Golf clubs in the UK and Ireland have had a difficult start to the golfing season due to constant wet weather.
UK Met Office data shows the meteorological winter from the start of December 2023 to the end of February 2024 was among the wettest on record, while April was the UK’s sixth wettest since records began.
This has hampered the recovery of courses that experienced high rainfall between October 2023 and March 2024, and deterred (some) golfers from playing.
“It’s been rough,” says Gary Madden, club manager at Glenlo Abbey Golf in Ireland.
“The season seems to be getting shorter and shorter every year. You might get deeper into November, even December, but everything from then on is a wash.
“Members are a lot more demanding and discerning then we might have been, growing up and playing golf in the 1990s. They aren’t as tolerant of temporary greens and tee boxes as we may have been. They expect more, which puts more pressure on staff. It’s one thing keeping courses open, another keeping them open to a standard that lives up to members’ expectations.”
Dromolond Castle Golf Club’s director of golf, Eamon O’Donnell, agrees: “We have closed 29 days from January 1 until today. Every single one of those days is an on-the-day call. Effectively we are a month behind. Our membership has been extremely patient, but it’s amazing how reliant you become on getting one fine day to kickstart the whole season.”
“We couldn’t open during January and February, but we couldn’t do any of the maintenance you might usually get done either,” adds Woodstock Golf Club’s course manager Eileen O’Grady.
“We needed to hollow-tine the greens, but it was so wet the past few weeks, we could only do it just as we were opening again, which is frustrating for members.”
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