Playing in wind and rain: club selection and shot shapes

Wind and rain are not exceptional conditions in Canada, they are half the season. The golfers who score in them are not tougher; they have made three adjustments the others have not. Here they are.

Why this is a Canadian skill

A large share of the Canadian season is played in conditions that would be called bad weather elsewhere: wind off the water, spring rain on soft ground, and a shoulder season measured in raw mornings. The players who score in it are not tougher, they are drier, and they decided in advance to take one more club and aim at the middle.

Keep your hands dry

The connection between hand and grip is the single point of failure in wet golf. Carry two spare gloves in a sealed bag, or rain gloves, which grip better wet than dry. Keep one towel inside the bag, dry, and one outside for the club face.

The umbrella is for the bag, not for you. Park it over the clubs between shots and the grips stay usable.

Into the wind: more club, easier swing

Swinging harder into wind adds spin, spin makes the ball climb, and a climbing ball into wind falls short. Take two more clubs, grip down slightly, and swing at three-quarter effort with the ball a fraction back in the stance.

Downwind, the ball flies further and stops less. Land it short of the target and let it run.

Downwind is the one people get wrong

The ball flies further, lands flatter and runs a long way, so bunkers that were out of range become the landing area and a green that held in the morning will not hold with the wind behind. Take less club than the number suggests and land the ball short of the flag.

Crosswind: aim into it, do not fight it

The instinct is to hold the ball against a crosswind, which requires a shot most amateurs cannot repeat. Aim into the wind and let it bring the ball back, accepting a twenty-yard window rather than a precise target.

On exposed Canadian courses, especially on the prairies and the coasts, this single adjustment saves more shots than any swing change.

What rain does to the ball

A drive that normally finishes 240 yards out stops where it lands on a soaked fairway.

Wet fairways mean no run, so you are playing a longer course than the card says. Water between face and ball reduces spin on full shots, so approaches fly further and land hotter, then stop dead in soft greens.

The net result is that distance control gets harder in both directions. Aim for the middle of the green and take two putts.

Club selection off wet ground

The ball sits down on a wet fairway, which makes long irons and fairway woods difficult and hybrids easy. Take one more club and swing at eighty per cent: a clean strike from a wet lie beats a full swing that catches turf first.

Around the greens the ground game stops working, so pitch to the flag rather than landing short and hoping for release.

What wet ground does to the course

Soft fairways take the run away entirely, which is worth more than most golfers allow for. A drive that finished at 240 yards in August finishes at 215 on a wet spring morning, and an approach that needed a 7-iron in summer needs a 6 or a 5.

Greens receive, which is the compensation. A ball that released twenty feet past the flag in July stops within a few paces of its pitch mark in the wet, so aim at the flag rather than the middle when the surface is soft, and expect putts to be slower than they look.

Bunkers change too. Wet sand is firm, the bounce of the club skids off it rather than digging, and the ball comes out faster and lower than expected. Stand a little closer, open the face less, and take slightly less club than you would from soft sand.

Preferred lies and the local rules

Most Canadian clubs put preferred lies in place through the spring and autumn, which lets you lift, clean and place the ball within a specified distance on closely mown areas. It is a local rule rather than a courtesy, and it is written on the scorecard or on the board at the first tee.

Read it rather than assuming. The distance allowed, the areas it applies to and whether temporary greens are in play change from club to club and week to week, and so do the status of a ditch that is dry in July and a stream in April, and any cart-path-only restriction.

Two clubs, one decision

The commonest wet-weather error is taking the club the number suggests and swinging harder to compensate for the conditions. Take one more club and swing at eighty per cent instead: a harder swing adds spin, and spin is exactly what wind and soft ground punish.

The mental half

Everyone in the group has the same weather. Adjust the target rather than the effort: on a wet, windy round, playing to your handicap is a good day. Play for the middle of greens, accept bogeys, and let the others chase.

Looking after the course

Wet ground is where a course is most easily damaged. Keep carts and trolleys off soft areas and on the paths where they are signed, because compaction is exactly what greenkeepers spend the following summer aerating out. Replace divots, and repair your pitch mark and one more: a mark left in soft ground takes weeks to heal.

When to stop

Standing water on greens, lightning within earshot, or a course lifting and placing are signals rather than challenges. Ring the pro shop before driving over on a bad morning; a course playable at nine can be under water by eleven.

Where to buy wet-weather kit in Canada

The large national golf chains carry the mainstream rain suits, gloves and covers in stores across the country, which matters for anything that has to fit. Used and clearance specialists are the budget option, and your own pro shop usually carries the rain gloves and hand warmers that the big stores stop stocking outside the season.

The end of the season is the cheapest moment to buy any of it. Wet-weather stock is discounted from late autumn, and a rain suit bought in November costs a fraction of the same suit in April.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with these retailers and earns nothing from your purchases.

Two pace habits worth keeping

Wet rounds are slower for everyone, and two habits recover most of the time at no cost. Announce a provisional whenever there is any doubt, because the walk back to the tee is longer and colder in the rain. And write the card on the next tee rather than on the green.

The kit that earns its place

• Rain gloves, or two spare gloves sealed in a bag.
• Two towels, one kept dry inside the bag.
• Waterproofs you can actually swing in, tested before the day.
• A bag hood, and spikes with grip left in them.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any retailer and earns nothing from your purchases.

Where this shows up on a course

Three links courses from our directory, where this is the everyday reality.

• Cobble Beach Golf Resort: Doug Carrick built a links on the limestone above Georgian Bay: the bay in view from almost every hole, an opening tee shot into the wind, and a bill reviewers flinch at.
• Settlers’ Ghost Golf Club: An inland links north of Barrie named for the Huron-Wendat settlement and the settlers who followed: fast greens, Georgian Bay views, and value reviewers keep mentioning.
• Predator Ridge Resort: Two Doug Carrick courses on dry Okanagan benchland: the hard links-like Predator and the forgiving Ridge, both firm, both excellent, and both a once-a-year treat.

We have not played these courses; each page says what it is based on.