This coming weekend golfers on Cape Cod will bare witness to one of the true rites of spring: The Seagulls Fourball Championship. This often grueling competition is hosted over two weekends every spring at the Hyannisport Club and is almost guaranteed to bring out the worst possible weather.
The term “spring” is used loosely here. The calendar indicates the season is here, but ask any one who has played the Seagulls over the years and they’ll tell you otherwise. The chilly waters that surround Cape Cod and border the Hyannis Port Club itself bring in freezing winds and swirling gusts that can wreak havoc with even the most solid of ball strikers. That’s on a good day…in July. Consider that Hyannisport is just over six miles from the site chosen for Cape Wind, the country’s first proposed off shore wind farm and what does that tell you? The wind is almost always a factor at Hyannisport. If you don’t like to play in it, you pretty much just won’t play. You learn to hit a knock down shot early on if you golf on Cape Cod; the geographic location of Hyannisport only exascerbates the problem. Some wind is always to be expected; it’s the gale force winds that can kill your game. Those guys in Augusta last week thought they had problems? Spring golf for them starts with mai tais in Maui, then they dance a two step through the South West and a waltz down Magnolia Lane. Gusts to 29 miles an hour? That would be a cake walk for the Seagulls.
Cape Cod Travel provides this advice for visitors to the Cape in the spring:
”Pack for late winter and spring. April is variable –a light snow in early April is common; towards the end of the month it can be in the 40’s and 50’s. Waterproof shoes or boots are a must; as are medium and heavy jackets.”
Bear in mind that this description is meant to attract people to the area. And just think, that doesn’t take into account a five mile walk along side Nantucket Sound trying to hit a ball with a stick.
The forecast for the weekend is temperatures in the forties, winds nearing twenty miles an hour and rain. In short, the forecast here is similar to the one for the NorthStar Golf Club in Fairbanks, Alaska, described by some as the coldest eighteen hole course in the world. Except that in Fairbanks it is predicted to be forty six and sunny, no rain. Possible snow flurries… lots of wind… this weekend will be pure survival of the fittest; definitely time for the Seagulls tournament.
