The mobile weather apps are bad for golf play

[Mike_Young]

The way he weather apps work it can make a perfectly acceptable golf day show up as a "rain" and destroy a tee sheet for a course...it may be the rain will not arrive until late one nite or early the next morning but it still shows as rain...got to be a better way...

[Mike Sweeney]

I am a Jim Cantore-wannabe

Like most things in life, it depends. If you use your iPhone weather app, it often shows showers on the days when it could just be an AM shower. If you believe this, there will basically be one day of practice rounds for Bethpage next week:




AccuWeather is a different picture for Bethpage next week:



Yesterday, I was hopeful that all the apps were wrong as I had the "free pass" to play. Drizzle was fine as I am getting ready for Ireland. When I opened up the old fashioned window at 5:30 AM, it was a hard rain so no golf...

[Michael Whitaker]

Mike - the weather apps have encouraged me to play golf more often than stopped me from playing. I always check the hour-by-hour and, as you say, it often shows rain early or late in the day only... which allows time for a game before or after the front moves through. Without seeing the hour-by-hour I would have just marked off the day and gone to the movies or something. 😊

[David_Tepper]

The good websites are very helpful. The hour-by-hour forecasts from the one I use when I am in Dornoch are usually spot on.

https://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Dornoch/hour_by_hour.html

[Steve Lang]

I like the National Weather Service radar, and we've many a times gotten in our play before the bad stuff hits.. and checking for lightening strikes is invaluable.


Now with that said, there's been multi-day and multi-week forecast around for a long time, folks just didn't see them so easily as today using a smart phone and a couple of taps...


... and makes one consider how can multi-year and multi-decades models hold any water?






 

[John McCarthy]

Darksky.net (and app) gives very local and accurate predictions.  Highly recommend. 

[Adrian_Stiff]

You certainly don't want to attach a weather app to your golf website, just have permanent sunshine.

[Chad Anderson (Tennessee)]

This is an accurate statement.


All weather forecasters are bad for golf.  It amazes me they can tell you exactly what street a tornado is at, but they have no clue if it is going to rain or not today.  How can they be so good at one and bad at the other?

[Mike_Young]

I've seen most all of the apps and I understand the hourly forecast but ask any owner or club and they will tell you it adversely affects play.

[Brian Finn]

Darksky.net (and app) gives very local and accurate predictions.  Highly recommend.

Incredibly accurate.  This is the only app that I have ever paid for, and it is worth every penny.  It has helped me play golf on many days when less specific forecasts would have suggested I not even try.

[Lou_Duran]

I am somewhat of a Ludite, so I don't pay much attention to phone apps.  This time of the year, everyone seems to be fixated on their phone weather forecasts and just this past week, three of my guys quit after the 13th hole because Google weather said the rain and possible lightning would be on top of us in 15 minutes.  I had been watching the sky all morning and it looked like it was getting lighter, the storm clouds to the west were moving north, but more importantly, planes were still on their pattern into DFW, about 30 miles to the west.  I kept going, caught a few sprinkles on the last hole as the storm missed our area by 20+ miles.  I did see one group teeing off on 1 as I was finishing, but the course was otherwise empty.  We didn't get any measurable rain until well after dark.  Our weather tends to be pretty localized, so perhaps the apps are better predictors elsewhere.

[Kalen Braley]

Forecasts are only useful in advance.  If its day of... just fire up your radar app.  I use a free one called MyRadar on my Iphone...works great, and you can see whats on the approach with zoom in/zoom out capabilities.

[David_Tepper]

I wonder what weather app the Masters committee used to move up the tee times and play as 3-balls on the last day of the tournament?

Of course, that assumes AGNC does not have a direct line to God!

 

[Jon Cavalier]

Darksky.net (and app) gives very local and accurate predictions.  Highly recommend.

Incredibly accurate.  This is the only app that I have ever paid for, and it is worth every penny.  It has helped me play golf on many days when less specific forecasts would have suggested I not even try.

A third vote here for Dark Sky. Worth every penny and then some. Eerily accurate at times.

[Jason Topp]

I was at a local public course on a beautiful early spring day. Normally such a day would mean a packed course early in the year.  I asked the owner where everyone was.  She said the forecast killed them.

[Blake Conant]

The message I take from this is golf takes too long for a lot of people to free wheel it anymore.  Whether it's golf, a hike, or a ballgame I want to know the weather if I'm going to be spending 4+ hours outside. But if I'm going to walk the dog to the park or play 9 holes at the par 3 courses I just go. 


Perhaps your customers are telling you to build a short course!

[John Kavanaugh]

Offer a non-refundable weather discount based on the forecast of a common weather app. For example, today I would get 15% off at noon. Tomorrow no discount, Thursday 80% discount. It would be fun just to watch the cheap bastards get soaked.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Darksky.net (and app) gives very local and accurate predictions.  Highly recommend.

+1 on Dark Sky.


Its predictions have made our plans to play more resilient in the face of potential adverse conditions.


"Light rain starting in 23 minutes and ending in 53 minutes."


What more could you ask for?

[D_Malley]

Golf for most people is a "plan ahead" event, if you and three friends are going to take a day off from work to play golf, the weather forecast 3-5 days out plays a big role in picking what day you will play. I work at a busy public course and i always tell my customers that the best days to play are when the weather forecast calls for rain. I wish the main forecast would spell out in a little more detail when and how much it will rain.

Larry David vs. The Weather Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oX-8TbQhk0

[Steve Lang]

  ... now if courses could just use doppler radar to measure golfer speed and help move things along...