of stopping it on the green.
Good for the soul

 

[nicksampo]

I think I'm one of the freaks who enjoys a good winter game, unless its belting down with rain all the way round. It might be because I play on a well drained links track, or the fact that the course rules are when a bunker is flooded, you can drop behind it (but only use a wedge) which makes it easier! Its all about toughing it out and gripping the club with fingers that feel about as dextrous as a set of girders and make you wince in agony when you thin it. Also the course is empty so theres no waiting or audiences to see those disastrous shots.

That said I would swap a game in cold windy wet winter for one on a warm dry still summers day in a second!

 

[TonyN]

I dont care about any of the winter stuff too much to be honest. I am just glad to be able to play. Yeah I have a moan about it sometimes, but only when I am playing badly.

There is really only 1 thing that makes me want to drive a ball at the clubhouse window, and that is......

WINTER BLOODY MATTS THAT DONT FACE THE RIGHT WAY DOWN THE BLOODY FAIRWAY!!!!

 

[Twire]

I must say we're blessed at our club with winter golf. Being up on the cliff top, the drainage is fantastic, even after a full days rain the next day you won't get your feet wet. The downside is that in the summer, if it's a dry one, the fairways can burn up very quickly. But with the rain we have had the last two summers, it's been great.

 

[ricardodaintino]

Not being a member at a local course I have several options depending on the extremity of the weather. Some flood really easily and others are a nightmare in the wind.

I personally love winter golf. The knowing acknowledgement other golfers express as you pass, confirms you are in an elite few who just love any opportunity to hand the kid over to the wife for a few hours and hit the fairways... mittens an' all!

 

[Cernunnos]

billyg, this is the reason when golfing in winter, choosing the course to play is very important.

Having said that I played alocal course last week with a mate who's juat starting & he'd chosen to play the cheapest boggyest muni available, all said & Done £7-50 was not bad for 18 holes & we both enjoyed our games, even if the greens were a bit spongy & ragged. The wind posed a challenge & neither of us got caught twice after each playing a crackin shot which got blown high & in oposite directions.

The thing about winter golf billyg is you've got to have a bit of a laidback mindset to accept the conditions you are given & accept that too many layers are going to mess up your swing, imagine those Edwardian gents in their heavy tweeds, they obviously didn't complain & accepted their thick layers effect on their swings.

Each day in winter is different & each course we can play over the winter season offers different conditions & challenges & this is the way we've got to view it, if we don't see the challenge & it only as a slog we might as well walk off & put the golf shoes under the stairs for the remainder of the season. Personally mine will be in the boot ready for all occassions & possibilities.

 

[Parmo]

I agree with Cernunnos, you have to take what comes, be it frozen greens where every worm mound your ball bounces off or like for me this weekend sheet ice covering all the greens and making run ways ..

The leaves are a pain though, but after looking 12!! last weekend I am about to order some second hand ones from EBay at 40p a pop which should take the concern away.

What I am doing is practicing 2-3 times a month on the range and then having a round just to air the driver and things.