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Golf in the Cold
‘You can’t play’ says the wife from somewhere underneath the enormous duvet, ‘it’s far too cold’. ‘Nonsense women’ I reply as I throw back the curtains, ‘It’s blue skies and bright sunshine. What more could I want for a round of golf?’
These words haunt me as I step onto the first tee and a frozen blast of wind has my testicles soaring up into my body cavity like a couple of untethered weather balloons. The blue skies are still there and the course is kissed by bright sunshine, but it’s the sort of weak sunshine that only the northern hemisphere has during winter. Anywhere else in the world these sort of conditions would have people breaking out the shorts and T-shirts but here I am bent over, London’s very own hunchgroin, trying to swing a club while dressed in 14 layers of clothing.
There are a quite a few other people prepared to brave the weather – people who have been looking forward all week to a round of golf and who are damned if they are going to let some iffy weather get the better of them. Everyone is dressed like Scott of the Antarctic and many have some sort of handwarmers in an attempt to prevent freezing to death. One of old boys with handwarmers was once told as a joke by one of the club pro’s that handwarmers only work properly if you expose them to sunlight and now looks like he is either making an invisible pot of tea at head height or is waving his sweetheart goodbye in a 1940’s war film.
I join a couple of other lunatics at the tee box who just happen to be two of the club pros. They wouldn’t be out in this weather if it weren’t for the fact that they have money on this game and neither can back down. They both stripe one down the fairway and I somehow make it on to the short stuff too. An interesting side-effect of all the layers of clothes I’m wearing is that my back swing has been shortened considerably so while I’m hitting the ball a fair bit shorter, I’m also hitting it straighter. So far so good I think as I tighten my belt in an attempt to stop my balls from lurching into my gullet like a set of fleshy gobstoppers.
This short and straight hitting accounts for the fact that I’m on the green in regulation. Due to the sunshine, the fairway is in pretty good nick but unfortunately the green is still in the shade. Now if you haven’t had the pleasure, putting on frozen greens is an art form. You must be able to read not only the normal slopes and undulations but also be able to read whether the icy surface will speed up or slow the ball down. The smoother sections of the green are like… well ice really, while other parts are covered in dew that has frozen into tiny feathers of ice that can grab the ball and make it almost stop dead.
My first putt is straight through a treacherously slick part and a 10 yard putt rockets 20 foot past. ‘Not a problem’ I think and caress my next putt gently, expecting it to sidle nicely up to the hole. Of course it hits a rough patch, the ball leaps vertically off the putting surface like a salmon and screeches to a halt before it’s even moved 6 feet. Resisting the urge to smack the ball back down the fairway I take a moment, clean the ball and line it up for a 14 footer that looks slightly uphill and through a mix of smooth and grabby surface. A gentle tap has the ball rolling directly on line until it magically picks up speed, skids to the right, shoots past the hole and ends up 4 feet away. With a face burning bright red from the combination of anger, embarrassment and wind-burn I stalk to the ball and try to think of all the 4 footers I’ve made in the past. It’s dead straight and this part of the green looks almost normal. ‘I’m calm I’m calm I’m calm’ I tell myself as I try to put a nice stroke on the ball and send it home and end the misery. It all looks good until it picks up a little clump of ice on one side of the ball and turns in a neat little arc, spinning away from the hole like a urethane Wayne Gretzky.
Now at this point, I will admit to having said some nasty things about the ball, the golf course, my ability to putt, the weather and the otherwise fine products of Scotty Cameron. I also may have possibly called into question the parentage of my playing partners when they suggested that I should consider taking up a more appropriate sport like knitting after I finally hole out for a 5 putt.
After the jeers and derision that such a woeful passage of play deserved, I immediately get the chance to redeem myself at the next hole. The others both tug their tee shots into the left rough while I find myself sitting pretty in the middle of the fairway. From a perfect lie I somehow catch a 6 iron so sweetly it’s sickening and watch the ball crawl all over the flag to pitch dead in line and a couple of club lengths short of the hole. Normally this would stop pretty quickly and I would be left with a solid (if all too rare) birdie chance but the frozen green means that the ball bounces off the concrete-like surface and ends up off the back of the green.
