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

[JStapp]

On 4/26/2023 at 10:39 AM, Birdie Cat 91 said:

4/17/23 @ Bandon Dunes, 3rd Tee Box. Hailing with 30 mph winds, gusting over 40 mph

 

Playing in weather is a must for true golfers. WE have to experience this, in order to truly appreciate the great weather that we are blessed with so often haha

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Played in a combination of hail/snow flurries late October once. Still don't have any idea how both snow and hail were present in the same storm. Was an absolutely ABYSMAL 48 degrees as well 

[Alan Scalzi]

In the rain like in caddy shack but no lightning thank goodness! 

[chris_]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:16 AM, JStapp said:

Playing in weather is a must for true golfers. WE have to experience this, in order to truly appreciate the great weather that we are blessed with so often haha

Worst I can say I've even really been in is heavy wind. Beyond that I've been wet a few times. I have great weather for 200 and change rounds a year, I see no need to flog myself in crap weather. 

[JStapp]

11 minutes ago, chris_ said:

Worst I can say I've even really been in is heavy wind. Beyond that I've been wet a few times. I have great weather for 200 and change rounds a year, I see no need to flog myself in crap weather. 

Unfortunately I have to deal with some weather in Missouri. 

and I'm still a fairweather golfer. Conditions aren't fun. I'll stay inside.  

[RoyN]

Desert monsoon. The picture is just the beginning. But wind gusts got up to 50 mph and the rain made it impossible to putt because the greens started to pool. Only reason we stopped was the lightning strikes caused the employees to call all the carts in. It was so fun! 

[silver & black]

My end of year league outting was played in a sleet storm a few years back. It sucked, but it ended up being fun...lol. The greens became ice rinks. 

I think the best score was for any team was like +11 or so.

Edited October 1, 2023 by silver & black

[hasanlala]

for this reason, volleyball is best sports without being worried of outside factors

[Shapotomous]

Back in HS i played a 9 hole match in a snow squall that lasted about 5 holes.  We had to clear the snow off the greens on our putt line.  It wasnt laying anywhere but the greens so we kept playing.

I am a lot pickier about playing in bad weather now but i was stuck in a charity scramble on saturday in the wind & rain.  That was the worst i hàve played in for many many years.  Questionable scoring didnt disappoint as one team still managed to be -20 and win it by 4! 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Shapotomous

[PJVicary]

About 30 years ago at Pebble. Rains blowing sideways and made the storm on Caddyshack look like a Seattle mist. However having pair a zillion dollars for green fees and leaving the next morning to fly home, a rain check wasn’t going to work. Winds gusting to around 25-30. You get the picture. Good thing was we sailed around as no one else was as stupid as we were. Putting was interesting. I do remember having to hit a strong 5 iron to pin high on #7. One of my best ever. Don’t think I would play under those conditions today. 

[TwoWayMiss]

December 15, 2023. Got to play Pinehurst #2. Longtime bucket list opportunity. It was cold, duh it’s December but it was the rain. They delayed all tee times by 2 hours but no rain checks so it was go out or miss out. There was so much rain that we couldn’t even put our balls once we made the greens. I was soaked through and shivering by the time we got to the 3rd tee. On the plus side playing #4 the next day was absolutely amazing. Now I need to go back so I can actually play #2.

[Bob Jerabek]

It was a buddies trip to Ireland and the course was Ballybunion. We started off in a drizzle, by the fifth hole it was raining pretty hard, then the wonderful wind started to blow.  Now the rain started coming down in sheets and it was blowing sideways, the temperature started to drop into the 40’s.  Couldn’t use an umbrella the wind was too strong.  The caddy thought we should quit, but man this was Ballybunion. So play on.

[golfmule]

I can remember 2 outings that were the worst weather I've played in. They both were 4 man scrambles. The first was wet and windy. The rain quit falling but the wind got worse. It was bad enough when it was at 35 mph and gusting to 40-45 mph but then it got to 40 mph and was gusting to 52 mph. There were a couple of holes where we had to post one of our players at the green to mark the ball as soon as it hit because the wind would take it right back off the green. The second one was hot and humid and we all were sweating up a storm, literally.  Midway through the back nine the clouds got very dark and the wind came up. All of a sudden the storm sirens went off and the rain came pouring down. We all headed for the clubhouse but few made it before the rain turned to hail. the hailstones were nickel to quarter size. They hurt when they hit you. We were almost at the clubhouse when lightning hit a tree we were passing under with our cart. The flash kind of blinded you for a moment and a limb fell off the tree about 30-35 feet from us. We finally made it into the clubhouse. We were soaking wet and feeling lucky that no one was injured or killed. Th storm came up so fast that we had no time to head in before it hit.

