Winter of discontent for golf clubs

Peter Hutcheon takes the temperature at 10 of Ulster's top courses as they count the cost of the worst winter weather in living memory

He might have written it in 1969, but George Harrison could very well have had this year in mind when he wrote: "It's been a long, cold, lonely winter."

The song was 'Here Comes the Sun' from the Beatles' Abbey Road album and, boy, were those words music to the ears around Northern Ireland's golf courses this week.

Finally the 'Course Closed' signs could be consigned to the back of the greenkeepers' huts - at least until the summer monsoon season.

It has been just about the worst winter in living memory and coming hard on the heels of the credit crunch which had taken its toll on membership, the Arctic conditions were the last thing Northern Ireland's beleaguered clubs needed.

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