Course Closed - Again

Arddon

How many times has your course been closed this year due to the inability of the course to deal with the elements....i.e. rain

I concede we've had a lot of rain this year.

My course, a well established, once very respected (now maybe not as much) parkland course in North East has been closed 15 times this year...from March until today. The reason for its closure is down to its drainage struggling to deal with any substantial rainfall.

Played again at the weekend and there is a fair chance somebody is going to sink in some of part of the course and will never be seen again, cos there is some seriously dodgy turf...

At fees of €1k per year I find it frustrating that it closes as often as it does...and I'm also dismayed at the deterioration of the course...

Interested to hear from others about how their courses are holding up in the wet weather...

GreeBo

If you paid more then possibly they could afford to do something about the drainage.
Its very expensive to put in drainage, there is perhaps a question as to why it wasnt addressed during the good times however...

I think we have been closed about 5 days this year, possibly less.

Its very wet in some areas, if you get off the beaten track but the fairways are pretty solid considering.

Dr_Colossus

Arddon wrote: »

My course, a well established, once very respected (now maybe not as much) parkland course in North East has been closed 15 times this year...from March until today. The reason for its closure is down to its drainage struggling to deal with any substantial rainfall.

Why not name the course instead of giving hints and clues as to it's location. I'm guessing somewhere like Headfort from the description but I'd be surprised if that was closed that often with two courses in play.

15 times is a serious amount of closures, were these all at times you were looking to play and advised the course was closed or are all closures noted on your notice board/website and you were able to count them.
I'm only aware of two closures this year on my home course, Tulfarris. Last Sun and earlier in the year on a Fri. I'm guessing there was probably a few more but for a course with a reputation for being wet I doubt it was that much.

scrubber72

Galway bay was closed only once in the last18 months. Its not a real links but very good drainage and at 1090 a year is great value. If you are living a 5 iron from the first even better;-)

MP62

Arddon wrote: »

How many times has your course been closed this year due to the inability of the course to deal with the elements....i.e. rain

I concede we've had a lot of rain this year.

My course, a well established, once very respected (now maybe not as much) parkland course in North East has been closed 15 times this year...from March until today. The reason for its closure is down to its drainage struggling to deal with any substantial rainfall.

Played again at the weekend and there is a fair chance somebody is going to sink in some of part of the course and will never be seen again, cos there is some seriously dodgy turf...

At fees of €1k per year I find it frustrating that it closes as often as it does...and I'm also dismayed at the deterioration of the course...

Interested to hear from others about how their courses are holding up in the wet weather...

Well you know what they say "fools and their money are easily parted" if you don't like the service you are receiving, then move on, or at the very least voice your discontent with the club in question, which I strongly suspect you haven't done previously.
By the tone of your post you sound like the type who'd prefer to have a good "auld moan" about it then actually do anything constructive about it.

thewobbler

No harm to anyone, but demanding our golf courses to be open rain, hail or shine during the climate of the year gone by, is a bit over expectant.

I'd guess my club has seen over half-a-dozen days wiped out completely through flooding/drainage, and another large handful of mornings lost to frost. I don't blame the club; it is open every time it's even semi-playable. Instead, I blame mother nature. Monsoons are going to make a mess.

Jaysoose

MP62 wrote: »

Well you know what they say "fools and their money are easily parted" if you don't like the service you are receiving, then move on, or at the very least voice your discontent with the club in question, which I strongly suspect you haven't done previously.
By the tone of your post you sound like the type who'd prefer to have a good "auld moan" about it then actually do anything constructive about it.

Its a bit rich of you to talking tones of his post when you contribute so little to the thread apart from bile yourself.

MP62

Jaysoose wrote: »

Its a bit rich of you to talking tones of his post when you contribute so little to the thread apart from bile yourself.

Oh the irony.

Jaysoose

MP62 wrote: »

Oh the irony.

might be ironic but its the truth, your post is purely you being a dick for the sake of it. Nothing else.

