WET WEATHER GOLF CONDITIONS

Good morning to all you Golfshake members. I was thinking on Wednesday how lucky the players who live or play on the links courses all around the UK. Us land locked parkland players face another set of problems in the winter all together. Having been fortunate to play some of the great liks courses both in the UK and overseas these seem to be the major differences which change a round into a great round even if you shoot the same score.

1, Underfoot conditions Links stable all year round, Parkland (Inshore) from November to March can be very unstable.

2, Finding you ball on the fairway. Links no worries Parkland easily lost as the ball will collect mud on landing and blend in with the fairway.

3, Striking the ball from the fairway. Links pretty much constant over the year (Maybe some links players would be able to spot a difference) but a Parkland player on a link in winter will think PARADISE. On the parkland courses you have to be very presice as even the smallest misshit usually leadd to disaster.

4, Keeping you spikes clear to help with the stance.

5, Do I put down a ProV1 or a cheappie knowing full well that I can hit it into the centre of the fairway and never see it again.

I'm sure there are others and some of our members will have different opinions but after this very wet few days in the UK I feel it's worth  discussion.

What are your views?

Good morning, Bob, I can sympathise with your views as I now play at an inland course that suffers with this problem.

I am quite sure that you will find that almost every course built since the upsurge in new courses suffers from this and that is because the land was originally farmland and is not conducive to making a free draining course. There are exceptions, of course, but they are few and far between.

In my early days this problem never arose as courses were laid down on land more suitable for golf, namely heathland, moorland  land with a sandy or chalk subsoil.

I really noticed  this summer with the fairways being very hard with little grass how difficult it was to strike a ball properly with these modern game improvement clubs. Oh how I wished I had a set of blades in my hand.

I also noticed that even though the face of a fairway wood is not as high as a ball that the face of the club was way above the ball at address and this is caused by these new fangled USGA designs for low maintenance where the grass is so sparse that the ball always finds the lowest spot, which is usually the bare earth. The greens at my club never seem to grow at all. They just keep on top dressing with sand.

It is not apparent until one plays on a proper course and then the delights of this game are really appreciated.

I might also add that they were also built with grass seed that  was native to this country, but this modern USGA specifications have ruined the game in this country.

I am watching the dubai golf and noticed how easy the pros have it compared to us. Wide fairways with no rough greens that are very very true, judging by the number of long putts being holed and most of them hitting the ball over 300 yards.

Agreed, Bob, Crown golf now own 31 of these clubs with a total of over fifty courses to play. All of these  were, at one time, expensive to join, and those that did usually had to pay a large debenture and they have lost their money.