So how much golf have you lost?

I had another frustrating weekend, whereby I only managed to get 9-holes on Saturday, due to torrential rain. Sat at home thinking about how few rounds I've had in this year and then did some numbers just to ensure I had gotten my monies worth out of my membership subs. Phew, no worries on that front ....

When I think that our course is usually open all year, without going to winter greens/tees, this year has been bad. We were really never in a decent state through Jan/Feb & March due to snow, ice, blizzrds. The course really didn't even get dried out thoroughly and we had a couple of decent weeks in April, but still no hard bouncy fairways, in fact we were still almost in winter conditions. May and June was non stop heavy rain and forget July really, except for the odd few days (Unless you were in the south east)

I played 9-holes last night and remembering that we are in August, I was playing in almost darkness by 7:45pm. Its been a dire year for golf I suggest, so reckon a lot of clubs will be struggling this year, due to lack of casual visitors and societies. Although the courses will have seen fewer rounds played on them by the membership. I know from personal experience that we've cancelled plenty of rounds due to the weather. Even had problems with courses closed in Yorkshire due to fog in July and courses closed due to holes being under water. So Cheshire and North Yorkshire was hit badly

Don't think I've lost much (if any) - but the conditions have been far worse than one would expect for a "summer". The course has been closed a couple of times but only when I wasn't playing anyway during the week. There have been a couple of weekends when I suspect it should have been closed but they did everything possible to keep it just about playable (Captain's Charity day for example)

I'm about on track for the number of times that I'd expect to have played by this point in the year (comps and casual rounds) - they just haven't been in the glorious weather then should be!

Davie

I've still only managed 2 QC's so far, and the norm is for me to get to the course most nights through the summer. I've had just one week where I managed 3 nights, but have also had a couple of weeks when it was impossible as it was either waterlogged or raining.

I'd be interested to know what the average SSS was at most clubs for comps, as you would imagine scoring would be harder this year. Summer my arse, its been dire and guess what ...... it's raining again in Cheshire

I've played 9 qualifiers since the start of May (new membership year) and plenty of other NQ comps (4BBB, scrambles etc) - plus also lots of casual rounds. Currently averaging just over twice a week for the year to date which is about what I need to make my membership "worthwhile"

Of the 9 qualifiers I've played in, 5 have been CSS = SSS with 2 of them one shot below SSS and 2 of them 1 shot above

I haven't played as much this year, more to do with having both parents in hospital than the weather though. Managed to get one game most weekends, but normally I would play on average 3 rounds a week in the summer.

Pouring with rain here in Essex as well at the moment, as I look out of my office window there is definitely an autumnal feel about things. A bit depressing really to think that the 'summer' is almost gone, just don't mention Christmas anybody!

P*ssing down here too but I think we are due for some better weather by the weekend again Blue -

Let's face it, the summer hasn't really been a summer but I wouldn't be surprised if we got a decent September and maybe even October

Fair enough Davie but id be less surprised if the winter wasn't shit too!
CSs = sss +1 or more , more often than not for us this year. Course is tighter , softer ie longer and rough is a hazard in its own right. Very tough.

Tough at mine as well for the same reasons. Last months medal I played to handicap with a nett 72 and got a nice 0.4 cut as standard scratch was 76!

Stop complaining the lot of you. I regularly miss out on 4-5 months of golf and you're moaning about a couple of weekends.....

I think that our course has managed to stay open for the majority of the time, except for a couple of part-day closures when there have been downpours of Biblical proportions.

Doc - I've noticed that it seems to be getting dark earlier than usual. Feels like mid-Autumn already.

Played 9 holes at the weekend, but not sure if I will fit enough qualifiers in to enable me to keep my handicap active.

GG - you have my sympathy, at least we get some decent years, when there are virtually no course closures.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Stop complaining the lot of you. I regularly miss out on 4-5 months of golf and you're moaning about a couple of weekends.....

Should have stayed in good old blighty like the rest of us!

I think the weather this year will have a real impact to how people feel when they come round to paying subs next year. The hardened golfer will join, but I fear for those who are on the 'bubble' so to speak and I think in these economic times they will vote with their feet and decide to become 'payers and players' rather than renew memberships. Going to be interesting to see clubs balance sheets early next year and will make for some interesting AGMs !!!

You bring up a really good point MG.

We're worrying about a similar thing too at my club. There was a danger that the township weren't going to reopen the course this year. We had a big push to keep people involved and to get membership in early to encourage the Township. Now we're worrying about those that paid money to keep it open but don't play or haven't played that often; will they do the same thing next year?

We have to sign in each time we play so it should be easy to determine those that play frequently and those that don't. However I am willing to bet that this information isn't being tracked at all.

Township Grumps? Do you live in Soweto?

No it's the Mickey mouse local government system over here. Think council instead of township or tossers as they probably should be called.

The township used to be so corrupt and stupid that the local paper had a dedicated column or page set aside to describe their antics. Every so often one of the three board of supergiants would get arrested at a township meeting to much applause and laughter.

It's Middle Smithfield Township (not sure if there's an Inner or an Outer Smithfield) if you're that inclined to read up on them. The local paper is the Pocono Record.

I played 16 qualifying rounds last year. So far this year I've played 4. Fatherhood has accounted for some of the decline but our club doesn't drain all that well so has only held something like 10 qualifiers all year because of pick & place and/or bunkers being out of play.

I've only lost one round of golf... a midweek evening when I turned up for a few holes after work and found the course closed as a lot of it was under water. Not missed any Comps, and to my knowledge no weekend QC's have been cancelled.

Impact on the course:
A stream appeared on the par 3 7th, running across the hole in front of the green, with a puddle on the right hand side which engulfed a bunker. This didn't really affect the hole, as it is not in the landing area, and you could claim relief for a poor tee shot finishing in the puddle. Some drainage work needs to be done to fix this, but I wouldn't mind retaining this as a water hazard.

2 streams appeared across the 6th fairway, at approx 50 yards and 150 yards from the tee. In theory neither of these came into play, although you needed to jump over / walk through them. Some drainage work needs to be done to fix this, but again I wouldn't mind retaining this as a water hazard.

Large puddles of standing water appeared on the 3rd/4th fairways, which run parallel to each other. This had an impact, as they sat in the landing area, so they affected the length of drives. Now that these puddles have gone, the fairways are in a very poor state and look patchy.

On a general note, like everyone else, I have found the rough to be extremely lush this year, and very difficult to control the ball from. The course has played longer and the greens have been slower. Whereas last year the CSS was typically the same as the SSS, this year it has often been 2 or 3 over SSS. In a recent medal I was cut 0.2 even though I shot 3 over my handicap.

Summer 'wettest in 100 years', Met Office figures show

Headline that I read today, but I think we had all guessed something like that!

BlueCoverman wrote:Summer 'wettest in 100 years',

I think that is due to the release of 50 Shades of Grey!

raycastleunited wrote:

BlueCoverman wrote:Summer 'wettest in 100 years',

I think that is due to the release of 50 Shades of Grey!

Bravo!

Very good Ray!