Weathering the heat: Hampshire County golf courses adapt as temps near triple digits

During Monday’s Massachusetts Amateur Public Links qualifier at Westover Golf Course, event directors and employees offered golf carts to those competing in the tournament. Typically in competitive rounds hosted by Mass Golf, carts are not allowed and competitors walk the course.

But due to the extreme heat (some areas in Hampshire County posting highs of 93 degrees), almost everyone who competed rode in a golf cart to avoid the pulsating temperatures.

Monday’s weather snowballed — although one would melt in a millisecond right now — into Tuesday, as yet another scorching day surrounded the Northeast. Temperatures hit 99 degrees in Northampton at 3 p.m.

As a result, both Northampton Country Club and Amherst Golf Club have seen their participation numbers decrease this week, and they canceled their weekly afternoon/evening leagues scheduled for Tuesday. Northampton even canceled their Monday outing as well.

Playing in this kind of heat runs more risk than reward.

“We’ve actually canceled our leagues the last two nights,” Northampton Country Club owner and head pro Jim Casagrande told the Gazette. “It’s similar to a real rainy day— it’s too intense for most people to safely be out there, that’s for sure. Our play is pretty negligible at the moment.”

Amherst followed similar protocol when deciding what to do with their Tuesday league as well.

“We’ve been good up until [Tuesday],” Rick Durocher, the assistant pro and husband of head professional Shawn Durocher, said. “We have a league that goes off in the afternoon [on Tuesday], and we decided to cancel that. The last few days we had normal play, but it’s just too hot.”

Both Casagrande and Durocher said the conditions of their courses haven’t changed despite the summer sun beating down on their grass this week. It hasn’t been hot long enough to impact the course quite yet. However knowing it is still only June and summer is just kicking into gear, Casagrande and other courses in the area are hoping to beat any heat waves to the punch.

That starts with providing the course plenty of water for days like we’ve had this week.

“So far we’re OK as far as loss of any turf,” Casagrande said. “Right now we have about six or seven heads going out there watering and trying to cool the grass down, you know, maintaining what we have. This time of year you have hot and humid, or rain at times, so it’s a high-disease time of year. I’m sure most superintendents in the area are doing their pre-emptive strikes to combat any of that stuff.”

Once again, Amherst is in the same boat.

“The course is in super shape,” Durocher said. “It hasn’t been hot long enough to really impact anything. Plus, there’s always water.”

Over the past few days, members of Amherst and Northampton who typically walk those golf courses have hopped in carts to avoid walking in the heat for a two-plus hour (and that’s only accounting for nine holes) round. Casagrande noted that his regular walkers understand that “it’s just not safe” to trudge along in this weather.

Durocher has also seen his normal walking crews opt to change their routine.

“Some people the last few days have taken a cart that normally might not,” he said.

On Monday, Casagrande headed south to play in a Pro-Am tournament in Wallingford, Conn. He admitted that he and the three other golfers in his group struggled to make it through the full round.

He also said that if it weren't for that tournament, there was no chance he would have played golf. His members clearly thought the same thing, as on Tuesday at about 2 p.m., he said there was only one person out on the course.

“The only time I would play in this heat is in an event like that,” Casagrande said. “We were already committed to it. But there’s no shot I’m going out to play today (Tuesday).”

Durocher, on the other hand, went out and played a few holes on Tuesday. Because Amherst was also pretty empty, he took advantage of the break in the day by getting some swings in.

If you’re like Durocher, it isn’t a bad idea to hop on a course, take a cart, buzz around and play as many holes as you can tolerate. There won’t be many people out there. It’s just a matter of how long you can last in the blistering heat.