[Josh Parker]

I think the worst round I played in was a 4 man scramble for a benefit.  It was low 30's, wet and windy.  Now I know for alot of folks, that is a normal winter, but in Texas it's not and it's just brutal.  3 layers with the rain gear and a bunch of construction guys taking shots to warm the insides.  Mishits hurt your hands and everyone was more than ready to be done with the day!  

[RCgs]

You may not associate the Los Angeles area with severe weather, and the rainstorms I’ve played in are challenging, but fun IF you have ALL of the right gear.  Of course we play in the rain - that’s why they make golf rain gear…duh!  
 

But my most severe weather round had nothing to do with rain.  I played a round once in severe wind, and that round beat me up pretty good.  All of that “breezy swing easy” stuff may work for your driver, but all other clubs, if they need to carry a hazard, are a coin flip.  The worst part is that the wind was never really at our back.  This round led to arguably my most comical shot in 25 years of golf.  100 yards in, which is a sand wedge for me.  “Unfortunately”, I hit it pure, right into a gust.  I walked 25 yards forward to take my next shot!

[Ramjet]

My golf weather story is rather unbelievable. It occurred at Strawberry Farms in Orange County California and recalls the famous lyrics “it never rains in California… it pours”. My brother was visiting from the Seattle Washington area expressly to play golf for a week. When we showed up to play it was raining and the starter suggested we play another day. My brother insisted that because we grew up in Washington that rain should not keep us from playing golf. The starter relented and let us play… over my weak objections. We played an uneventful front nine which is a flatter layout, just taking drops out of standing water. It started raining in earnest at about the 5th or 6th hole. When we made the turn and went to the canyon area of the back 9 it was raining hard enough that our rain gear was strictly keeping us warm but not dry. We were determined to press on in spite of the fact that large portions of the greens were flooded 1-2” deep with flowing rain water. I hit one put from 20 feet with the ferocity of a 75 yard wedge shot and only made I’d half way to the hole. On about the 12th hole we hit our drives in the fairway and then discovered that they had been swallowed up in a recently formed fairway lake 50 feet wide and 100+ feet long and 3 feet deep in places. We were totally amazed but having fun so we continued. The fairways were evidently like troughs that collected the deluge from the surrounding canyon like hills. We were crazy wet but continued until the lightening started. We had promised the starter that we would come in if it started lightening so after about 14 holes we had to call it quits. Even after a 45 minute drive home we were dripping wet and soaked to the bone. The amazing thing was we played the course 3 days later and there was no sign of the epic water that we had witnessed.

[JeffLeff]

Not as extreme as most, but it was very windy, quite cold, and raining off and on at the 2019 Canadian Hickory Open. I jumped up and down between shots to stay warm. Played a lot of low, driving shots -- hitting into a gale with a  100 year old wooden-shafted driver is no joke. Somehow I managed 17 over for 27 holes that day. Here's a short snippet of video I took when the conditions were not at their worst:

 

[DocDave]

Drove three hours with three friends for our annual round at Pole Creek high in the mountains near Tabernash, Colorado. Headed out on number one and headed back to the clubhouse after the first hole as it had started to rain. Waited a couple of hours and then restarted in acceptable conditions. By the time we got to the fourth green, the snow was too deep to putt and so we quit for good. Frequent fun remembrances of snuggling in the golf cart to try to stay warm that day. 

[SteddyGolf]

Great question. I was living in Oklahoma and I routinely played with the same 12 or so guys every weekend. Rain or shine is was a  "thing" to always show up especially on the most miserable of days. No one wanted to be the guy who punked out.  We had numerous days where I thought I had lost my mind. During those days the score was not important, surviving was the overarching theme.  

[Mason Richmond]

I've played in some pretty bad weather over the years, but the worst was definitely a round I played a few years ago at a local course. It was a cold, windy day with heavy rain. The wind was so strong that it was blowing my ball all over the place, and the rain was so heavy that I was soaked to the bone by the end of the front nine.
 

