Waterlogged New England golfers just want to play golf

July 2, 10:49 AMBoston Golf ExaminerEmily Kay

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Rain-filled bunker, Townsend Ridge Country Club                                  (Photo: Emily Kay)

The crankiness quotient is growing exponentially among wet and weary New England golfers.

Deprived for what seems like a bazillion years of rain-free play, Boston golfers know that the season has only so many golfable hours remaining. After all, the days are getting shorter (ah, June 21 -- the best of times, the worst of times). And don’t forget the old Minnesota farmer’s adage (which applies just as well to New England): “July 4th. Then winter.”

Family Golf Month. It may look and feel like November out there, but it’s just the beginning of July, and that means it’s Family Golf Month. So bundle up the kids in their pint-sized Gore-Tex nor’easter attire and drag ‘em to the course. Hey, if they don’t learn early to tee it up in the middle of a drencher, how will they ever be able to play golf in New England?

For sure, New England golfers have had it up to their visors with the sodden conditions. “At this point, you just gotta play,” sighs Kerry Dolan, a New Hampshire golfer. “Damn the weather.”

The LPGA, PGA, USGA, National Golf Courses Owners Association, all of which  promote Family Golf Month as part of their Play Golf America program, paint an idyllic picture of playing golf as the “perfect family vacation.” Of course, that snapshot does not consider the vagaries of golf weather in New England.

Make it stop! Indeed, Boston suffered 16 days of “measurable precipitation,” last month, according to the National Weather Service. (For the mathematically challenged, that means more than half the month of June was under water.) Worcester, MA, even claimed a record (go, Worcester!): 19 days (of a possible 30) with rain. Recent Boston Globe archives will remind New England golfers that May also kinda sucked, although what Boston golfers wouldn’t give for those erstwhile days of “chilly temperatures and cloudy skies.”

Now it’s July, and the weather service gurus predict flash flooding, thunderstorms, hail (hail!), and four more inches of precipitation through Friday in Boston and across New England. Can Boston golf courses possibly withstand the additional moisture? You can already fly fish in the four-foot-deep ponds formerly known as bunkers at Townsend (MA) Ridge Country Club.

More to the point, how many more rained-out rounds can New England golfers tolerate before they begin tossing Pro V1s, Burners, and White Hots off highway overpasses in sheer frustration?

“When will we get to play golf again?” wonders Nancy Olt, a financial advisor in Bedford, MA. “It's just going to rain every day the rest of our lives, right?”

A dry 4th of July? But fear not -- relief may be on the way. The climate wonks forecast mostly cloudy skies and high temperatures around 80 for the 4th of July and Saturday night. So perhaps you can “take your family golfing and enjoy the outdoors" for a day (just one day; don’t get greedy!) of “walking through beautiful rolling fairways,” as Family Golf Month promos suggest.

As you slosh across New England's golf courses, watch out for the Rhode Island-sized lakes of casual water, and don’t forget your umbrella. Oh, and sunscreen? You can probably just leave it home.

After climbing down from a nearby bridge and toweling off, Boston Golf Examiner will, in future articles, explore actual Family Golf Month activities.

On the off chance that the skies clear, the soaked fairways dry up, and you wish to play golf on the Cape over the 4th of July weekend, check out where to stay and play golf on Cape Cod.