Golf life in Pacific Northwest, specifically the rain and cold

dpgator33

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So my wife and I have long desires to leave Florida, for some adventure and also partly because we both can’t stand the summers and thunderstorms that come with it.

I make a decent salary, but she does much better, so we’re mostly looking for areas where demand and salary is higher for her. Also a caveat is that there be decent golf in close proximity.

Anywho...one position that is a great opportunity for her has come up...in a little summer tourist area on the Oregon coast.

I’ve visited Seattle but just in the summer and didn’t see any rain, but I know it’s much different much of the year.

I’ve played in near freezing weather plenty of times, and I rather enjoy it, although when it’s that cold here it’s also very dry so my hands don’t always fare well. I wouldn’t think that would typically be the case out there.

So for anyone who lives in these climates, how bad/difficult is it as a golfer during the rainy season? There are at least two courses in the immediate area that claim to drain well due to the sandy soil and are open year round, even to carts aside from the most severe floods that occasionally come along.

I’ve always been of the mindset that it doesn’t really matter what the weather is, if you later and dress accordingly, you can be comfortable enough. However, I’ve never had to endure 4+ hours in rain when it’s 40 out so there’s admittedly an unknown for me.

It’s a pretty exciting prospect. The dues are really cheap compared to here, the real estate is reasonable, there’s a ton of outdoor stuff to do, skiing within 2.5 hours, etc. Heck, we may end up just skiing most of the winter anyhow if we have the choice.

Thanks in advance for any input.


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last summer we didn't get a lick of rain for a good 2 months... which would have been nice if it wasn't for a record fire season

you can golf every day of year if you don't mind a few truly miserable days

Seattle doesn't actually get that much rain, it's Olympia across the bay (well, sort of) that's the source of the jokes
 
I live in Olympia and it is no different than Seattle so not sure where that comment came from.... What part of the Oregon coast? The coast can be way different weather wise from inland or on the Sound. There are some great golf course out there and we usually spend Fourth of July in Astoria, OR area.
 
I play year round as long as the courses are open. I find playing in the rain and cold boils down to just having the right mindset. Just accept the weather for what it is, dress accordingly, and go out there and enjoy the game.

I personally find it the toughest to deal with at around this time of year where you're coming out of winter into spring and it just won't stop raining.
 
I live in Olympia and it is no different than Seattle so not sure where that comment came from.... What part of the Oregon coast? The coast can be way different weather wise from inland or on the Sound. There are some great golf course out there and we usually spend Fourth of July in Astoria, OR area.

Seattle has more sunny days and less annual rainfall than Olympia... and many other cities. The Olympic rain shadow at work
 
I play year round as long as the courses are open. I find playing in the rain and cold boils down to just having the right mindset. Just accept the weather for what it is, dress accordingly, and go out there and enjoy the game.

I personally find it the toughest to deal with at around this time of year where you're coming out of winter into spring and it just won't stop raining.

I played a winter league this year and as long as you dress warm, buy really good rain gear and maybe a flask (optional lol) it is OK. We had 2 nice days this week Mon/Tues and it is now supposed to rain the rest of the week and into next. Summers are the absolute BEST.
 
I live in Olympia and it is no different than Seattle so not sure where that comment came from.... What part of the Oregon coast? The coast can be way different weather wise from inland or on the Sound. There are some great golf course out there and we usually spend Fourth of July in Astoria, OR area.

Seaside, so not far from Astoria.


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Seaside, so not far from Astoria.


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That is where we go the beach when down there and Seaside is a very cool little town.
 
I play year round as long as the courses are open. I find playing in the rain and cold boils down to just having the right mindset. Just accept the weather for what it is, dress accordingly, and go out there and enjoy the game.

I personally find it the toughest to deal with at around this time of year where you're coming out of winter into spring and it just won't stop raining.

I agree with the above statement. Mind over matter
 
I'm just south of Portland. I play year round. I think it's mostly a mental thing, you have to want it. I would say though that I find winter golf a lot less doable on courses that don't drain really well. Those can be hard to find.

Re Seaside, I don't know the courses around that area as we tend to be central Oregon people more than coastal people. But many people here live for the dream of retiring to the coast. You should know it isn't going to be Florida coast (or in my case California coast). Think small sleepy small town where people walk along the beach looking for driftwood, not places where people lay out on the sand, surf, etc.
 
I'm just south of Portland. I play year round. I think it's mostly a mental thing, you have to want it. I would say though that I find winter golf a lot less doable on courses that don't drain really well. Those can be hard to find.

