Friggin Weather

Played a charity event on Saturday in brilliant sunshine, but the front 9 greens were closed so had to play on temporary greens. All this because we had a frost overnight, and it was hardly anything. Our course has always been all year around, including greens until last winter, but because the course has had deluge after deluge this summer, and the water table right to the top, the merest hint of cold and the greens are closed.

I imagine many of our courses are going to struggle this winter with closures, simply because they haven't had the time to dry out this year. So all you lucky guys and gals who have well drained sand based tracks will probably escape, but the rest of us are in for some garbage.

I think that you may well be right Doc. Our course was very wet at the weekend, much more so than is usual at this time of year.

We are on good old Essex clay, so I might well be taking a few trips into Suffolk this winter to get a game of golf without coming off the course with golf shoes and waterproof trousers covered in mud!

I think Doc's tee'd me up for this hasn't he? Stop whinging, least you lot will still have a golf course, mine might be washed and blown away over the next few days. Although hopefully not.

Surprised they let you out to play if there was frost about Doc.

This seems as good a thread as any to post on.

Strong winds making things go bump in the night. Found a big piece of metal cladding by the front door. That spurred some frantic activity rearranging stuff in the garage to put the car away. Got some loud banging, almost as if there is someone knocking that's in a hurry to get in. Power went out for a few minutes but came back as I'm typing this message on my phone. Time for bed, think it could be a restless night as things get noisy outside. Fingers crossed

Stop panicking grumps you tart, from what I've seen its just a normal English summers day

Hope you've come through unscathed GG. Was watching CNN News last night, surprised that some of their reporters didn't get swept away!

Sorry Doc, I'm really a big, soft, Southern Nancy boy.

We've come throught relatively unscathed, lots of worrying over nothing really. The big piece of metal cladding by our front door turned out to be ours. It was blown off from the outside edge of the A part of the roof at the back side of our house straight over the top of the house. That was the highest half, the lowest half is bent back around the contours of the roof so that must have been the Dr Sheldon Cooper style knocking we could hear.

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone and telling it like it is, Doc. Grumps

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:I think Doc's tee'd me up for this hasn't he? Stop whinging, least you lot will still have a golf course, mine might be washed and blown away over the next few days.

Pleased to hear that you have survived with relatively little damage Grumps. Hopefully your golf course has escaped the worst of it as well...

Thanks Blue, think we got really lucky as the track of the storm turned inland a lot sooner than expected. It was expected to head right towards us but has ended up heading West rather than North West.

We've had quite a few bits and pieces of branches in the back garden so hopefully that's all that will affect the golf course.

Winter wheels for a while mate and bunkers GUR ....... Glad everything worked out well without any major issues for you and yours. I had this vision of a stranded recluse inside a war zone, hiding behind the curtain and broadcasting to YouTube via blackberry

Last December I paid up front for a course of 7-lessons including a playing lesson. The weather has curtailed my season to the extent that I'm having my final lesson tomorrow. Almost 12-months to fit it in, which isn't ideal as a few bad bits will have crept into my game. So looking forward to the lesson, but feel I may have wasted my dough, as I bet I end up taking more early next season to catch up to where I should be by now. Forecast is heavy rain, but I'm going

Good luck Doc, hope the weather holds for you.

Weather doesn't look TOO bad here tomorrow (chance of a couple of showers perhaps)

Got a men's 6/6/6 team comp tomorrow (2 to score on first 6, 3 to score on next 6 and all four to score on final 6) but I've just looked on the club website and one of our team has withdrawn so at the moment we are down to 3

I'm sure they will try to find a reserve but if not, I guess that means we won't be eligible unless there is some sort of scoring frig they can use to allow 3-man teams

I am sure that there will be a long queue of reserves wanting to join your team and take advantage of your dodgy 22 handicap Davie

Looks like it will be bright and sunny tomorrow after another frost. Temps getting up to about 9 degrees in your money. Sunday will be similar, a frost to start, cloudy and a fraction cooler. Here's hoping those idiots got the forecast right.

