What's the worst weather you've ever played in?

[jamo]

I've played in snow, soaking downpours, 20˚ weather. I try to avoid wind though, especially wind coupled with one of those other three.

[Archie Bunker]

I remember playing in a dense fog several years ago - visibility about 125 yards. You couldn't see the group ahead of you, and you needed to listen to tell if they were out or range or off the green. I've played under plenty of wind/rain/snow/hail conditions, but this round of "fog golf" will never be forgotten.

[RayG]

Played in snow, a steady icky rain, windy, hot and soupy, etc... but the most DIFFERENT types of weather was a round at Royal County Down in April of '95. Started out beautiful- Sunny, 60/65 degrees, slight breeze off the Irish Sea. At around the 4th hole, a force 3 gale blew in bringing clouds and a sideways mist. A few holes later the sun came out and the temps dropped 15 degrees. Then it hailed for a couple of holes before the rain pounded down for 2-4 holes, but the temps went back up. Then the wind died, and the clouds broke apart and it felt like 80 degrees for a couple more holes until it started raining again. All this time, I'm putting on the rain suit, taking off the rain suit, leaving the pants on, then just have the top on and any combination thereof. Started 10 in a torrential downpour with the wind now blowing at 25 mph towards the Sea. Sun came back out a bit later but the temps dropped again. Some more hail, mist and the like until it finally settled on what I expected; a bit of broken clouds with showers embedded and a gusty wind that couldn't be predicted. Finished on 18 in a steely grey sky with a biting wind off the Sea. The Guest Bar never felt so inviting and cozy. Fortunately, I only had to walk back to the Slieve Donard Hotel next door. Played okay, an 85 after attending a wedding the night before in the Hotel, and the afters going on until 3-4am and teeing off at 10am. And I would go back tomorrow and do it again. Spectacular venue for golf.

[Spitfisher]

Cloudy 30-38 degrees with steady wind of 20-25 knots, gusting to 40. Wind chill was in the teens.

Long underwear, with fleece pants and rain pants over them and long underwear top  with several layers and  a ski jacket, ski mittens, winter hat, hand warmers....

hey we won the tourney!

[WUTiger]

I played the Ridge two years ago at Lodge of the Four Seasons, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

My brother won two greens fees in a scramble. We had planned to play in early March, but literally got snowed out. We rescheduled by end of March (April 1 and prize expired). We had a week of rain, three fairly dry days, and then teed off on the second day of resumed rain.

The practice range was closed due to being waterlogged. Temperature was about 45*, and rain kept coming. On two holes, hillside fairway bunkers had washed out, and the sand was at the bottom of the hill. On another hole, I hit a 7i approach off a hillside lie, and saw a splash at the edge of the green: ball had gone into a bunker with about three feet of water standing in it.

Final blow came on No. 17, a Par 5 off an elevated tee. On the downswing, my left foot sank 6" into the muddy turf. I chunked the ball, digging the driver sole into the muddy turf and spraining my right wrist (sore for 4 weeks). Fortunately, the shoe stayed on and I didn't lose it.

New rules: I don't mind a little rain once play is under way, but I avoid waterlogged courses. Not much fun, it tears up the turf. and I could get hurt.

[RPMPIRE]

I was in a match play tournament at Lincoln Park a few years back. The day of my first match, a storm was passing through and there was a lot of heavy rain coming down on the way to the course. If you know Lincoln Park, it's a course that has little to no drainage and there are plenty of areas where water collects. With the rain, mid to upper 40s temps and a lot of wind, I could've sworn they would have postponed the match until a later date. Nope...we had to play. On some shots, I would get too steep on the downswing where water and mud splashed up on my face and onto my clothes. Didn't matter too much since the heavy rain just rinsed it all away, but that's pretty much how the ground was throughout the course.

Needless to say, I didn't do so well and lost the match 3 and 2. I was bummed but the course conditions were so bad that I was just glad to get out of there.

