Winter wonderland

[Singapore Joe]

The winter has arrived. There's snow in the mountains and the ski season will start any day now. In Victoria, Australia that is.

 

This is great! Played several weekday rounds in the last couple of weeks where we have top courses almost all for ourselves. Gets a bit cold and windy and sometimes wet but we are talking of playing courses like Settlers Run or RACV Cape Schank and hardly seeing anybody else, let alone having to wait on a single shot. There are also great deals to be had on green fees.

 

This is also great for hoing all sorts of low-launching clubs for hitting into the wind. And the weather provides endless excuses for bad shots.

 

Soon the pressure to go skiing will start building up and for someone who grew up in proper snow, the Australian skiing experience is a bit underwhelming. There just needs to be a snake in each paradise I guess.

[ckaufman]

I personally don't mind playing in cold weather. Like you said, you get great deals on tee times and the courses are virtually empty. The balls don't go as far as they do in warm weather and there's usually a lot of wind, so you really need to be creative with your shots. It tests every part of your game, especially mental strength. I live in New Jersey and went to college in Vermont, and our winters here get COLD. As long as there's no snow, I'm playing. I just pack a hat and some hand warmers and I'm all set.

[Singapore Joe]

I personally don't mind playing in cold weather. Like you said, you get great deals on tee times and the courses are virtually empty. The balls don't go as far as they do in warm weather and there's usually a lot of wind, so you really need to be creative with your shots. It tests every part of your game, especially mental strength. I live in New Jersey and went to college in Vermont, and our winters here get COLD. As long as there's no snow, I'm playing. I just pack a hat and some hand warmers and I'm all set.

That upper right hand corner of the USA must be awesome. Mostly go to USA for business and then it's always to the West Coast.

 

Melbourne (Australia that is, not Florida) is one of those places where the weather is - if a slight exaggeration is allowed - always miserable. Either it's too friggin' hot or we are in the receiving end of the cold fronts circumnavigating the Antarctic. A few of years in Christmas (i.e. in the middle of the summer here) got home around 10pm and it was +43 degrees (109F) . Overnight we were hit by one of those cold fronts and at 7am, when heading to play golf, l it was +17 (62F) and raining.

 

Lesson to learn: if you wait for good weather to do things you want to do you will never get to do anything. Besides, I grew up in Finland so it's not really that cold here. Nothing that warm clothes wouldn't fix.

 

Yesterday wasn't too bad, just cold and windy ;) Hit a great drive into the wind and watch the ball fly full 180 yards. For my golf, even perfect conditions are challenging and strong winds definitely are pure cryptonite but there is certain charm in these conditions as well. Maybe Colorado is where one needs to play his winter golf. Went there skiing in January and totally fell in love with the place. That altitude should do wonders to the shot distances.