MP62

Jaysoose wrote: »

might be ironic but its the truth, your post is purely you being a dick for the sake of it. Nothing else.

Back on topic now like a good girl, thank you.

GreeBo

Report posts and leave it the mods to handle please.

Jaysoose

MP62 wrote: »

Back on topic now like a good girl, thank you.

Class act as always.

Webbs

scrubber72 wrote: »

Galway bay was closed only once in the last18 months. Its not a real links but very good drainage and at 1090 a year is great value. If you are living a 5 iron from the first even better;-)

Though was unplayable more often than that with the wind howling in :-) Thought membership was under the 1000e mark now?

gman127

My course has been closed less than a half dozen times this year I'd say, and never at the weekend.

All sand based so drains very well. Kilcock G.C. btw

gigawatt2007

I can't remember a day our course has been closed this year and was open all this weekend. Serious work done in the past 3 years on drainage in fairness.

Course is Loughrea GC.

thewobbler

gigawatt2007 wrote: »

I can't remember a day our course has been closed this year and was open all this weekend. Serious work done in the past 3 years on drainage in fairness.

Course is Loughrea GC.

See here's the thing. I don't understand in this country, when motorways are occasionally flooded and towns/villages are occasionally underwater, how a golf course can always remain open. Either it's on the top of Croagh Patrick or it has its own micro climate.

I was playing a competition in Warrenpoint this year, where I was in a tee shirt on the 14th, and such was the deluge during the 15th, the course was closed before I played the 16th. The greens, which are generally open all year round, were submersed by 6 inches of rain in an hour. Surely every course in Ireland has to close in those circumstances?

GreeBo

thewobbler wrote: »

See here's the thing. I don't understand in this country, when motorways are occasionally flooded and towns/villages are occasionally underwater, how a golf course can always remain open. Either it's on the top of Croagh Patrick or it has its own micro climate.

I was playing a competition in Warrenpoint this year, where I was in a tee shirt on the 14th, and such was the deluge during the 15th, the course was closed before I played the 16th. The greens, which are generally open all year round, were submersed by 6 inches of rain in an hour. Surely every course in Ireland has to close in those circumstances?

I think everywhere would close during the deluge, but depending on the drainage levels would be open again.
I've play my own course when we were caught in torrential rain, greens totally flooded yet 10 mins after the rain stopped the greens were fine, bunkers still had some puddles and draining areas of the fairways/rough were very wet but the course was totally playable.

rafared

Golf is becoming more of a seasonal pastime in this country as our climate seems to be getting wetter. Clubs may end up offering seasonal membership for say 6 or 9 months at some stage. Unless its Bellewstown where you can play anytime, rain frost or flood even in a Buggy. Apparently last week a buggy sunk to its nuts half way up the first and had to be abandoned.:D
Farmers and their courses:rolleyes:

gigawatt2007

thewobbler wrote: »

See here's the thing. I don't understand in this country, when motorways are occasionally flooded and towns/villages are occasionally underwater, how a golf course can always remain open. Either it's on the top of Croagh Patrick or it has its own micro climate.

I was playing a competition in Warrenpoint this year, where I was in a tee shirt on the 14th, and such was the deluge during the 15th, the course was closed before I played the 16th. The greens, which are generally open all year round, were submersed by 6 inches of rain in an hour. Surely every course in Ireland has to close in those circumstances?

Can honestly say I've never been in a deluge which caused 6 inches of rain in an hour. All I can say is that playing every Saturday this year the only time the course has been closed is to frost, and even then when the frost thawed at 11am we were let out.

charlieIRL

I think my club only closed 1 or 2 days this year due to the weather.

I know it shut the evening before we played the boards society event there due to flash flooding - never seen rain like it. 1st & 18th fairway were like mini lakes but once the rain stopped they dried out and were well playable the following morning.