[bkuehn1952]

the most DIFFERENT types of weather was a round at Royal County Down in April of '95. Started out beautiful- Sunny, 60/65 degrees, slight breeze off the Irish Sea. At around the 4th hole, a force 3 gale blew in bringing clouds and a sideways mist. A few holes later the sun came out and the temps dropped 15 degrees. Then it hailed for a couple of holes before the rain pounded down for 2-4 holes, but the temps went back up. Then the wind died, and the clouds broke apart and it felt like 80 degrees for a couple more holes until it started raining again. All this time, I'm putting on the rain suit, taking off the rain suit, leaving the pants on, then just have the top on and any combination thereof. Started 10 in a torrential downpour with the wind now blowing at 25 mph towards the Sea. Sun came back out a bit later but the temps dropped again. Some more hail, mist and the like until it finally settled on what I expected; a bit of broken clouds with showers embedded and a gusty wind that couldn't be predicted. Finished on 18 in a steely grey sky with a biting wind off the Sea.

Hahaha!  I played in Ireland a few years ago.  We certainly did not have those large swings but I did suit up each day with long underwear bottoms, rain pants and a turtle neck.  The weather at the moment would determine whether I wore the rain jacket or not.  One minute sun and the next sideways rain.  A wonderful trip!

[dsc123]

I've played in light flurries, temperatures as law as 20*, and I once walked 18 on a muggy 103* day.  But the worst was hurricane Irene.  The hurricane hit the weekend of my bachelor party, so we cancelled our trip to Atlantic City--which was evacuated--and headed inland to Philadelphia.  Irene arrived around the 6th hole, pouring, sideways rain.  I think we played another 6 holes or so before giving up.  The only other group on the course was another bachelor party.

[DoubleEagle]

This past January.  Temp 29*  Wind NNW @ 20mph  and Sle eting...We had the course to ourselves.

I know for some of you guys that is a warm day, but down here in the New Orleans area, that is cold and miserable.

[bubble]

windy conditions we get often. Iv'e played in tournaments with 110 km/h of wind, thats about 70 miles per hour.

putt break uphill sometimes. great fun though, very hard to keep things together, a pure challenge.

[Hey Joe]

Mid 60's...once!!! ;-)

[jsgolfer]

The worst for me was a match in high school. It was 38 degrees and raining.  It was terrible and it was the nicest course we played all year.  That was a bummer.

This is the same for me, but the rain turned to sleet. My hands were purple when I got done.

[BuckeyeNut]

I've played in it all....wind, rain, cold, snow...etc. etc..etc...What is the worst?  I guess it depends on who you are?  For 1 guy it may be cold, and another wind and rain....etc. etc.

For me? I round stands out as the most unusual weather....... I walked 18 holes on a day when the high temp was 8 degrees F and wind chills were well below zero.  I broke several golf balls that day............LOL...they'd shatter and crack in unique ways each and every time.   On 1 tee shot, the ball literally split in two halves......half sliced off to the left and the other half sliced to the right.   On another, the cover literally fell off and the core flew by itself for about 80yds...LOL

Funny stuff....

In spite of walking, my feet were freezing by the end of the round.  Needless to say, the ground was frozen solid so long drives were possible, but hitting the rock solid greens was a challenge.  Playing the bounce from well short was a must...LOL

[Jodastra]

