Feckin weather!

Ah my favourite thread is back. Slipping into it like an old pair of jeans. It's unseasonably warm at the moment so I'd say most of us are grand and still getting out. The clocks changing always hits like a ton of bricks though.

56 this year.. Managed to cut 3.5 off the index in the last 6 ..

Started 16.2 down to 15.1 finished 16.9

Erratic is my middle name.

As @FixdePitchmark once said, I am an anomaly, either brutal or brilliant..no middle ground😂😂

We can have no complaints over the last few weeks anyway.

Beautiful evening this evening with the moon rising and sun setting on the 12th green at The Heath GC, Portlaoise

Weather has been fairly shite now the past few weeks, a few decent days here and there. I've generally no issue with playing in the rain but it's the aftermath operation of drying off wet grips, headcovers, gloves, bag etc. that I hate!

I can imagine what the parklands are like right now. I play on a links course where there might be a small body of water built up but fairways generally still firm even throughout the rainiest of periods, but yesterday for the first time ever I randomly got a big dirty mudball after hitting a fairway which was bizarre. I know another links in the next town over doesn't have all holes in play either which is a rare occurrence.

Our course usually holds up relatively well in the winter but is really struggling at the moment, has been closed more or less all week and can't see it opening up at all this weekend, maybe Sunday if the rain stays away Saturday. I think it is really going to struggle to recover at all until next Spring/Summer so going to be a very soggy few months on the course.

It does feel like its been a very wet few weeks but that might be skewed by last year as we had an unusual dry Sept/Oct in a lot of the country according to the Met Eireann reports. This year in my area certainly, Sept/Oct are above long term averages for rainfall and Nov is trending that way too.

For anyone interested - https://www.met.ie/climate/available-data/monthly-data

Jeez, I know what you mean. I totally fell out of love with winter golf many years back, when on a regular, drying winter morning I was playing a par 3. I remember striking the ball pretty well tbh, but I unfortunately took a full divot off a very sandy, gritty tee also. I felt an explosion of divot dirt hit my face & clothes immediately after the ball strike, and when I eventually reopened my eyes to see if my ball had landed on deck, I realised that I had grit on my eyelids, up my nose & in my mouth & ears!! When my oblivious playing partners congratulated me on a nice shot, I had to try to reply "really, ..splutter, splutter, splutter....." cos I still couldn't speak as I had to spit out so much grit & dirt from my mouth ..... :))

While my regular playing partners might tell you that I can be occasionally foul mouthed, but this.... this was taking it to a completely new level altogether!! :)))

P.s. Happy ending: I actually gave up winter golf after this for several years, but I'm back to it now & if the day itself is reasonably dry, I actually quite enjoy winter golf again at this stage. I love getting out in the fresh air in winter now tbh, & having a bit of banter while trying to play OK golf. I now consider those days a bonus!!

P.p.s I still hate the stench in the car after winter golf though. I have to put my backseat down, so it's full on damp feet stench if i have to leave my shoes & wet gear & bag in the car for any time after golf whatsoever .... that part of winter golf still really gets up my nose tbh !! ;)

I love the variety of playing in different conditions - obviously the sunny warm day, the days during droughts when everything is like concrete, the days when your bag won't stay up because of the wind. The one thing I don't like is playing in soggy conditions. There's nothing fun about losing balls because they're plugged or your club sinking into the fairway when you hit the ball.