While some view the 'off-season' as a good opportunity to work on their games at the range, practice at home and play without keeping a scorecard, others yearn for weekly competitions all year round to keep them sharp. Below, two of our senior writers, Fergus Bisset and Jeremy Ellwood, offer contrasting opinions. Which side are you on?
Yes – Says Fergus Bisset
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, we’re more inclined to consider our expenditures and whether we’re receiving value for money from them. The golf club membership subscription is a major outlay for most of us and one that could, oh so easily, be ditched. As such, clubs must look at every element of their offering to ensure they are providing value for money.
A competitive season that covers just seven months of the year doesn’t tally with that objective. Clubs should organise competitive golf through the winter. There’s no obligation for members to play competitively through the colder weather; there’s no obligation for them to play at all! But there should be opportunities for those who would like to remain competitive from November to March.
Traditionally, many clubs have battened down the hatches at the first hint of winter and gone into hibernation. But changing weathers and changing expectations demand that more is provided for the money that continues to flow from members’ pockets into the club’s coffers.
As the climate warms, it’s often possible to play sensible golf on the full course for longer at the end of the season. But many clubs’ competitive calendars have closed by then.
Admittedly, course condition, temporary greens or the use of mats sometimes make it impossible for rounds to be ‘handicap counting’. But this doesn’t prevent clubs from running winter leagues, weekend ‘sweepers’ and various winter knockouts. By organising events through the winter, the bar takes more money and the club generally remains lively.
If members wish to keep trying to play through the more challenging months, golf clubs owe it to them to keep trying to offer them events to take part in.
No – Says Jeremy Ellwood
The world turns in clearly defined seasons, doesn’t it? “A time to plant, a time to reap” as the lyrics of The Byrds’ Turn! Turn! Turn! say.
And so it should be with golf. You plant in the off-season by investing time in your game in other ways – practice, lessons or whatever – then reap the benefits in the main season when it really counts.
I know that, for me at least, the DP World Tour lost something when it became pretty much a 52-week season, rather than the old March to October affair, with its clear beginning and end. If we just trudge through the year doing pretty much the same thing all the time, things can get a little tiresome.
I’m not against winter knockouts, which generally (though not always!) have a slightly less intense feel. And for most of us, that will just mean one or two games as the majority of us depart these competitions in the earlier rounds. Even if we make it all the way, it’s rarely more than four or five games at most golf clubs.
But, as for Stablefords and medals throughout the winter, not for me, I’m afraid. Ground conditions can be difficult in terms of lies away from the short stuff, the greens lose their main-season coat and the weather is often cold, wet, windy or all three.
I’ve also been a member of a couple of clubs over the years where the winter card was shorter but also harder, certainly off lower handicaps. You were often hitting the same clubs into greens due to lack of run, too. It also remains to be seen if the World Handicap System's Playing Conditions Calculation for 2024 is reflective of conditions faced.