Arddon

Course in question is Dundalk GC......I didnt name it as I wasnt sure if there were rules

Of the 15 closures I'm pretty sure 90% were due to rain as opposed to frost...

We've made some good progress in the last season with our greens, which were really suffering, but due to rain this year the course is suffering. In fairness the vast majority of the fairways are fine...but 5-10 yds off most fairways and there is a fair chance your ball is plugged and good luck to you in finding it!

I'd go as far as to say the course hasnt dried out fully all year, so surely there are drainage issues in areas...

As I say, just interested to hear how courses (parklands in particular) in other parts of country are holding up...

scrubber72

Webbs wrote: »

Though was unplayable more often than that with the wind howling in :-) Thought membership was under the 1000e mark now?

980 is to join the club plus 105 to join the mens club. As for the wind just gotta learn to love it.

rafared

Arddon wrote: »

Course in question is Dundalk GC......I didnt name it as I wasnt sure if there were rules

Of the 15 closures I'm pretty sure 90% were due to rain as opposed to frost...o

We've made some good progress in the last season with our greens, which were really suffering, but due to rain this year the course is suffering. In fairness the vast majority of the fairways are fine...but 5-10 yds off most fairways and there is a fair chance your ball is plugged and good luck to you in finding it!

I'd go as far as to say the course hasnt dried out fully all year, so surely there are drainage issues in areas...

As I say, just interested to hear how courses (parklands in particular) in other parts of country are holding up...

Dundalk has always suffered with bad drainage though hasnt it? A mate is a member and he said a lot had been done to improve it recently.
The last time I played Ardee (end august) it was a bog in places. Now there is a course that badly needs drainage work done.

Senna

My course has gone to the dogs, we have to play of a winter mat until the spring. The course is too low lying and cant handle a heavy day of rain.

Looks like I'm taking up membership on one of the local links courses, only problem is they're all one hours drive from me and i hope the travelling time means I wont be playing less golf. But we'll try it for a year and hope for the best.

While were on, if i have 15 handicap on a easy course, if i move to a harder course will my handicap remain the same or will the ask me to hand in some score cards?

charlieIRL

Senna wrote: »

While were on, if i have 15 handicap on a easy course, if i move to a harder course will my handicap remain the same or will the ask me to hand in some score cards?

handicap will stay the same.

when i moved courses my h/c was just transferred. (BTW new course is much tougher than old one. too)

Kace

Arddon wrote: »

How many times has your course been closed this year due to the inability of the course to deal with the elements....i.e. rain

I concede we've had a lot of rain this year.

My course, a well established, once very respected (now maybe not as much) parkland course in North East has been closed 15 times this year...from March until today. The reason for its closure is down to its drainage struggling to deal with any substantial rainfall.

Played again at the weekend and there is a fair chance somebody is going to sink in some of part of the course and will never be seen again, cos there is some seriously dodgy turf...

At fees of €1k per year I find it frustrating that it closes as often as it does...and I'm also dismayed at the deterioration of the course...

Interested to hear from others about how their courses are holding up in the wet weather...

Roganstown - probably close to zero days closed. Played last Sunday week in 18 holes of solid rain (one of the most miserable days I have experienced - thank you Galvin Green and Mr Ecco) - the course was starting to hold water, but it doesn't take long to drain afterwards.

Once again, serious drainage work done in recent years to improve, which I can't fault.

Arddon

rafared wrote: »

Dundalk has always suffered with bad drainage though hasnt it? A mate is a member and he said a lot had been done to improve it recently.

I wouldnt say it has always has suffered with bad drainage, but then again the weather this past two years has been particularly bad.
They have been doing work lately, and are doing some at present.
One of the challenges they face however is that some parts are so soft, it is difficult to get machines into the affected areas.

thanks for the replies boarders, it seems Dlk is suffering more than most with the wet weather.....

Maverick.ie

Interesting point as to why golf courses are so wet this year.