BlueCoverman wrote:I am sure that there will be a long queue of reserves wanting to join your team and take advantage of your dodgy 22 handicap Davie

Just seen one of the american golf journalists tweet that last week in Utah there was 2 foot of snow yet this week temperatures are expected in the 60s

What do courses usually do in places like that? Do they make a decision to close for the winter between certain dates or are they flexible enough to re-open after initially closing in the event of unexpected mild weather?

Maybe Grumps has some experience of this in the US?

I'm sure that Grumps will answer this in more detail but I do recall him saying that generally his club closes in December and does not reopen until the beginning of April.

I think he must be a bit busy today getting my name engraved on the Fantasy League trophy for the Autumn

Woke up this morning to two inches of snow. Great that will be no golf this weekend then

Should be cleared by lunchtime Blue - do they use a dusting on Wednesday as an excuse to close on Saturday?

Seems as though the snow is mainly up North, and over on the East side of the country. Hopefully the West will stay clear of it.

A light dusting here in the Wokingham/Bracknell area this morning Mary. Pretty much vanished already

SE Trains f****d up this morning because of snow in Kent but nothing where I live - unless there was some earlier but it had gone by the time I woke up at 8am.

Sent LordPutt back to the golf course this morning because he managed to lose his wedding ring (the second time he's lost one on the golf course) while playing yesterday - says his hands were cold so it must have slipped off. Can only have lost it when he took his glove off on the final green (he doesn't take it off to putt or anything) so won't have to look too far. I don't hold out much hope though. Question is - do we buy another one?

Did he look inside the glove? Or in the pocket where he put the glove afterwards?

Great investments: hedgehog wheels for my buggy, Galvin Green waterproofs, Ecco waterproof shoes, GG waterproof hat, Tommy 2-gloves winter mits, waterproof buggy bag cover, extra towel, hip flask. Course closed again due to water-logging. It now seems to close at least 2 days each week, because as soon a slight drizzle happens the water table is topped up again, and if the temperature falls we end up frozen.

It seems that we haven't recovered yet from last winters freeze/snow, because we've seen non-stop rain except for a few days in April. May start doing the lottery because I need to get out of this shit hole

I'ver had two Euro lottery wins in the last couple of weeks - £9.80 and £2.30! Don't think they wil get me very far

Davie wrote:Should be cleared by lunchtime Blue - do they use a dusting on Wednesday as an excuse to close on Saturday?

Looks like you could be right Davie, thawed quite quickly this morning although what is left is now starting to freeze. Chaos on the roads in mid Essex this morning, it took one of my staff 3 hours to travel 25 miles and another 2 hours to do 10 miles from the opposite direction.

Talking of lottery the office ticket came up with 5 numbers at the weekend to win just under £2200, doesn't sound quite so good when it is shared between 9 of them!

Was it the wrong type of snow LP?

When we first moved over to the US there was a huge snowfall, about two feet, I remember thinking great, I ain't going to work tomorrow. I woke up to find the roads were ploughed, the buses and trains were running; it was most disappointing.

Our weather has been fine recently, we had some snow a couple of weeks ago but it's probably all gone now. Definitely starting to get withdrawal symptoms from not playing golf but this is the last weekend me and the missus have on our own for a while so no chance of playing somewhere this weekend.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:this is the last weekend me and the missus have on our own for a while

What you mean you get so grumpy when there is no golf that she has to leave you?

BlueCoverman wrote:

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:this is the last weekend me and the missus have on our own for a while

What you mean you get so grumpy when there is no golf that she has to leave you?

Where do you think the name comes from?? No such luck on that, if she did I would be able to find a game somewhere but we actually have guests from the UK arriving on the 14th all the way through to the 31st.

Guests with you for 17 days?...hope it's not the mother-in-law!

Luckily not, although she was invited. We have a friend arriving first and then my parents arrive on the 23rd.

Just joshing...hope that you all have a great time

LP - fingers crossed that the wedding ring turns up.

