SWANSEA – Mike Rose and seven other golfing buddies wore wide smiles Wednesday as they waited their turn at the first tee at Swansea Country Club. After all, for the moment anyway, the sun was shining.

The same can't be said for last Wednesday. Rose and several of his pals were putting on the third green. That's when the skies quickly began to darken and the club's air horn rang out.

"The skies opened up. It was pouring, lightning. Just awful," Rose said.

After the cloudburst passed, Rose's foursome returned to the course. A few holes later, the aggravating experience repeated itself.

"It's just annoying right now," said Rose, a Swansea native who returned to the area this spring after living in Virginia for a few years. "To see five days of sunshine in June was just awful. The summer is usually beautiful here."

Rose received what Swansea calls a 'sun check' to return to the course and finish his round, but his frustration is being repeated throughout the Rhode Island golf community. A summer filled with rainouts, frequent delays, lightning and soggy, wet conditions has become so prevalent that players and pros alike are reaching a boiling point.

"Uncle!" cried one e-mail that Pt. Judith head pro Dave Marcotte sent to members last week. He showed up at the course Wednesday morning to see sea gulls frolicking in a ponding area in the 18th fairway.

"It's frustrating, any way you cut it. We have to capitalize on the good days we get. That's the bottom line," Marcotte said.

The problems facing both private and public courses are daunting. Many private courses in the area were already under heavy financial pressure this season thanks to a mass exodus of financially-stressed members. Now historically-high rain amounts are both curtailing cart use and cancelling or postponing outings and tournaments, some of the most important revenue drivers in the business.

As a rule, members at private courses won't tee it up as religiously as public-course players who've already forked over their daily greens fee. Rob Martin, the Director of Golf Operations at Swansea, said that while ponds near the Palmer River that snakes through the property often overflow during recent heavy downpours and rainy, windy conditions have caused the removal of about 15 trees, business could be a lot worse.

"We have a lot of leagues and tournaments every weekend, but we haven't lost one weekend afternoon yet," said Martin. "The leagues at night have been hit-or-miss. If they get rained out we try to reschedule, but that's money we may never see. Unlike courses in Arizona or Florida, there are only so many days we can tee it up. We have a five-month season and three months where we can really go bonkers."

The rainy June weather caused golfers everywhere to go bonkers. Martin said a busy day at Swansea sees nearly 350 rounds played, and the club was down by about 200 rounds in June. "Tee sheets have been full where we lose almost the whole day," he said.

This year's tropical rains come in sharp contrast to a near-drought that golf courses dealt with last year. Martin said that parts of 17 days have been lost due to rain in 2009 versus just three last year.

"What's interesting is that our greens are in very good shape with all the wetness, kind of like the conditions we saw at the U.S. Open at Bethpage where the ball will stick if you hit the greens," he said. "Our golfers will play in the rain, even stop for a bit and play on if the rain is heavy. But lightning is a different story."

No one wants to get caught in a lightning storm but nearly everyone, it seems, has had the chance over the last six weeks. Sean DeSilva, 24, of Coventry, was wearing a Celtic green `Beat L.A.' tee shirt and working on his short game yesterday in preparation for next week's R.I. State Amateur. He also caddies at the Carnegie Abbey Club in Portsmouth where the walk is often long, hilly and hot. This spring and summer its simply been wet.

"We've been taken off the course four of five times," he said. "They send carts out all over the course to get us. I've never seen the water levels beyond what they've been this year. One time there was hail falling all over the place. It's getting a little ridiculous."

kmcnamar@projo.com