This becomes the story of the first 9 holes. Balls fired at the pin ricochet off the green and low runners skitter off the glassy surface time and time again. The pros’ superb wedge game makes up and downs simple but one of them nearly breaks his wrists playing a slightly buried ball out of a frozen bunker while my short game resembles a man digging for gold and my score is astronomical.
At the halfway point my face is raw, my nose a fluorescent red and my voice a couple of octaves higher and I am thinking of jacking it in when I realise that I can feel my hands and feet again. The previously watery sun has suddenly strengthened and we are no longer apparently playing on the tundra but across beautiful green swards under a kind blue sky.
As the warmth creeps into the day and I can shrug off some of my layers, I find that that my shots are going longer but are still going straight. Magically I find that I have driven to the front of a short par 4. A simple chip and I have a tap in for the first birdie of the day and to repair a tiny part of the damage done earlier in the round. An educated power fade gives me another birdie chance which I fail to take and the game is fun again.
Having spent the early part of the morning approaching unforgiving greens, these ones seem to be the size of football pitches. The finesse and delicacy that I needed to get chips and pitches to within 10 feet of the holes at the start of the day now has me less than half that from the pin. Putting across the treacherous ice means that I’m now seeing the hole like the Grand Canyon and can’t seem to miss. It’s impossible to undo all the damage but my score is suddenly respectable rather than embarrassing.
Anybody can have fun golf when the weather is perfect but that enjoyment is a pale thing next to the fierce enjoyment of playing golf in less then perfect conditions. Taking on both the course and the weather and winning, or at least not losing too badly is something I’m sure that the sports Scottish originators would understand. The demands of the game are higher in bad conditions as you need to think far more about playing from less than perfect lies, the effect of the cold and the wind both on the ball and yourself, bad footing and the precision required to play a good shot in all of the above can only make you a better golfer.
‘How was it?’ asks the wife when I get back home, ‘Gosh it was cold out there. I bet you froze your tits off’.
‘Not quite’ I reply, being completely anatomically honest and check my trousers just to make sure.
I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear
OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.
LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break
Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.
Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.
On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.
On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.
On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.
PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home
Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.
On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.
Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?
Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.
Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?
PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates
Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.
Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.
Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.
Card III and Bacha both miss their birdie tries on the first playoff hole.
We’ll play 18 again @OspreyOpen. pic.twitter.com/vNpHTdkHDg
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) August 3, 2025
GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.
Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.
Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.
General Albums
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #1
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #2
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #3
WITB Albums
- Chandler Phillips – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Davis Riley – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Scotty Kennon – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Austin Duncan – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Will Chandler – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Kevin Roy – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Ben Griffin – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Peter Malnati – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Ryan Gerard – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Adam Schenk – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Kurt Kitayama – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Camilo Villegas – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Matti Schmid – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
Pullout Albums
- Denny McCarthy’s custom Cameron putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Swag Golf putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Karl Vilips TM MG5 wedges – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- New Bettinardi putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Matt Fitzpatrick’s custom Bettinardi putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Cameron putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.
Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX
3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX
7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)
‘Why would anybody want to change that swing?’ – Brandel Chamblee says PGA Tour star was wrong to change his swing
‘The stupidest freaking thing I’ve ever heard’ – Billy Horschel slams Open idea suggested by Padraig Harrington
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Golfer proudly posts photo of ball mark on iron, receives immediate roasting
WITB Time Machine: Matthew Wolff’s winning WITB, 2019 3M Open
Oakmont Country Club bans Wyndham Clark over locker incident; Reveals specific conditions to earn reinstatement
Adam Scott puts Callaway blades in the bag at Wyndham Championship
Report: LIV star fires caddie and coach in shock shake up
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’
The championship formula: How 3 key stats separate winners from the field
Peter Malnati WITB 2025 (August)
Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
Camilo Villegas WITB accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. Villegas was undecided on a 3-wood when we shot his bag. ...
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Brandt Snedeker fired a final-round 65 at the 2018 Wyndham Championship to outlast Webb Simpson and C.T. Pan. His 5-under...
Bigsmoke
Feb 28, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Great read!