Still no snow, but very chilly when I went to Bath this afternoon. Good luck with the visitors Grumps - 3 or 4 days is usually the most I can cope with!

No luck with the ring - someone had probably had it which is annoying because it was an individually designed and hand-made one. I've decided he can do without now - losing one I could forgive, losing two is just not on.

Maybe he is just trying to tell you something LP?

BlueCoverman wrote:Maybe he is just trying to tell you something LP?

Bit brave or foolish there Blue. Can't see the good lady judge looking upon you favourably now. Mwaha, ha, ha (or however you can get a Dr Evil type laugh in text)

I know, I know, foolish I think Grumps. Me and my big mouth

Just seen the weather forecast for tomorrow

So do I have a game of golf in the morning and get soaked or do I have to go shopping ALL day?

You have to play golf, you can use the excuse that you think you've caught a cold to avoid going shopping.

Anyway, if you play that's 4-5 hours less to go shopping in the first place. Which was supposed to be a frantic, panic buying expedition that you mentioned earlier. You're just upping the stakes and focussing the mind for the next task.

Despite all the complaining about the weather (me included!) today was the first game this year I've actually had called off - course was completely closed all day yesterday and although they managed to get the back nine open this morning, we decided it was going to be pretty bad even on that nine and so cried off.

More rain forecast for tomorrow too

Well no golf this weekend, both courses completely saturated and closed. At least that gave me some time to get the Christmas shopping done, but I don't know what all the fuss was about. All completed, no panic and still had a day to spare

Worst part of all this weather is the walk to my local boozer! Normally takes me just over 10 minutes to walk there but there is a railway bridge that is flooded on the road underneath and not only is it closed to cars but the footpath is impassable too! The only other route adds 20 minutes to the journey on foot!

At this time of year I won't go anywhere near the car even if I'm only having one pint so it makes a trip to the local very difficult! So far I've been lucky and I've taken the long walk around on the way there and found someone to give me a lift around the road closure on the way back, but not sure about tomorrow! Unless the council get their fingers out and do something about the flooding....

Spent the week at a rented large house in the peak District, with all the family. Those of us who play golf had booked to play Chapel en le Frith last Sunday and yesterday. We turned up to an empty course only to find that the back 9 was still open but the front 9 was under water. We played the back 9 and it was a joke as we were ankle deep on every fairway, so only did the 9. The course was closed yesterday so although we managed to swing a club for an hour or so, it was a complete waste of time. So that will be the last time this year my clubs will be out, and hoping for some decent drying weather over the next few weeks because every course in my neck of the woods is struggling.

Happy new year to all you people lucky enough to be playing on sand based tracks, where the half way house doesn't resemble an ark

Supposed to be playing at Waldringfield in Suffolk tomorrow so hopeful of getting a game. Hammering down with rain here in Mid Essex again though this morning

Our course is still open, but extremely wet.

Got to feel for those people who have been flooded several times already.

My next game is meant to be on Sunday. Course was closed today and with more rain forecast it will be touch and go if we get to play - and this is a course that rarely has to close!

I predict in the next couple of weeks we'll get snow too - could be February before we get to play regularly again!

Davie wrote:

I predict in the next couple of weeks we'll get snow too - could be February before we get to play regularly again!

Ha, welcome to my world We've had two lots of snow since the weekend with more forecast this week. Don't think I'll be sneaking onto the course anytime soon.

Did you manage to get your game in Blue or had you forgotten your waterwings

It's tomorrow Grumps, 9.45am meet for breakfast if you fancy it

Course is still open although a lot of rain as well there today means that there will be five temporary greens. Still going to go, its either that or another day in the office trying to make sense of the Partnership Tax Return!

Heard on the news earlier that it has been our wettest year on record with a lot more rain forecast before we paddle into 2013!

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Don't think I'll be sneaking onto the course anytime soon.

Good. Every time I see a "Golfer attacked by bear" headline in the paper now I get a little bit worried...