With winter just around the corner, and winter rules already firmly in place across the UK, we take a look at the sport in the coldest and darkest season of the year, and how to make the best of the less-than-ideal conditions to ensure that your autumnal form is maintained, ready for renewed progress and to be competition ready in the spring.
2023 has been an odd year in the UK, especially for golfers, with topsy-turvy weather conditions that played havoc with many a planned round. After the second sunniest January on record, and the driest February in 30 years, March was the wettest in 40 years. Then, June was the hottest recorded in almost 140 years, followed by the wettest July since 2009! September… joint warmest on record, October… wettest one in eastern Scotland on record. So, it’s anyone’s guess what this winter’s weather will bring, but as Alfred Wainwright once said, ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.’ It therefore seemed opportune (or rather, clever marketing) to get an email from American Golf offering a ‘Free Winter Game Review’.
We booked in at our local shop, and are asked to bring our clubs, shoes, balls and glove for the 60-minute consultation. It seems a big time investment for the staff, and we can’t help but wonder what kind of return they expect from the average punter, and whether our budget will allow us to darken their door again! But we needn’t have worried – perhaps it’s the luck of the draw, but our session was relaxed, tailored to our needs, and with no hard sell. We were particularly impressed that some of the advice related to services that they don’t even offer themselves.
We also learnt about the waterproof rating system, with its mysterious grading in thousands of millimeters (minimum to be advertised as waterproof is 5,000… Gore-Tex is 28,000)… though oddly this number isn’t usually displayed on the garments!
So, we’re now ready for anything, being double wet weather gloved, mittened up, thermally insulated, and with waterproof shoes, trousers and jacket. All that’s left is to enjoy those lower green fees, empty courses, and often shorter holes… knowing that we’ve stolen a march on all those fair-weather players whose clubs – and bodies – will be languishing away in the meantime!
Do you have any top tips for winter golfing? Do let us know here.
