Winter - What does your course do?

[lukeysafc100]

For those of us who don't play on a links course!

What does your course do during the winter to help preserve it?

My Course generally closes play from the Fairway's - you pick your ball and place in to the rough.

We also incorporate a rule in the bunkers - where we allow you mark, pick - rake the bunker - then place back. - this seems to help with the maintenance and this year our bunkers have been pretty decent because of it.

Luckily our greens don't normally close unless its really cold or had bad weather.

Does your course have any winter rules?

 

[Yant]

My course is playable all year. Occasional temp greens but not usually. Preferred lies is about as far as it needs to go. Major works like bunker restructures / tee redesigns etc are done during the winter months to avoid any impact to members during the spring/summer/autumn (as it should be).

 

[Imurg]

Standard "pick'n'place on the short stuff
Plugged ball rule in the rough.
Temp greens if required
No tending the flag on proper greens - flag either in or out ( penalty applies for hitting the flag when on the green)
Some areas roped off
Hedgehog/winter wheels on trolleys
No buggies

 

[woody69]

For those of us who don't play on a links course!

What does your course do during the winter to help preserve it?

My Course generally closes play from the Fairway's - you pick your ball and place in to the rough.

We also incorporate a rule in the bunkers - where we allow you mark, pick - rake the bunker - then place back. - this seems to help with the maintenance and this year our bunkers have been pretty decent because of it.

Luckily our greens don't normally close unless its really cold or had bad weather.

Does your course have any winter rules?

Pick a ball off the fairway and play from the rough? What a ridiculous thing to do. I couldn't join a club that had that rule. If they care about the damage to the fairways that much, why don't they insist you play off mats?

 

[lex!]

We play all through the winter, pick and place starts on Sunday. Occasional temporary green, and trolley ban if it gets really wet.

 

[SaintHacker]

Temp greens and mats where needed. Tee up on the fairway outside 100yds on a couple of the wetter holes

 

[Crazyface]

We've got a great idea at ours. We shut half the course for most of the winter so the green keepers can crack on with their de-forrestation of the course to use on their wood burning stoves at home.

 

[Crazyface]

We play all through the winter, pick and place starts on Sunday. Occasional temporary green, and trolley ban if it gets really wet.

We've been on pick and place since the 5th. You're way behind us !!!!

 

[HughJars]

Winter tees from sometime in November to mid-March, otherwise play it as normal.

 

[Crazyface]

My course is playable all year. Occasional temp greens but not usually. Preferred lies is about as far as it needs to go. Major works like bunker restructures / tee redesigns etc are done during the winter months to avoid any impact to members during the spring/summer/autumn (as it should be).

Could you ask your GK to have a word with ours?

 

[lex!]

We've been on pick and place since the 5th. You're way behind us !!!!

It's grim oop nurth.

 

[Capella]

Preferred lies, at least on the fairways, in very wet conditions anywhere. Winter tees (which are mats or little areas laid out with rubber bricks), winter greens (only when there is frost or snow, though, water normally drains off our regular greens pretty quickly, the winter greens come into play to protect the regular greens from fungi which spread easier on frozen greens). When it gets very wet and usually from Nov to about March, buggies and trolleys are banned (except for hedgehog wheel trolleys) and a few temporary footpaths are added (with an obligation to use them whenever possible) to protect parts of the fairways that tend to get muddy. Some GUR areas are added as well. When the regular greens go out of play, so does the putting green and the short game area, usually. It is very rare that the course closes down comletely due to weather conditions. Happens maybe once or twice each winter and only for a few days at a time, mostly after heavy snowfall. All in all I am quite happy with how our club handles these things. The course is well known in the area for reasonable playing conditions almost year round and normally recovers very quickly in spring form any winter damage.

 

[Twire]

Prefered lies from November 1st, the occasional trolley ban, but qualifiers all through winter and still off the white blocks.

 

[MendieGK]

Pick a ball off the fairway and play from the rough? What a ridiculous thing to do. I couldn't join a club that had that rule. If they care about the damage to the fairways that much, why don't they insist you play off mats?

dont see why thats a ridiculous thing to do? fairway mats are awful, might as well just go to the range.
at least by placing the ball in the rough/first cut you get to play off grass, get the good lie you deserve (for hitting the fairway) whilst preserving the fairways for the summer.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I've played at clubs before where you have to move your ball to the side of the fairway. Slightly annoying when you have split the fairway with a lovely drive but other than that, not a big deal. You just get on with it and it becomes second nature.

 

[ScienceBoy]

At my old place they made a 9 hole pitch and putt snow course when conditions allowed!

Otherwise it was just shortening holes, winter greens as required.

It’s a farmers field again now if that helps.

Nothing changes at the par 3, same all year round.

 

[Ross61]

dont see why thats a ridiculous thing to do? fairway mats are awful, might as well just go to the range.
at least by placing the ball in the rough/first cut you get to play off grass, get the good lie you deserve (for hitting the fairway) whilst preserving the fairways for the summer.

I would hate to pick my ball up and place in the rough. I can think of several parts of our course where placing it in the rough (either side of the fairway) would leave you with a very poor position with no line to the green. If the rule was nearest rough the situation would be even worse. I think if that was all winter I would not be a member at all!

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Move on to winter tees, tee up on fairways/closely mown.
Winter greens if weather dictates.
All comps non-qualifiers until 1st week in April.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

My course is playable all year. Occasional temp greens but not usually. Preferred lies is about as far as it needs to go. Major works like bunker restructures / tee redesigns etc are done during the winter months to avoid any impact to members during the spring/summer/autumn (as it should be).

This - Heathland/Parkland but all on sandy subsoil so most drains well - and we are having major bunker work down also.

 

[IanM]

This thought of thread makes me smile at the range of experiences you get in the UK... when at Bowood in Wiltshire, played with a guy who'd just moved from Glasgow. he asked about fairway mats in the winter, I'd never heard of them before that!

Current course will put the par 3 tees, and some others which are in heavy shade areas on mats from about now, till it warms up again. They like to rope off the fronts of greens to make trolleys avoid heavy wear areas , so out comes the carry bag!! We get some temps if frosty.. We have a couple of holes that don't train quite as well, but on the whole golf goes on as we know it!

Most stuff is a day to day decision based on the previous 24 hours weather... which in Welsh, is translated is to "how much rain we 'ad bud?"