Golf, an essentially seasonal game but should it be more seasonal these days?

[Thomas Dai]

Golf has historically been an essentially seasonal game but seems to have morphed into more 365 days p/a or the desire for such in many/most places.

Winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Snow, ice, frost, storms, heat and drought.
Expectations. Climate change. Costs implications. Course rest periods.

Should courses be open as often as they are?
Thoughts?
Atb

[Ben Sims]

I’m not sure about the sustainability aspect of this question. What I will say is that living in the intermountain west essentially forces me to be passionate about my hobbies on a seasonal basis. I can’t ski in July, I can’t golf in January. At least locally. So it forces me to treat my hobbies as seasonal aspects of my life. Burn out is much harder this way.

[A.G._Crockett]

Golf has historically been an essentially seasonal game but seems to have morphed into more 365 days p/a or the desire for such in many/most places.

Winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Snow, ice, frost, storms, heat and drought.
Expectations. Climate change. Costs implications. Course rest periods.

Should courses be open as often as they are?
Thoughts?
Atb

I’m not sure I accept the premise in your first sentence. 

[David_Tepper]

"Golf has historically been an essentially seasonal game"

Yes, a dubious premise. Perhaps it was 100+ years ago (and I am not sure how "seasonal" it really was even then), but once the game migrated from GB&I to places with more temperate climates there was no reason the game could not (and should not) be played year round.   

[Matt Schoolfield]

Generally agree with many of the comments here about the premise. Didn't have any trouble playing in Edinburgh all year when I was living there, even if it was a bit soggy and we had to race against early sunsets.

I would add though, that there are many aspects of 365 day/year courses that are both seasonal and notable. I often find folks talk about courses as though they only play one way, but the two 365 regions I've lived in leave interesting subtleties to the season you're in.

I grew up in central Texas, and playing there is wildly seasonal. The spring there can be soft and even muddy, but the late summer and winter leaves the ground harder than linksland. When the bermuda is dormant, the lies can be the tightest you'll ever play, hence the Texas Wedge. Learning how to play in different seasons can really make a course have variety beyond topography.

Here in the Bay Area, the seasons couldn't be more obvious. Links-style course directly on the bay (Corica, Metro, Monarch) are excellent in the winter for drainage and temperate-if-rainy, even Scottish, weather. Coastal courses (SF city courses, Sharp Park, Bodega Harbor, Northwood, etc) are excellent in the summer for the cooler, walkable climate. Inland courses (inland Sonoma, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, and Santa Clara county courses) are best played in the spring and fall for the most temperate, walkable conditions.

[Sean_A]

Golf has historically been an essentially seasonal game but seems to have morphed into more 365 days p/a or the desire for such in many/most places.

Winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Snow, ice, frost, storms, heat and drought.
Expectations. Climate change. Costs implications. Course rest periods.

Should courses be open as often as they are?
Thoughts?
Atb

If the correct precautions are taken, I don’t see why GB&I courses shouldn’t be open year round.

Ciao

[Mark Pearce]

I'm another who questions the original premise.  Links golf is not, I think, essentially seasonal.

[Duncan Cheslett]

If the correct precautions are taken, I don’t see why GB&I courses shouldn’t be open year round.

Ciao

Open yes, but this abominably wet autumn and winter in the UK has rendered many inland parkland courses far from enjoyable, if not downright unplayable.

As a greenkeeper the options are very limited. Large scale drainage projects are far beyond the resources of most members' clubs.

At the little 9 holer where I work we are hopeful that a few days with an "Earthquake" machine in October/November will resolve the problems we have with surface drainage. The club laid new primary drainage along all fairways 25 years ago but the water is just not getting through to it.

A bigger course with inadequate primary drainage is going to have serious problems if wetter times are ahead regularly.

[Sean_A]

If the correct precautions are taken, I don’t see why GB&I courses shouldn’t be open year round.

Ciao

Open yes, but this abominably wet autumn and winter in the UK has rendered many inland parkland courses far from enjoyable, if not downright unplayable.

As a greenkeeper the options are very limited. Large scale drainage projects are far beyond the resources of most members' clubs.

At the little 9 holer where I work we are hopeful that a few days with an "Earthquake" machine in October/November will resolve the problems we have with surface drainage. The club laid new primary drainage along all fairways 25 years ago but the water is just not getting through to it.

A bigger course with inadequate primary drainage is going to have serious problems if wetter times are ahead regularly.

A saturated course is included in precautions. If a course is wet, close it.

Ciao

[Charlie Goerges]

I suppose the way the original question was phrased, it was a more practical question about closing schedules and things of that nature. The easy answer to that stuff is what most of everyone is saying so far, and that's good.


But maybe this is a chance to reflect a little on the way the changing of the seasons affect the game (Matt got at this in his post). Even in slightly warmer climates, there is seasonal change that affects how the game is played. I'd love to read how the seasons impact the way you play the game, wherever you are (or have been).


Where I've lived my life, golf has been extremely seasonal. For a third of the year, the courses are typically under feet of snow. But even in the shortened playable time, there have been distinct differences in how I played it. In the spring, golf was a morning game (in my strongest memories) because we'd leave early to play matches and tournaments in high school. In summer, golf was an evening game because I was often working in the afternoon at the course, waiting to get out for a solo 40-minute emergency nine played in a cart with the governor jammed open. In the fall, golf was an afternoon game because I could only play on days off, it would be dark after my shift. So after school, if I wasn't working I could play with a friend. And all of this is to say nothing of mud balls in the spring, driving it nearly 300 yards on hard, burnt-out fairways in the summer, before succumbing to the "leaf rule" in the fall.