Mine would have been last year...We'd had quite a few spring storms and the course were drenched. Some of the higher end courses were offering discounts but you had to walk. So I took the day off a headed to one of those courses. It was not raining when I tee'd off but by the 2nd hole a steady down pour started. On the front 9 of this course it is relatively flat, so small ponds started to appear on the already saturated course. I spent some time at the shelter houses on the course and continued to get drenched. At the turn the rain quit, and a beaming bright sun came out to brighten my day. So I tee'd off at 10 and started to notice that the temp was rising fairly fast. It was 70 something during the rain but this must have been a warm front moving in. So the humidity went from 100% to 110% and I started to sweat profusely. I was dry from the rain but now i am getting soaked from the inside out.... and still had to climb "alligator hill" almost 200 foot elevation change...I did it in three stages. The temp by this time had hit about 85, I was a whimpering/asthmatic mess...but I trudged on. Lost the pull cart on 16, clubs went every where. I have never been so happy to see the 18th hole, with it's 170 foot elevation drop, like a cliff. Punched a drive into a fairway puddle. All I could think of by this time was...I want to be dry, I want a dry cigarette, I want my car to take me home and I want some beer. I parred the hole and left like lightning.

I was miserable at the end...but I was doing something I love

[MS256]

The worst for me was a day last year when the temperature was 33 degrees. I've played in much colder weather than that but never on a day with 30 to 40 mph winds and a driving, rain. The course owner thought we were absolutely insane (and I wouldn't disagree with him).

It was so bad that we went to the car to warm up after the 4th hole and then continued on for the rest of the front nine before we called it a day.

[Jim12golf]

It's a tie for worst weather.  I played in a tournament a few years ago where the weather was pretty close to the torrential rain storm from Caddyshack.  40 mph winds or more and raining sideways, and collosal flooding all around the course too.  Horrible conditions but still we had a great time and the charity benefited too.  Several other times I've played in 20's temperature and snowing, kinda fun until the spikes load up with snow and you can't putt any more.  From reading this blog there's a lot of golf crazed people out there including myself.  Can't wait for the snow to melt around here.

[Uncle Peter]

Two stories here for two extremes:

1) About two years ago, a friend decides to book at a new course nearby. Neither of us realizes that we booked on the hottest day of the summer, during the mid afternoon. We arrived at a deserted course and were already sweating by the time we got out of the car and walked to the clubhouse. The manager inside told us that it was in the lower 110's out there and were offering free water bottles to anyone playing. To date, I've never sweated so much in my life. It didn't help that I was wearing all black either.

2) Same year, about 3 weeks later, same friend booking the tee time. He supposedly books a tee time at our home course, but we arrive to find out that he skipped the booking and decided that a Saturday morning wouldn't be busy. Long story short we wait 2 hours for a spot to open. We play and get to the 4th hole, but the weather turns, almost instantly I'd say. It starts to hail heavily and winds and lightning begin to pick up. We run back to the carts, boot it to the clubhouse (hail hitting off the cart was pretty cool I'll admit), get our rainchecks and leave, only to find out that a small tornado would touch down hours later not far from the course.

Moral of the stories: never let your "reliable" friend book the tee times.

[David L Yskes]

I think the only time i ever played in Bad weather was in 95.. i was new to golf and just wanted to play....  So myself and a friend went to the golf course and get in the club house and the guy working is like.... just so you know, if you want to play there is no refund cuz of the weather.. it was about 50 out windy and raining ... i was like yep no problem,,paid for myself and my buddy..   by the end of 18, we both was soaked lol... and cold...

Now i know this is off topic..

I think it was 2010, was playing in a softball league.. it had been lightly raining all day, and i call to see if league is still on.. I get told yep, fields are fine even though it's been raining.. So I show up early, and get asked to play the 630 game... no problem.. and then had to play two more games.. by the middle of game 2, its a steady rain, and since i was pitching.. I am about ankle deep in water lol... No joke guys would hit a seed and the ball would hit a puddle and just stop lol..  so it made for some interesting fielding.. running the bases was a trip too cuz your footing was basically nothing... so there was a lot of slipping n sliding and falling going on..

By the end of the night, I was soaked and so was everyone else.. luckly i brought a trash bag to put over my bat bag, so that wasnt totally soaked lol..  but i got home and let everything air dry for a good day.. the nice thing was I had a can of 3m sticky spray that i used for pine tar, so i never had a issue with losing my grip while batting lol..