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BHoover

  • Karma: +0/-0
Winter blues
« on: December 29, 2012, 09:29:07 PM »
I think I might be in trouble. Winter has been here less than 10 days, yet I'm already sick of it. As I sit here watching the snow fall in central Ohio, I can only hope for an early spring. Why do I get the feeling that it's going to be a long winter? No hockey, no football (I'm a Browns fan, so football hasn't mattered for almost 20 years) and no golf for months.

Maybe I just need to go back to work after a long holiday break. 

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2012, 12:25:56 AM »
Get on a plane or get in a car and go play some golf.  That strategy has allowed me to survive Minnesota for the last 24 years.

Gib_Papazian

Re: Winter blues
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2012, 01:16:17 AM »
Brian,

Even in Northern California, where winter lasts between three and five months depending on the year, it is crucial to depend on coping mechanisms. One of the big lies is that our brethren in higher longitudes carry a heavier burden than those us who dwell farther south from the snow line.

I've come to believe this plaintive whining is nothing more than the accumulated effect of years in the throes of Happy Hour; when it gets dark at 4pm, there is little to do - since nobody in or above the rust belt eats wheat germ or has any idea how to operate a stair-master - but gather in misery (as a form of group therapy) and inhale as much whiskey and fondue as possible.

My friend Dick Daley spends a lot of vicarious time here on GCA after Superbowl Sunday, but how to fritter away the months between football and The Masters without going mad is simple in a world that has actual seasons. You icefish, hunt, drink, ski, sled and try to ring the bell three times a night with the wife.

In the pouring rain, there is little to do but hope for a better day and squish squish squish your way to the local tavern. Outdoorsy women get cabin fever mighty quick in these parts and the only non-perfunctory trim you're likely to get is during a weekender in San Diego with a spa treatment or three for her while you're playing golf. Otherwise, the theater is dark . . . . .

Being a Browns fan is almost as bad as writing a check for season tickets to the Indians; I have enough sense not to bring up King James and his courtesan abandonment of Cleveland. Dining at Michael Symon's eatery, quaffing gastronomic delights, might get you through the winter if you believe Anthony Bourdain.

But all the booze, gourmet tapas and vanilla flavored pussy in the world is no substitute for whistling a cut 4-iron around a bunker next to the pin in the blazing sunshine. My advice is to tell the boss you need five days a month during the winter to retain your sanity and you'll gladly make it up once sunset drops past 9pm.

Otherwise, you can come out here and wade though the guck . . . . . personally, I'd rather try to ring the bell on Sunday morning than get a face full of mud and pretend it is golf.             

« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 05:06:48 AM by Gib Papazian »

RDecker

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2012, 09:04:40 AM »
The best way to survive the winters that I've come up with is to find a good Book, preferably about golf, a good bottle of wine or whiskey  and a good CD or ideally all 3. 

Brandon Urban

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2012, 10:07:59 AM »
All good ideas. You can also just head to the course. A little cold and snow doesn't stop us in Kansas.
The picture below is from Friday. 28 degrees and a few extra hazards.
181 holes at Ballyneal on June, 19th, 2017. What a day and why I love golf - http://www.hundredholehike.com/blogs/181-little-help-my-friends

David Davis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2012, 11:56:46 AM »
I must admit I suffer in the winter as well. It gets dark here about 4:30 pm and doesn't get light until 9:00 am if you can consider what the average day brings getting light at all.

However, that being said we've had some strange weather.

Dec 28, 41 degrees and hard rain and wind, photo taken at the range at 5 pm. I guess you have to really be bored or just love golf to get out in this sh*t. I know many of you would even welcome it being that warm.



This is what that range looked like (notice...last man standing, that would be me, I guess the rest of the golfers have 'other priorities' ('brains', depending on how you look at it)



Then yesterday and let me add this is another beautiful thing about links golf, it's all year round if you wish to battle the elements, 57 degrees and sunshine although very windy. All I can say is that it's days like this that bring me through the darkness of winter here, there are not many but they exist and then I can accept it getting dark. I love the way the course looks in the winter sun. Can't wait to share it with everyone coming over for the BUDA.




Sharing the greatest experiences in golf.

IG: @top100golftraveler
www.lockharttravelclub.com

Jason Hines

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2012, 06:54:24 PM »
Great photos David, I played today in Kansas at my home club and took a few photos as well.  The light from the sun was hanging low in the sky and gave the course a different hue from when you play in the high season.

Brandon Urban from the post above and I missed each other today via email and text, otherwise he could have joined us.  The temperature hit 40° f for the first time in a couple of weeks and tomorrow’s forecast is for 10 cm. of snow and below freezing temps for quite sometime.  There was a decent breeze (by Kansas standards) out of the southwest and spent some good time on the course with a neighbor and fellow golf buddy.

We played the ball where it lay and had a few pars with several doubles when gauging snow depth was more of an art than a science at times.  For the most part, today went a long way in chasing away the winter blues....

Happy New Year everyone.

#2 Tee Box where it took some coaxing to get the tee through the frost.