If 1" of rain falls on an acre of ground the weight of the water will be equal to 102 tons or 103,683 kgs or getting on for 200 head of cattle, and in excess of 22,600 gallons of water.

How many inches over how many weeks have we had it this summer.

So take a hole which contains around 5 acres in it, which means 510 tons, (518,415kgs), 113,000 gallons of water, (513,000 ltrs) or almost 1000 head of cattle, Some compaction..........

Got that peice of info from another site, the person that wrote it reckons that why the newer courses are drier is because that have built a lot of them like greens,, almost sand based and huge drainage.

IanPoulter

Kace wrote: »

Roganstown - probably close to zero days closed. Played last Sunday week in 18 holes of solid rain (one of the most miserable days I have experienced - thank you Galvin Green and Mr Ecco) - the course was starting to hold water, but it doesn't take long to drain afterwards.

Once again, serious drainage work done in recent years to improve, which I can't fault.

Have to agree it's the best drained course I've ever played. Maybe it's just that the more modern courses are built with proper drainage in mind. I played Knightsbrook (another Christy O'Connor course) earlier this year after 2 days rain and it was perfect underfoot. It's much more expensive to do the drainage retrospectively.

gigawatt2007

Notice on my Facebook account, Loughrea Golf Club weekly Open Comp this Wed 14th cancelled due to waterlogged course!

Karma

whitefoot

rafared wrote: »

The last time I played Ardee (end august) it was a bog in places. Now there is a course that badly needs drainage work done.

I also played Ardee in August and was genuinely shocked at the extreme amount of casual water. Several greens were surrounded by casual water as you approached from the fairway and there was no chipping possible that day, it was mandatory to pitch to the flag which is unusual in August.

The club should not have been charging green fees for this experience but to be fair to them they also need this green fee revenue as most clubs do.

In the bar afterwards several members approached us to ask how we found the course and I got the impression that these members were also unhappy with the extent of the water retention and regretted this was the visitor experience we had.

I think Ardee would try to fix the problem if there are money available but what can they do if they do not have it, I sympathise with them but I will never be back there, it was truely that bad.

charlieIRL

gigawatt2007 wrote: »

Notice on my Facebook account, Loughrea Golf Club weekly Open Comp this Wed 14th cancelled due to waterlogged course!

Karma

at least you found out before you travelled.
Nothing worse than travelling (sometimes a large distance) to find out a course is closed.

rafared

whitefoot wrote: »

I also played Ardee in August and was genuinely shocked at the extreme amount of casual water. Several greens were surrounded by casual water as you approached from the fairway and there was no chipping possible that day, it was mandatory to pitch to the flag which is unusual in August.

The club should not have been charging green fees for this experience but to be fair to them they also need this green fee revenue as most clubs do.

In the bar afterwards several members approached us to ask how we found the course and I got the impression that these members were also unhappy with the extent of the water retention and regretted this was the visitor experience we had.

I think Ardee would try to fix the problem if there are money available but what can they do if they do not have it, I sympathise with them but I will never be back there, it was truely that bad.

Again I have mates who are members and they say its the worst its ever been this year. This is after the drainage work that has been done. They close it down to 12 or 13 holes in the winter a lot of the time as well apparently. On a side note they had to shorten the last par 3 because balls were been hooked over the ditch on the left and were a danger to horses in the field. It was a long mid/long iron and now all play is off a temporary mat which is an 8/9 to the middle of the green with no water in play. Disaster because it was easily the best par 3 on the course.

jtown

Some rain in Killarney last night. I suspect Killarney GC will be closed for a while!

Arddon

Yeah we're closed again here too!!
Fair bit of rain in this neck of the woods yesterday...

charlieIRL

Arddon wrote: »

Yeah we're closed again here too!!
Fair bit of rain in this neck of the woods yesterday...

serious amount of rain in the midlands too but I haven't heard of any course closures today.

Was closed for a while yesterday morning due to the frost but opened up at lunchtime.