[ctg44]

MLK Weekend 2022.  I played in 38 degree weather with 25+ MPH winds.  I had the course to myself and walked 18 in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It was glorious golf too...shot a 79!  I layered up with really flexible layers and used winter gloves on both hands with a couple of those handwarmer packets in my jacket pockets.  I carried my bag and between shots my hands went in my pockets and I generally stayed relatively warm because I never had to stand and wait for a shot after getting to my ball...walk up, check distance, calculate club difference due to wind in my head, take the shot, and off I went.  Maybe 20 seconds stopped for each shot and it was amazing.  I wish I could always play that kind of speed golf.

[Shrek74]

Snow.

One year while I was in college, I took my spring break to meet my dad down in central TN to try and get some golf in for the week. Now for those that remember, spring break in college was usually in March - early to mid March. But for some reason we thought it would still be worth trying. For the most part we were able to get a handful of rounds in that week, albeit some chilly rounds. But one round in particular turned out to be a bit different than the rest.

For most of the week, the weather was 60'ish and the sun wasn't sure what it wanted to do. One day it would be clear and wonderful, the next day overcast without a single spot of blue sky to be seen. One day we tee'd off a bit later in the morning, hoping it would warm up as we played. We made it through the first 9 in the chillier morning temps, still hopeful it would improve as we made the turn. But something seemed amiss. As we traversed the long climb and zig zag path from 9 over to 10, I noticed the weather was not only NOT getting warmer, it was actually getting colder. The more concerning part was that it wasn't a gradual cooling off, the temps had to have dropped 10 degrees just during the time it took us to get to 10. And it was still dropping. We figured it was just the climb and things would be better as we continued to play. Wrong! As we stood on the 10th tee waiting for the light to turn green (it was a blind tee shot with a button the golfers ahead pressed as they passed it telling the tee box it was clear to hit), I noticed it continued to get colder. I even started to feel a bit of humidity in the air after all the dryness for the past 6 months of fall/winter. That's when it started.

Big, fat, heavy, wet, and white. It was as if the clouds started to just fall apart right on top of us. It wasn't exactly white-out conditions, but it wasn't exactly a tiny spitting of snow either. It was that type of snow that just goes right through your clothes and directly into your soul! Freezing you from the inside out. We just looked at each other and our playing partners for the day, and were like "Nope, that's enough for me." Rainchecks were in our immediate future for that back nine.

[benb1989]

Two spring to mind, the first one we was playing a really nice course, designed by Seve, which we were all looking forward to playing. After 4-5 holes a hail storm started out of nowhere and covered the course in hail, the course was white with hail, the only time I remember seeing hail 'settle' like that in/around London. 

The second was a miserable day to start off with, then it really started to rain heavy, we got to one hole, a down hill par 4 with a road running across the fairway. This road was down hill from left to right and the fair way was also down hill, with the lowest part of each meeting. This meant water was flowing down the fairway, and also down the road. When the water flows met it was looked like mini rapids, water splashing everywhere, we took that as a sign to give up and go in, never have I been so wet on a golf course in my life

[MNBogies]

Wife and I were honeymooning in Barbados and a few days before we had to leave I wanted to golf. It was raining morning of but stopped long enough for me to get a range session in and the front 9. Tried to dodge the rain as best as I could, it was on and off but there came a point where I just didn't care anymore and was already soaked so proceeded to finish the back 9 in a downpour. I think I still shot mid 90's with rental clubs so it wasn't all horrible. Also, turns out the cab driver was in a women's league at the same course and has 2 HIO's at that course so that was a fun conversation on the way back.

[golferannasmith]

Oh, the worst weather I've ever played golf in? That would have to be the monsoon from hell in the summer of '17. And let me tell you, Noah and his silly little ark had NOTHING on what Mother Nature unleashed that day. 

I'm talking rain coming down in sheets so heavy you couldn't see your ball after it left the clubface. Sideways wind gusts are strong enough to blow your hat two counties over. Non-stop lightning flashes brighter than the sun, and booming thunder is loud enough to wake the dead. It was biblical, I tell you!

But did a silly little thing like the possibility of being struck by lightning or blown into the next time zone stop me and the guys from finishing our round? Heck no! We bundled up in rain gear, put on our big boy waterproof pants, and slogged all 18 holes like the dedicated golf warriors we are. 

By the end, we were soaked down to our skivvies. There was a small lake in each shoe. And I swear my club grips were growing mould. But we survived! And we now wear that day like a badge of honour. Because only the truly crazy golf die-hards play through a storm that would make Noah shutter. So next time a few sprinkles start falling, remember us warrior boys and keep on golfing!