Re Seaside, I don't know the courses around that area as we tend to be central Oregon people more than coastal people. But many people here live for the dream of retiring to the coast. You should know it isn't going to be Florida coast (or in my case California coast). Think small sleepy small town where people walk along the beach looking for driftwood, not places where people lay out on the sand, surf, etc.

Yeah, I know the water temps are crazy cold compared to here, and that’s fine by me. I’ve lived in FL my whole life, the ocean does nothing for me, I’m fact it’s too darn hot whenever I do go, which is usually to hang out with family who are vacationing. We do love the water though, and would potentially get a boat or take up sailing; it’s been discussed. I’m all for sleepy and quiet. I came from a college town and thought traffic was a pain there. Now that I’ve been in more urban areas for a few years, I’m so over it. If I could golf and have a little barn or workshop and just enough people around to have some varying human contact, I think I would be perfectly happy.

And Portland is close enough to easily get on a plane and travel anywhere, which we like to do a few times a year.

I’m also not terribly rooted here. I’m not super close to most of my family. I’ll miss my son the most (in college now), but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind us flying him out here a few times a year to visit.




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Fair warning; seaside tends to be 30 degrees chillier than you think...beautiful town, some cool places to go real close and you are not far from the dumbest hole in the State (Alderbrook, looking at your vertical par 3) but it is a good place. Winters cvan be dicey...this year has been mild, playable most of the year, last year we had 121 days of rain in 6 months. Just be ready for a large number of grey, gloomy days but if you learn to love the rain noplace better
 
I loved it. The summer is perfect for abour 3-4 months, and you can easily play year round if you don't mind getting a little wet and chilly from time to time/pack clothes to account for it. Not so here...
 
as others have mentioned, we get alot of precipitation round these parts. another thing to contend with on the coast is the wind. It starts blowing around 1:00 PM and continues into the evening. the coastal storms that come through there can be pretty epic (though nothing compared to a hurricane)

dont underestimate how bone chilling cold a wet 43* can be with a coastal breeze blowing.

dont mean to discourage you though. overall its a great region to be in.

also, umbrellas are for tourists. get a hooded rain jacket lol!
 
Thanks all for the input, I really appreciate it. I’m really hopeful about the opportunity to move out there. My wife has applied for a position and should be a top flight candidate, so we will see how things shake out. There aren’t likely to be any locals for this type of position so the distance shouldn’t be a factor for consideration. We don’t even know when a potential start date would be, as the position to be filled is due to an impending retirement, which could be in a couple or six months, who knows.

As far as the weather goes, I think I’ll be fine with it. We have the means to get myself outfitted with whatever rain/cold weather gear would make things as comfortable as needed for the winter, and frankly, I don’t have to golf every day. Seems like even in the winter months there are enough days with little or no rain so I’d get plenty of rounds in, more than I play here, and we also plan on doing a fair amount of skiing on weekends and such.

I still say I’d rather play in rain in the 40s/50s than any day between May and October down here, dodging thunderstorms and sweating my butt off to the point where the fun wears off by about hole number 12!

I’ll update when anything more is known, and hopefully will have some more questions after visiting for an interview and to check out the area.


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Huge fan of the Pacific Northwest. Also so many other things to do even when it's raining. Don't know that locale but if it's like my experience in the Olympic peninsula the Salmon runs get better when the rivers are rising........
 
I would basically agree with what @Armygolf said. We get rain in the winters and part of spring. It gets colder and windier too. But it is honestly never bad enough to play golf as long as you are dressed appropriately. So we can have:

Wind
Rain
Cold

As long as only 2 of them are out there, you can dress to golf in that weather. If its all three, you may want to just head to the slopes and ski .. :D
 
A bit of an update...my wife didn’t hear squat from the place she applied to for a while. Seems they had some other candidates that for whatever reason they liked better on paper. I guess the interview process didn’t go as well in those cases, so she finally got a call back and lengthy phone interview, and now they’re practically begging for us to come out for an in person interview. They are working out dates so we should be heading out there for a long weekend in the next few weeks, possibly July 4th weekend. Based on the phone interview and what she now knows about the position that the employer is in to fill the role, my wife thinks there is a good chance she would get an offer.

Now...how to get two vehicles, three pets and a reasonably large house of stuff across the country....not looking forward to that process.

I would likely have to stay back for a while to sell the house, as we have a couple of things that need done still before we could put it on the market; painting the outside being the biggest one.

