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Does playing winter golf generally inflate scores for you?

I try and play year round here in Coastal Virginia (its the new name they want to give to our location). I enter both my summer and winter scores. During the cold months we always play a tee box closer though since it is cold.
 
ns1189 said:
The rock hard greens are the things that get me the most. Nothing worse than hitting a nice wedge shot on to the green and it rockets right off.


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This is the biggest thing for me. The shorter carry off the tee due to low temps is evened out by huge rollout on hard, thin fairways. But the approaches and chipping onto frozen greens is ridiculous.

The USGA has a handicap season for good reasons.
 
yes for me its a few things but more mental my season is winding down and i just don't care about score as much i usually try stuff i wouldn't in the summer just because i dont care and its just not the same and i can't practice as much so my swing is rusty.
 
My scores have improved, for the most part, since the temps stay down in the mid-60's during the day. Our worst time of year is the dry summer season from late April to mid-June. Temperatures soar and it becomes extremely dry. Once the monsoons come in it cools off a bit. But now until April, so long as we avoid snow, is the best time of year to be golfing in Southern Arizona.
 
Frost delays are the worst...some courses aren't even playable until the afternoon - makes 18 very difficult.
 
choppstixxx said:
The only thing that stinks about winter golf is the soggy conditions and plugged balls here in upstate NY.
I played a few times this past December when it got in the upper 40's and I didn't play half bad. Sure the ball doesn't roll out nearly as much/at all, but I can't complain playing in winter.
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I won't play winter golf in Rochester, the soggy, wet, and cold conditions won't do anything positive for my game.
 
Hawk said:
That's why we can't post scores for handicap this time of year. Course conditions, weather, etc, can all contribute to higher scores.
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This. My scores tend to be a little higher, but not obscenely so. Then again sometimes I'm not really sure what they are because of temporary "greens" and such, so you take em with a grain of salt.
 
I think alot of just how negative or positive it can be has to do with just where one is from geographically as to just what and how much the term "winter golf" or "off season" means. It also will affect players of different abilities differently for the better and the worse.

There can be both negative and also positive effects on the game.
Cold temps and distance loss are negatives. More clothing and stiff bodies also further adds to that distance loss and in addition also makes for more erratic shots too. Also rock hard greens never certainly help anything.
However, shorter and thinner rough help a ton. So does finding balls for those occasional errant shots in what is now more barren wooded and weeded areas. Same goes for tall fescue that is thinner and may even be cut down all together.

So imo it can be both helpful and also hurtful for different reasons during the same round of golf.
 
For me I tend to score better in the winter. All the extra layers restrict my swing enough I hit more fairways and greens. I just have to remind myself to take an extra club than usually it all works out.

Tazz
@bigtazzGOLF
 
I struggle to break 90 when it starts to get to summer here because I get drained by the sun. I tended to like winter golf though when I was in Washington because I found it easier to stick the ball and being colder helped swing better.
 
our course is reduced length in the winter months, yellow tee's par 71, they move the tee's around a bit to give the medal or usual tee's time to recover
sometimes if the conditions get really bad then they use winter greens, but all greens are in play at this time

it sort of balances itself out on our course, the reduced length kind of negates any weather effects so the winter handicap tends to change like it would during the regular golf handicap season. at the end of winter our handicaps revert back to what they were at the end of the handicap qualifying period
 
Winter golf kills me. I've done better this year than I did last year, but I don't play well in sleeves. So ready for it to warm up a little.
 
Absolutely affects my HC - no matter when we play, we play everything down and by the rules. Long par 4's become par 5's , and long par 3's become par 4's. Last times I played, we were hitting into frozen ( yea, frozen ) but elevated greens, so it wasn't like you could hit short most of the time and let them roll up. The course, in it's infinite wisdom, had actually moved some tees BACK, and it was about 33' and 10-15 mph winds to start - after an hour frost delay! Played with Sharkwrestler, and he actually hit a ball into a bunker and it bounced 20' in the air, and landed (and somehow stopped ) about 10' from the pin and he made the birdie putt! Of course, that was after he had 3 approach shots hit the greens on the holes before and skip off like they just hit concrete ( which basically they did! )
 
Winter raises my scores a few more strokes typically. Based on all the same things listed above from others. Kansas is right in the middle, for example, tomorrow we are forecasted to be sunny, and a windy but 57* tomorrow and 55* on Sunday. This being a week removed from -25* wind chills and snow on the ground.
 
I haven't played in over a month due to weather and course conditions. It got so wet and freezing hard each night that the course has been closed. I've tried to stay loose by swinging clubs in the yard and chipping a little too but I find until I can get back to playing on good grass it's just about exercise and nothing more.
 
My scores have always gone up in winter and I put it down to a few reasons.
1: I wear more clothing and hate playing in cold weather/rain gear.
2: The courses play totally differently, either very wet or frozen at times.
3: I just don't play as much in winter.
 
This winter has been a bit unusual for me. Especially the month of December. Typically my handicap rises a couple of strokes because of several factors already mentioned such as ball doesn't fly as far in cooler temps, courses generally soggy and over-seeded, layers of heavier clothing make it more difficult to swing, etc. When the weather started turning bad in November this year I played poorly but then played great in December so go figure. Unlike others, I absolutely love playing at 95 degrees with high humidity when my shirt is already soaked after walking the first hole. As long as I have plenty of gloves to rotate, I am good to go.
 
I managed to get out 4 times in December in some fairly tough conditions and to my surprise, my scores were in line with what I would normally shoot. Of course, the course is playing pretty short right now with all of the tees being moved in front of the tee boxes.
 
I usually play about the same. My HCP goes up a couple points but only because the tee's where I play in the winter are usually moved up. So the slope and rating change making the course HCP easier. But for me, distance isn't the part of my game that I suffer with, around the greens is. So, if you lower the slope, I still hit fairways, and still miss the same approach shots, chips, and putts but now at a lesser slope.

Summer Score: 83
Slope: 126
Differential: 11.1

Winter Score: 83
Slope: 116
Differential: 15.3
 
Definitely, I don't have concrete examples but my scores are usually a few strokes higher this time of year than in the peak season


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SaffaClint said:
My scores have always gone up in winter and I put it down to a few reasons.
1: I wear more clothing and hate playing in cold weather/rain gear.
2: The courses play totally differently, either very wet or frozen at times.
3: I just don't play as much in winter.
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These are the same reasons why I'm typically 3-4 strokes worse in the winter.
 
Historically, my winter scores have gone up 3-5 strokes. However, this year, my best scores of the year came in Nov & Dec.

Also, in OK, our scores count towards your handicap year-round.
 
I do find my scores go up in the winter, mainly due to course conditions not being in normal shape combined with the colder weather keeping me from staying loose through the round.
 
In east Texas, it's not too bad - the ball doesn't go quite as far, but generally the temperatures are not too extreme. The hard part is chipping and pitching, full shots are not too bad. The scores are a bit inflated but not by much - possibly 2-3 strokes per person, out of the group that I usually play with.
 
BamaAlum97 said:
Historically, my winter scores have gone up 3-5 strokes. However, this year, my best scores of the year came in Nov & Dec.

Also, in OK, our scores count towards your handicap year-round.
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Until this year, my winter scores have always been a few strokes higher. I typically take off five or six months between October and April but this year with warm weather and lousy skiing, I played 4 rounds in December and 3 were the lowest rounds of the year. I guess when your expectations are low and you don't care, it's easy to make birdies.
 
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