[Adam Lawrence]

Given that until Edwin Budding patented the first lawnmower in 1830 the only way of cutting the grass on any course was sheep, one has to figure that golf, in the early days, was significantly more playable in the winter than the summer.

[Matt Schoolfield]

Open yes, but this abominably wet autumn and winter in the UK has rendered many inland parkland courses far from enjoyable, if not downright unplayable.

This Sunday I won net in my club’s “3 club mudder,” a tournament specifically set in the wettest part of the year, with severely limited clubs exactly because it’s already extremely challenging. It was raining for days before, and rained until 11pm the night before (thankfully the sun came out during the event). I chose driver, 8i, and putter exactly because the fairways would be useless (driver), and greens would be squishy and unpredictable (putter), and I needed some kind of utility wedge that I wouldn’t chunk in the mud (8i). Everyone loves the tournament because it’s silly and fun, we had a full sheet and I won at net +2 (last year the winner was net +7)

Golf can be fun in the worst conditions if you’re not worried about playing to a number. That’s why I play match play almost exclusively.

[Tim Martin]

How about Florida in the Summer? Yes you can play but is it predominately too hot and humid to make for an enjoyable experience? I have to think that some courses lose money or maybe break even by remaining open.

[Jay Mickle]

Surely a 4 season sport here in the Sandhills of North Carolina but will interested to see how the courses handle the 16° to 70° temperature spread over the next 10 days. The Bermuda greens have to be covered when the temperatures drop too low but uncovered for play. We will see how many consecutive days they keep the tarps on, that should be an indication of the number of golf rounds presold.

[Thomas Dai]

Given that until Edwin Budding patented the first lawnmower in 1830 the only way of cutting the grass on any course was sheep, one has to figure that golf, in the early days, was significantly more playable in the winter than the summer.

Be obliged if you could elaborate.
Atb

[James Reader]

David Hamilton’s ‘Golf. Scotland’s Game’ has lots of evidence that, in its earliest days, golf was primarily a winter game. The Autumn and Spring meetings originally represented the start and end of the golfing season, rather than the opposite as would seem obvious now.


The value of the crop of summer grass seems to have been an important reason, not just that its length made for difficult playing conditions.  The golf season started after the harvest.

[A.G._Crockett]

Surely a 4 season sport here in the Sandhills of North Carolina but will interested to see how the courses handle the 16° to 70° temperature spread over the next 10 days. The Bermuda greens have to be covered when the temperatures drop too low but uncovered for play. We will see how many consecutive days they keep the tarps on, that should be an indication of the number of golf rounds presold.

Jay,
For sure you wont [size=78%]see the covers come off the greens today.  Some courses MIGHT uncover tomorrow, but most won’t because the temps crash again Friday night, and the greens will have to stay covered until either Monday or Tuesday.  The issue becomes labor costs; it takes pretty much the whole maintenance crew to put the covers on and/or take them off, and if you’re only uncovering for a day, or part of a day, there is no way there are enough rounds played in that weather to make it profitable.[/size]


Finley notified the members a week ago that they’d be closed from the 15th to the 22nd, and Hillandale, a muni that almost NEVER closes, put the same dates on their message board last week.

[Thomas Dai]

David Hamilton’s ‘Golf. Scotland’s Game’ has lots of evidence that, in its earliest days, golf was primarily a winter game. The Autumn and Spring meetings originally represented the start and end of the golfing season, rather than the opposite as would seem obvious now.
The value of the crop of summer grass seems to have been an important reason, not just that its length made for difficult playing conditions.  The golf season started after the harvest.

Thanks for this. So if I understand it correctly the sheep would have been fattened-up on the yummy spring and summer links grass and then presumably driven off to market although I imagine some must have stayed behind in order to ensure breeding stock for the next spring.
The previous post mentioned the invention of the lawnmower although I believe scythes existed before this and there are photos of scythes being used much later than the date mentioned to cut the greens at TOC.
Be interesting to know where the sheep that grazed the links at StA ended up. Prior to the railways, even after, gangs of men, drovers, and their dogs moved herds of sheep and other livestock long distances to markets etc elsewhere. Movement by ship too possibly.
Atb

[Adrian_Stiff]

In the UK if you have 9 months play then members will want to pay 25% less, what and how do you cope with staff off for 13 weeks, what if those staff want holidays in warm weather with their family. You can keep a couple but not a full crew. The business side is shambolic.


Courses tend to close themselves to many. The ones that keep playin mainly understand its not perfect conditions.


The loss of some chemicals for worm control has played a real part in rotten conditions.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

When the Royal Dublin Golf Club was formed in 1885, the course was located in the Phoenix Park. I believe it was only possible to play in the winter when the grass was reasonably short. There are deer roaming the park, but I have no idea if their numbers were sufficient enough to manicure all 1750 acres in those days.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I generally play the European Club in early November. I enjoy it at that time of year. This year it was in the high 50s and pleasant. The golf course where I live in the VA mts closes Jan and Feb.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Adrians comments re worm control are interesting. It was a huge area of interest for Carter's and Suttons Seeds when they first got into golf circa 1902.


I believe the orignal name for Woking was the Golf and Curing club?  The pond by the 16th(?) being specially constructed/enlarged for when the conditions were not right for Golf. 

[Peter Sayegh]

Winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Snow, ice, frost, storms, heat and drought.
Expectations. Climate change. Costs implications. Course rest periods.

Should courses be open as often as they are?
Thoughts?
Atb

Unequivocally, yes!
If a course is open, I assume the management and grounds experts approve it.
Why not play?