That means two trips driving out for me. First to get my wife and the pets out there so she can start work, and again solo to drive a big ass truck 3k+ miles. I’ll get help to load up and stuff but I don’t know they would reimburse us for the cost to have a moving company do the whole thing. My guess is that would be something north of $10k, and I don’t know if I could stomach that.






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Golf life in the PNW is a different sort of animal....
For starters, most of the golf associations in the Northern areas of the U.S. are seasonal golf associations like the PNW and WSGA and observe an inactive score posting period. Usually the inactive score posting period runs from November 15th to the last day of February. Which means we play golf for the sake of playing golf, during that time. GHIN shuts down We have 3 1/2 months to fight wet weather while working on our skills. Lifting, cleaning and placing the ball applies at most courses (winter rules) and fewer golfers play. Wish y'all the best.
 
I have played two courses in Seaside before. They are the Highlands Golf Course, which is a nice nine hole course and Gearhart Golf Course, which is an 18 hole links course. Gearhart touts itself as the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi. Both are fun courses. Climate is 50-70 degress all year long. Rainy in the winter, and sunny and cool in the summer. Cannon Beach is just to the south which is a big artsy area. Astoria is just to the north and there are a few courses there, but have not played them. Plus no humidity, which would be a nice relief coming from Florida
 
It’s getting real now. We visited Seaside for an interview a while back and my wife was offered the position and accepted. It takes a while for the onboarding process, and so we project to be up there the first week of December. As of last night we are officially under contract to sell our place so the home search has begun in earnest up there for us. We have a “paid for” opportunity to go back up there for a home search, but we’re not sure we will want/need to. We are concentrating on the Gearhart to Warrenton area and I would likely look to become a member at Astoria GCC. Anyone play there? I stopped by for a quick visit and it looks like a pretty cool place, and our tour guide/local realtor who golfs says it’s the better of the two good courses there (Gearhart Golf Links).

I’m super pumped about the move, and getting back into golf. I’ve not picked up a club since March dealing with a couple different unrelated injuries. I could probably go out and play now but I’m just going to play it safe and I’ve made it a point for my next round to be in Oregon. It won’t likely be perfect weather by the time we get up there, but it sure will be different!


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That place looks really cool, a real links golf golf course. Congrats on the move, the Pacific coast has the best weather in the country imo. Just pick a temp you like and find the right latitude out there. Like it to be 80 everyday? San Diego, Like it to be 75 everyday? LA, Like it to be 65 everyday? San Francisco, etc. My wife and I visited Carmel, CA this august and it is my new favorite place in America. Can't wait to get out there someday for some golf and I also want to come to your neck of the woods and hit up Bandon at some point as well.
 
It’s getting real now. We visited Seaside for an interview a while back and my wife was offered the position and accepted. It takes a while for the onboarding process, and so we project to be up there the first week of December. As of last night we are officially under contract to sell our place so the home search has begun in earnest up there for us. We have a “paid for” opportunity to go back up there for a home search, but we’re not sure we will want/need to. We are concentrating on the Gearhart to Warrenton area and I would likely look to become a member at Astoria GCC. Anyone play there? I stopped by for a quick visit and it looks like a pretty cool place, and our tour guide/local realtor who golfs says it’s the better of the two good courses there (Gearhart Golf Links).

I’m super pumped about the move, and getting back into golf. I’ve not picked up a club since March dealing with a couple different unrelated injuries. I could probably go out and play now but I’m just going to play it safe and I’ve made it a point for my next round to be in Oregon. It won’t likely be perfect weather by the time we get up there, but it sure will be different!


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I was in Oregon in July and one of our stops was in Seaside to see Haystack rock. I drove by the Astoria GCC a couple of times. It looked really nice.
 
Congratulations to your wife! I think you will love it. Lots of great golf up here. Great breweries in Oregon and Washington. A company called McMenamins has lots of great pubs. Good food too. The brew beer, have hard alcohol, and make wines. There is one near the Gearhart golf course I believe. Hope you find a great new house.
 
So we’ve been here for almost three weeks now. The first week the weather was awesome, mostly clear, some clouds and little to no rain. I get that’s not the norm, but this last week has been a complete s*show. A couple of decent days but three or four storms that brought wind gusts of 50+ (70+ last night and this morning), to the point where you can’t really go outside for many hours or near an entire day even. This can’t be the norm right? Both neighbors have portions of their fence down, which leads me to believe this is an anomaly of sorts. I mean, if it was like this all the time I would think people would build stronger fences or no fence at all.


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