Mud, mud, glorious mud! You may well have noticed that it has been wet. Very wet. Saturated. Soaking. Drenched!
I have been playing this game for more years than I care to remember and I have NEVER experienced anything like this winter. The rain seems to be never-ending. And I spent the first 18 years of my life in Scotland.
It has been relentless. I cannot remember the last time I saw the sun (well, apart from my recent holiday in Egypt, but that doesn’t count). It is relentlessly grey. And even when the rain hasn’t poured down there has been drizzle.
All over the country courses have had to close. If you play on a low-lying course with a river running through it, I would be surprised if you have played a single round of golf this year.
Nightmare For Golfers With a Winter Membership
Spare a thought for anybody who has taken out an off-season winter membership.
These are supposed to offer terrific value for money but that presupposes that you are actually able to get out and play. Many golf clubs depend on these as a vital source of extra income with the hope that they will be converted into full memberships.
The reality is that right now golf clubs the length and breadth of the land are facing a huge dilemma.
If they close their doors they wave goodbye to income from bar sales and green fees, while having to continue paying staff who will either be twiddling their thumbs or sitting at home.
Close for too long and you risk having your membership up in arms, especially if they have faced increased annual subscriptions. And all this at a time when they are being hit by soaring business rates.
Stay open and you risk having untold damage done to your course. If you have a resort course there will be little option but to remain open in order to avoid having unhappy hotel guests to deal with.
Do you ban buggies and trolleys? If so, you are going to alienate your seniors section.
Winter Weather Has Made Playing Golf Unpleasant
My home course in Norwich has remained open throughout this awful weather. It was finally deemed unfit for play and closed on Thursday. Some of our tees now more closely resemble a swamp, several water hazards are overflowing and standing water prevails.
And I have to tell you that I am sick to the back teeth of finishing my round with my trousers, shoes, clubs and trolley caked in mud. It is simply horrible.
We routinely find the middle of the fairway and then walk past our golf ball because when it has landed it has either plugged or picked up a huge chunk of mud. And it doesn’t matter what colour of ball you use – mud is not selective.
It goes without saying that every ball that finishes in the rough also ends up covered in mud. We have all become experts at playing mud balls because we have no choice. In friendly matches we have all agreed that we can lift, clean and drop in the rough.
I have also attempted to use my influence (as senior captain) to adopt a local competition rule that allows our members to do the same thing while these conditions last but the overall feeling was that this would be abused.
As we continue to play the courses that have been able to remain open there is little doubt that we are causing damage. Hitting an iron shot from a sodden fairway is an interesting experience – have you tried replacing a divot created on wet grass? Good luck with finding it. Everything just disintegrates.
Grass is incredibly resilient but how do our courses recover from this weather?
When was the last time you played a proper bunker shot? I actually don’t mind playing from damp sand because I think it is easier to escape by simply picking the ball off the surface rather than having to worry about hitting the sand two inches behind the ball.
And being able to place the ball on wet grass also means that hitting fairway woods is easier.
But boy have I struggled with my irons of late. I have lost count of the number of fat shots I have struck this winter. Unless you make perfect contact then it all becomes something of a battle, a war of attrition.
One area to benefit in all of this, however, is our driving ranges with golfers desperate to hit balls keeping their games in shape under cover. But we all want to be out on the course – on the DRY course!
By the way, as I look out my window it is currently snowing. Hard! Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh!
Derek Clements is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.