The Empty Golf Course

We are lucky enough to have a lovely rental property that sits behind the first hole of a golf course.  It is quite nice not to have other homes behind us and we have a great view up the fairway for this hole.  The only time it is irritating is some mornings when the groundskeepers come riding down to their shack which is also behind the first hole and they are quite noisy as they get out their machines.   But for the most part it is peaceful and quiet and great.  We see deer cross the fairway sometimes and there's always some magpies and crows flying around down there.

 
Living here we have come to realize what a strange breed is the golfer and especially the British golfer.  It is not a sport that anyone in my family has ever taken up as a hobby or sport or vocation or love.  But the golfers that play the course behind us must be the most avid and determined and also frustrated golfers in the world.  They are out there every single day.  No matter the weather, no matter the date, no matter the time, we see golfers on the course.   The only times we have not seen golfers pursuing their passion have been the three times when the course has been covered in snow.  And quite frankly, we were a bit surprised that there weren't golfers in the snow.  I figured there would be colored golf balls by now so they could be tracked.  But snow means no golfers.


Until this week!  Surrey has taken some heavy rainfall this week and parts of Surrey have gone swimming involuntarily.  Our own garden is a mixture of swamp and muck but at least not underwater like some of my friends.  The first day after the big storm that dumped water on Surrey this week, I was home all day and not once did I see a golfer out on the course.  I didn't think much about it but then we kept having rain and more rain and more rain and now for three days there have been no golfers.  I imagine that it is so wet and muddy that the course has been closed because the golf cleats could probably tear up the grounds pretty badly.  There is a sand trap near our first hole and right now, it is a water feature.  

 So the golf course is empty and I rather miss the golfers.  They come in all sizes and shapes and all manner of odd golf clothes and bring everything from golf carts to remote controlled golf bags that roll across the course by themselves.  And as we have seen golfers in heavy rains and heavy winds, still out there whacking the ball, I believe that the course has been closed by the owners and that there would be golfers there in spite of all the wet and soggy conditions, were they allowed.    Hopefully we'll see some in the next few days.

Bad Golfer Theory

Living with a golf course out our back garden is lovely.  We have a great view of the first hole.  It's dark at night so no lights shining in our bedroom windows and it's a grand view without houses interrupting it.  The added advantage being there are always some small groups of people moving about and golfing and they are quite interesting to watch.  We don't play golf but we have learned a lot by just watching the golfers.

Throughout the late autumn and winter, there is always someone on the course during the day.  In the rain, in the sleet, in the cold and in the frost, there are golfers.  The only days when the golf course has been empty has been when it was covered by snow and once the snow was off the fairways, the golfers returned.

When we moved into our rental home, we found several golf balls in the garden.  Usually we were finding one golf ball about every 2 weeks.  Once the weather got really cold, we stopped finding golf balls even though we could still see the golfers moving through the course and "aiming" towards the house.  As we are not golfers, as previously stated, we don't understand the passion or desire or interest that drives golfers to go out and walk around on a cold or wet day.  But we have come up with a theory, the Bad Golfers Theory.  This is solely based on the number of golf balls we find in our garden.

The theory goes like this: Only good golfers are willing to spend the time and money in inclement weather therefore bad golfers are more likely to be "fair weather golfers".  Hence, we will only find golf balls in our garden when the bad golfers are on the course.  In other words, only the bad golfers slice, hook, throw, drive, putt, or whatever, badly enough to have a golf ball end up in our garden.  And since we found no golf balls throughout the winter and into the spring, no bad golfers are on the course during that time because they don't like the sport well enough to wander around in the cold and wet.  

This week, as always, there have been plenty of golfers on the course and the days have been fairly nice and lovely.  I found three golf balls this week!