A weather-related closure of a number of golf courses across England has left some people scrambling to find alternative places to play.
Golf courses in the Midlands are closed for the season, while some of the country’s best-known courses in Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Hampshire are all set to close for the summer.
Weather permitting, some golf courses are expected to remain closed until next year.
The closures have been caused by cold temperatures, strong winds and high winds which are likely to continue through to next week.
The weather will be worse in some parts of England and Wales, particularly in the north of the UK.
Some courses in some of these regions will be closed indefinitely due to the severity of the weather.
In Northumberland, one of the few places to be closed, the local golf club has said it has to shut down for “a few weeks”.
The local club said the weather will get worse and the weather conditions will become “really, really bad”.
The closure of the club’s two golf courses is the latest in a string of closures for the UK this winter.
A closure of one of Britain’s biggest golf courses, the Open Championship in Manchester, on Wednesday forced organisers to cancel the opening day of the tournament, which had been due to be held on Sunday.
This is not the first time golf courses have been forced to close due to cold conditions, but in the UK it is the first in the country to be affected by extreme weather.
Golfer Richard Hogg of Henley-on-Thames, who won the 2017 British Open, was one of those affected by the cold weather.
“We have had wind and hail on our golf course for the last week,” Mr Hogg said.
“I think it’s going to be very cold in there and windy on the course.”
It’s just a matter of how much time we have left to get out there and play.
“The weather conditions are going to get worse in places, it’s just how we can manage it.”
In some areas of the north, it is likely to be the coldest winter on record for the northern hemisphere.
In Hampshire, where the weather is expected to be worst, many golf courses in parts of the county will be shut.
Glorious Hills, in the village of Newfield, will close for a week from Friday, as well as the nearby Porthcawl Golf Club in the county’s south.
“A lot of people are really concerned about the lack of snow and the lack, you know, of a big, wide open fairway, but that’s what we’re going to have to cope with,” said PorthCawl’s Dean Clark.
“But there will be plenty of other golf courses around the county that will open.”
The closure is being driven by the winter weather, with the average temperatures at Newfield on Friday falling to -8C (-4F).
In the south of the state, in Gloucestershire, the average temperature was -6C (-3F) for the day.
In the South West, the temperature dropped to -6.5C (-2.5F) in the town of Bournemouth on Friday.
In Lincolnshire, the wind chill limit for the whole of the south-east will be hit on Saturday, while in the East Midlands the temperature will be -7C (-5F).
A number of other weather-affected courses will be affected on the same day as the closures are being made.
In Essex, the Windy City Golf Course will close on Saturday for a “temporary” closure due to wind and ice conditions.
In Northamptonshire, it will close the day after for a wind chill of -8F.
In Sussex, it would be cold enough to be called off the course altogether for the weekend.
In Suffolk, the county has already had to shut its two main golf courses – Old Bourneston in the city of Eastbourne and Houghton Golf Club – due to “high winds”.