How The Weather Has Changed Playing Golf in 2025

By: Derek Clements | Edited: Fri 18 Jul 2025

Share this article:

As we witnessed at the Scottish Open last week and have see again at this week’s Open Championship, links golf is a very different animal.

We routinely saw drives of 340-plus yards. There were even a couple that were measured at around 400 yards.

Chris Gotterup, who won the event, reported that he hit an eight iron 238 yards! It is mind boggling. And it presents its own unique challenges to golfers of all standards.

Of course, the Renaissance course was sun-baked, the conditions were benign and the wind was gentle - not the sort of conditions you would expect to find in Scotland. It took some of the field by surprise but it is a measure of the incredible talent these guys possess that most of them were able to solve the problem.

Elie Links

(Elie Links in Scotland)

Many of you will never have played traditional links golf but the extended heatwave we have experienced in parts of England has given us all a taste of what it is like.

I play my golf in Norwich, where we have had no discernible rainfall for months.

Like many courses in East Anglia, we still have preferred lies in play because there has been barely any grass growth. Unbelievably, every course I have played this year has presented me with fabulous putting surfaces, which is testament to the incredible work that our greenskeepers do.

At Dunston Hall Golf Club, where I play, many of the ponds are at levels I have not seen before.

The one thing that is abundantly clear is that higher handicap golfers are revelling in the conditions. Score 40 points in a Stableford competition and you will be lucky to finish in the top 10. We have routinely seen scores of around 45 points. That would indicate that the game has become easier.

Hmmmm. I would dispute that. Golf has become a very different game in 2025.

I normally hit a driver 220 yards if I catch the ball perfectly but I have found an extra 80 yards. There are several par fours that normally give me kittens where I have found myself almost driving the green.

The other week I hit an eight iron from 160 yards and looked on in disbelief as it finished 20 yards through the back of the green. My ball travelled 180 yards. With an eight iron.

Where I would pull out an iron, aim for the green and expect the ball to hold the putting surface I am now finding myself hitting endless pitch and runs. And the problem with that is because the fairways are so hard I have no idea in which direction the ball is going to bounce when it lands. You also don’t need me to tell you how incredibly difficult it is so judge precisely how far the ball is going to roll.

Am I the only person who has found myself reaching for the putter while 50 yards short of the green?

I grew up in Scotland and played a lot of links golf, learning how to play the game at Lundin Links and playing a huge amount of golf at St Andrews. I learnt the value of keeping the ball on the ground. It is an art I had all but forgotten but is a skill that I have had to rediscover.

The most difficult shots are those where you have to hit the ball over water to a rock-hard green, knowing full well that you have no chance whatsoever of keeping the ball on the green. So there has been a new skill to learn - working out where best to miss the green to give yourself a chance of saving par.

I have loved the extra distance these tropical conditions have given me but I cannot possibly be the only one who is longing for some rain to soften up the fairways, get the grass growing and return us to conditions with which we are more familiar. I love links golf - but not so much on an inland parkland course!

Drought Conditions Are Changing The Way We Play

What Makes Links Golf The Best