Me chipping green side and for the record, my feet are farther apart so I don't slip and fall on my backside.



The walk from #4 tee to the green through the creek bottom.



I knew that sleeve of yellow Srixons would come in handy some day.



Me saying something profound walking up to my lag putt on #17, this fairway had the most snow.



« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 07:10:10 PM by Jason Hines »

BHoover

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2012, 07:00:46 PM »
I didn't mean to come across as whining or having a whoa-is-me attitude. I think I was suffering cabin fever at the time I wrote the original post. I've been keeping myself occupied by reading books (mostly history), spending time on GCA (checking out old photo tours) and watching a Star Trek movie marathon.

My wife has put a moratorium on golf-related travel, if I want to play in the 5th Major. So, I'm going to keep myself busy this winter. I also have a full bottle of Macallan that I can use to pass the winter.

Bruce Katona

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2012, 08:32:31 PM »
Brian: Only 1 bottle?

BHoover

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2012, 08:35:17 PM »
Brian: Only 1 bottle?


I'm definitely a lightweight when it comes to drinking. I think I have some Glenlivet and assorted bourbons in the cabinet too, but it will last me well past winter. I'm a Diet Coke-aholic more than anything else.

RJ_Daley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2012, 09:25:09 PM »
Quote
My friend Dick Daley spends a lot of vicarious time here on GCA after Superbowl Sunday, but how to fritter away the months between football and The Masters without going mad is simple in a world that has actual seasons. You icefish, hunt, drink, ski, sled and try to ring the bell three times a night with the wife.

Gibby, I'm flattered you've noticed the cabin fever clinical symptomatic patterns of gloom in my seasonal writing.  You should be in the head shrinker biz.  ::) ;D

Alas, you have to additionally factor in the ravages of age to the suggested alternative passtimes one can turn to, in order to drive away the sun affected disorders (SAD).  Icefish?  Well, you can be older to do so I guess, but even in my darkest moments, the prospect of sitting on a bucket in the great white north on a lake, staring into an ice hole the circumference of one's hat size, waiting for the odd crappie to bite, is beyond my cluttered mind to settle for.  Hunt?  Nah, I never could see the fun in that.  I'm not on the PETA mailing list or anything to morally oppose, it just don't appeal to me.  Drink?  Ah, now that was something I was once a very low handicapper, but finally age and common sense, and aversion to anymore headbanging mornings has made me into a 2- or 3 limit, near tottler.  Ski?  See entry on age and aversion to orthopedic injury healing process.  Sled?  We just had a geezer run his skull into an unfortunately planted pole, as he slid down a snow hill on an innertube.  He'll be lucky to match wits with a gerbil after that. And, last but not least... for whom does the bell toll... and when was it ringing?  I forget. More like the monthly gong show...  :-\

That may bring it down to more repetitive prattle written on GCA, that has already far exceeded my limitted golf travels resume.  Or, perhaps starting that opus every washed up old copper thinks they have in them, with the sardonic attitude they think they've seen just about everything, and wouldn't there be a market for yet another novel about a lovable old alcoholic beleaguered by large caseload detective, just trying to make in another year to the gold watch, and now this pesky axe murderer on the loose?  Perhaps, just bypass the novel and get it down to a screenplay, and send it to the Papazian Indie Film Production Company, that it be made into a movie to go straight to the grocery store rental rack. (you missed your big chance to get me cheap to act in that scene of the coppers at the door of your coming film release, "Writers Cramp"!!!  Portly Detective Sullivan, Daley -no difference, all the Irish ones have the gift...  ::) ;D

Come to think of it, with this pathetic missive, and the Packer loss to the Vikes, I'm already in the throes of the Winter Blues... and I'll probably just need more cow bell -if any bell is to be rung once, twice or thrice (dreamer) tonight.   :-* :P ;D
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 09:29:25 PM by RJ_Daley »
No actual golf rounds were ruined or delayed, nor golf rules broken, in the taking of any photographs that may be displayed by the above forum user.

Joe Stansell

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2012, 10:14:03 PM »
This is how we in the Pacific Northwest deal with our winter doldrums:



That's hole 6 at Old Mac, taken December 27, 2012.

Bill Shotzbarger

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2012, 02:33:10 AM »

But all the booze, gourmet tapas and vanilla flavored pussy in the world is no substitute for whistling a cut 4-iron around a bunker next to the pin in the blazing sunshine.          



well said!

Dan Smoot

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Winter blues
« Reply #13 on: January 01, 2013, 07:27:56 PM »
This is how we in the Pacific Northwest deal with our winter doldrums:



That's hole 6 at Old Mac, taken December 27, 2012.

A beautiful but cruel picture.  I was at Bandon on Monday Nov 19 where it rained 2 inches, 40 - 50 mph sustained winds on Old Mac.  It was unbelievable.  I rented a trolley (rikshaw) that day which literally lifted off the ground a few times that day.  Finished 9 holes and I was spent.  Later that evening on the shuttle, I learned that Bandon does give vouchers which could have been used 3 days later.  Attached is a youtube video from that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwNn9_U-6MQ