winter greens

i am so fed up with the state of the geens in winter,you know what i mean you hit a lovely putt going in all the wat and then the last couple of inches and it hits a bobble and goes off at right angles.

  or you hit a putt and within a few feet it has bounced twice 2 inch off the ground and stopped 5 foot short of the hole.

 is it the same everywhere or is it just me ?

  now i have had my rant i am going to drown my sorrows

There has been so much talk on here about Winter Greens recently.  Must admit though they are a waste of time when the club havn't really put much thought or effort into them. 

Went to Hawkstone the other week and they had 10 temp greens in play on one of their courses.  What really annoyed me is that they didn't tell me in the pro shop!!  I only found out when I got to the first tee and the course condition signs informed me.  

I promptly marched back to the pro shop and asked to be switched to the other course (The Championship) for 5 pound less and they had NO tempory greens in play "The course wasn't designed for tempory greens"  

So all in all ended well, paying a fiver less and had 18 Greens to play on.

All the while golf clubs see that there are many willing/stupid golfers prepared to pay a green fee to play on temporary greens, they will not change.

Once the income starts to drop they then have to make decisions.

john this is at my club so get to play with out paying (apart from subs annually)

it just seems 1 week they are ok the next i feel like having ago at the greenkeepers.

supposed to be a premium course gainsborough (ping course) i wouldn t mind playing temp greens if they looked better in the summer for a couple of months

I must admit that for the number of years I have played this game I have never had to play on poor greens, the reason being that good greens are essential to have any chance of scoring well, and I have no interest in paying good money just to hack around a field with no chance of getting a reasonable score, because of poor maintenance by the golf club.

This means I always make enquiries before I go anywhere for a game.

At this time of year always ask in the pro shop if they are playing any temp greens or tees.

If they say yes then ask for a discount, as a temp green is no substitute for the real thing.

No discount, don't play.  Let them see you walk out whilst on the phone to another course to book a tee.

Russ

Let them see you walk out whilst on the phone to another course to book a tee.

Nice touch.

These were not temp greens (I played the round with Neil), They were in fact the normal greens. The grass was comparitively long and the surface very bobbly (The course in general was is very good condition). I think Neil's point is that if the normal greens to be in play have to play with such long grass to protect them, then perhaps decent temporary greens could be a better option than using the standard greens all year round?

Neil, when I played at the Abbey in Redditch over Christmas it was very similar.

no idea how it got round to temp greens but my point was about the the poor condition

of most greens in winter on all the courses i play

I've noticed the greens are not good at the moment.

It's probably due to the bad weather.

If the greens are damp then they won't go on and cut/roll them.

All you can do is wait for a spell of decent weather and hope they get onto the greens.

Russ

As I managed 42 putts in January's event Al, I think I'll agree with you!

I think we do need a bit of a reality check here.  Grass doesn't grow at less than 6 celcius, frost can cause heave (lifting of loose turf) and waterlogging limits the ability to roll greens without compacting them.  If you play in a British winter you cannot expect greenkeepers to work miracles.

I'm impressed with the condition of the greens at my course, despite the pitch marks (see a different thread).

Looking at it now I can say that the greens at both my courses are in a good condition, even if a bit of a bad bobble will occur every now and again.

Thinking about it, if they are this good now, how good will they be in the summer?

Russ

Absolutely Russ,

My only problem has been when it has been really frosty and the greens were frozen. Took right angled turns on many occasions

Bar that, they have been pretty good

Dennis, I think it's one of those things we have to live with due to the kind of climate we have!

To be honest with you, I don't really take much notice of my putting during the winter months.  I still record all my putts, but if I miss one due to the ball taking an unexpected detour I don't let it get to me, it's just a part of playing golf during the winter.

Roll on those summer days.....

Russ

If you look around there are some good courses and bad.

Generally the more you pay the better the std of green in winter.

this was until I played Pontefract & District. There weren't many on the course and price was £20, first green OK. However after about 10 holes it was virtually all temperory greens. the thing was the first one was a blind par three normally play to a green where the flag is just out of site. there were no indications a temporary green was in play. hit a beauty on the front edge of green to find there wasn't a flag, only to find a temporary green 30 feet to the right, which was about 1.5 meter radious around a normal sized hole on a slant. scored a six on whay would have been a nice par. the guy I was with sliced his shot and ended up not far from temp green and got a 4. to say I was angry is an under statement and then as the temporary greens stacked up I thought won't be playing here again in a hurry.

I then booked for £9 through teeofftimes for Oulton, every green in play with only some temporary tees this was brilliant.

I now check with the club before booking a round of golf to ensure the course is in a fairly good condition. Word of mouth is usually a good indicator.

maybe golfshake should set up a league of stds for winter courses