It was Monday May 4th, the first golf game of our 2015 season. It was a beautiful evening and there was sun and no wind. It doesn’t get much better than that. We thoroughly enjoyed our round and when we finished it was still 18 °. One of our new members, Marlene Proctor, experienced a Moment of Brilliance or MOB, she was 80 to 90 yds. out and holed her ball, a first for her. Well done Marlene. Needless to say the balmy weather didn’t last long and by next night, Tuesday, they started at 16° and the temperature plummeted and miserable high winds descended and the nasty’s set in. Golf in Alberta.
We, at heart, are all fair weather golfers and the majority of you are very good at following the Golfaround weather policy/procedure and I know you understand the importance of why we do show at the course. We are very fortunate to have some excellent courses for you to play and do not want to jeopardize this privilege. We block book your tee times in advance and because of this cancellations at some of the courses cannot be done. We would never expect you to golf in the pouring rain but you do need to come to the course if you are booked.
Every year we do have new members and the guidelines for inclement weather and cancellations are available on the web site however we do need to remind you of the procedure.
- On some occasions we do try to cancel in extremely poor conditions and this is done by e-mail around 3pm for the evening leagues and 8am for the Day league. If you do not have access to e-mail it is your responsibility to call us before 4pm (day 9am) .
- Once you are booked for league, cancellations are frowned upon understanding there may be circumstances i.e. illness, injury, family issues.
- Once we have confirmed the numbers with the golf course (7 days in advance) we are committed to them. Just arriving at the course to tell us you are not golfing is not the answer as it affects the other golfers and we do not go out if it is really bad.
- Paying the green fee is not always the answer with the exception of a few who do charge us if we don’t have our numbers
- We do make weather calls at the golf courses for both league and lessons and we expect you to be there if you are booked.
- As I am sure many of you can appreciate, weather at 4:00pm may not be an issue at 6:00pm and weather in one area of the city may not affect another area.
Last but not least is the fact that for many of us these will be our first golf games since last fall, a good six months ago and we may be a little rusty. Our advice to you is Enjoy it and Have Fun. Most golf courses will not be in top shape after the winter and neither will your golf game. There’s no point in getting frustrated. My first couple of rounds I hit several shots so poorly I could do nothing but laugh and I had no excuse as I had had a few games this winter but it was hot not Calgary weather. How can you expect to be in top form if the last time you swung a club was in November 2014? Take your first round for what it is. Enjoy it, note what you need to work on and get ready for golf season.