Following a particularly inclement winter, a number of prep spring sports have been forced to deviate from their normal practice routines.

Few, however, have been affected more than boys golf, where indoor simulation opportunities are minimal and an ability to get on the course frequently is widely viewed as key to a team’s early-season success.

“I think for us, we’re probably a week behind in terms of being ready,” said Veritas Christian boys golf coach Mark Brown. “We have a tournament next week, and we’re not ready.”

The biggest issue, it seems, has been course availability. The Veritas team, for instance, showed up for an early-March practice at Lawrence Country Club to find snow covering the greens, and the boys team at Seabury Academy has endured similar struggles in attempting to prepare for the 2010 season.

“We tried to get together the first week in March and tried to get some practices in before (Spring Break), and the weather just wasn’t cooperating,” said Seabury boys coach Eric Edwards, who also had to work around a recent two-week-long spring break during which many of the schools students were out of the state.

Even when the teams have managed to get outside, however, things haven’t exactly gone swimmingly.

“I think that the first couple weeks of conditions were so bad and so wet that it really kind of hurt the confidence of the players,” Brown said. “Because it’s just so hard to play good golf in bad conditions.”

As a result, neither coach is putting too much stock in his teams’ early-season performance.

Both teams open their respective seasons next week, and the results, Edwards and Brown were quick to point out, will be taken with a fairly sizable grain of salt.

“We’re still a month away from being dialed in,” Edwards said. “… Literally, the first three or four (tournaments) are ones where I just say, ‘Let’s just go out and grab some experience.”