By Michael Clemmer^*

A Hole in the Clouds

Look around the Internet at golf course pictures and you will be hard pressed to find any made on an overcast afternoon. With the exception of the British Isles, it's always a sunny day on a golf course, right? Hardly!

Golfers play in all kinds of cloudy and inclement weather. They may not want to, but they do. Not long ago, I scouted a course when the heat-index was 114 degrees and there were golfers all over the place; they were suffering, but they would play in Hell if they had to. And it was sunny.

Because clients want pretty skies and green grass, golf course photographers are always concerned about the weather. Even with good planning, the weather may change – for the worse – soon as we arrive, or shortly after. Here's a case in point:

Last October, on my second day at Old Edwards Club at Highlands Cove, in Highlands, N.C., a dreary warm front moved in and brought two days of fog, mist and rain.

Every weather link on my computer, every mind-numbing National Weather Service "Forecast Discussion," Weather Channel, AccuWeather , everybody was coming to the same conclusion: the season's first snowstorm was imminent.

Back in 1987, a similar event took place in Vermont when I was working on a book for the National Geographic Society. We had timed everything perfectly: Early October: autumn was at its glorious peak; the weather was sunny and warm. Then, from out of nowhere, a cold front dropped the temperature to the low 30's and it snowed 12 inches! It tore limbs – with their beautiful leaves – right off trees. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/05/us/early-snowstorm-covers-northeast.html?pagewanted=all

Never give up. In a day or so the weather warmed, the snow vanished, and there was enough "glorious" left to make some nice pictures. Would history repeat itself, almost exactly, 22 years later? No.

We didn't have the Internet in 1987; Weather Channel – in its infancy – was on, but it wasn't always available in motels. In short, we didn't have all the information back then that we do today. In October 2009, in my snug little cottage at The Old Edwards Inn, I had high-resolution satellite images – refreshed every 15 minutes – to look at on my laptop. I could see holes in the clouds to the west of the Smokey Mountains; the clouds, and the holes, were moving eastward. Outside the mist was astonishingly thick; visibility was approximately a hundred feet, max. It was early afternoon and holes in the clouds were still in Tennessee.

Around 2:00, a freshening westerly breeze began to stir, and swirl, the mist. I looked at the computer screen, then at my camera bag; holes in clouds can affect local wind, but they were still at least 60 miles away. The mist had gone by 3:00, replaced by dark gray in all directions. The latest image from the Goes-East weather satellite showed the holes were no more than 25 miles away. It was time to tell the pro shop I needed a cart.

Only two people were at the pro shop when I called, and they both must have thought I was insane. Thankfully, the girl at the desk was able to convince the guy in the cart barn that I knew what I was doing. It's a twenty-minute drive to the golf course from the cottage, and they were still socked-in when I arrived at 3:45.

Although the sun would officially set at 6:58, I knew the mountains would block it long before that. Like, maybe in forty minutes. Also, I knew where I wanted to go: Number 6. [Why scouting is so important.] At 4:00 the sky was still overcast as I set up the tripod and attached the camera, but the ceiling was lifting, and there was more “light” in the air.

At 4:15 the sky to the west of Number 6 brightened considerably; a hole in the clouds was coming. I had until 4:40, and then the sun’s altitude would drop below 26 degrees and be hidden by a mountain.

The image above was made at 4:30. Five minutes later the lovely scene fell into shadow, the sky became gloomy again, and the next day there was sleet and snow.

Many thanks to Old Edwards Club, Director of Operations, Jerry West, and Head Golf Professional, Jordan Kenter, for giving me to opportunity to photograph their beautiful golf course. http://www.oldedwardsinn.com

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Credits

Originally posted by MichaelClemmer on 25 Oct 2010.
All contributors: JimKass, MichaelClemmer,

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