12/12/22

If you’re like me and live in a part of the country where winter is really winter (cold and snow), then winter can be a difficult time for a person who loves golf!  I’m talking about reasonable winter. For those who live in New England, the Great Lakes region, etc., you have unreasonable winter (in my humble opinion). For you true northerners who live through “unreasonable winter,” your hibernation from golf is more challenging than is mine or my “DMV” neighbors. Still, even where I live, there are lots of reasons why retired golfers move to areas where they can get their year-round golf fix more comfortably. I envy those golfers who play in warmer climates most of the year. My daughter and her family live in Los Angeles. One year, my wife and I were visiting her for Christmas.  I played golf in LA on Christmas Eve in 78-degree weather, wearing shorts!!  Boy was that a rare treat for a guy from the Mid-Atlantic region!  However, this essay is more about how I have learned to use the Mid-Atlantic winter golf season constructively and even enjoy some cool weather golf!

This is the time of year when I work on swing adjustments and upgrades from the previous season.  I try to take a lesson from my instructor sometime in early November to set my course for off-season training (I follow up with a lesson in early March to set a course for the regular playing season). Throughout most of the winter, I hit golf balls.  Unless there has been a recent snowstorm around my area, driving ranges are open throughout the year. In fact, a lot of public driving ranges have outdoor heaters. At the private clubs, there are indoor facilities large enough to accommodate full swings into a screen or even from within a bay where you are warm inside and hitting balls into the outside cold. In the DMV, too, golf courses remain open unless the ground is covered with snow. Taking advantage of having more time dedicated to improving your game can be very beneficial!  During the active season, most of my concentration is on playing and playing competitively, whether it be against another golfer or just against my index.  I don’t really try to make many significant changes during the active season because usually, productive changes take lots of time. Incorporating new techniques before they are realized in your swing can be a painstaking and time-consuming process. For me, the best time of year to make big improvements for the long haul is during the winter months were playing competitively is not the priority.

Even during the chilly winter months, as the weather allows, actually playing the game is still a great blessing. I have had many beautiful and enjoyable walks down a fairway on a sunny, 40-degree day where the wind is less than 10 miles per hour, even though the ground may still be frozen. Many a golfer from this region of the country has hit a high January or February shot into a green that was frozen solid and had the ball bounce over the green like a superball!  Every golfer’s tolerance (physical, mental, and emotional) is different. For me, the wind determines my physical tolerance. If the temperature is under 50 degrees, the wind is over 10 miles per hour, or there is precipitation, that will not be a playing day for me. Otherwise, I can enjoy a round of winter golf when those conditions are met.  Most winter golfers who brave the elements have winter rules in place (like fall “leaf-rules”) to accommodate less-than-ideal conditions. In Maryland, since we don’t post scores after November 30th, the rules adjustments allow more latitude to practice playing as opposed to playing competitively in the active season (active posting restarts on March 15^th in Maryland). This more “informal” approach to my golf contributes to my mental and emotional tolerance for playing in the winter. Lastly, playing in the winter requires me to wear a lot more gear. There is a difference between wearing shorts and a polo compared to wearing four layers, gloves, and a knit hat! As with rules accommodations, I modify expectations of my level of play when it’s cold, and I bundle up. I know that the ball doesn’t go as far in the winter (although playing a softer ball helps), and certainly, my personal comfort level is different in January than it is in June. However, when it’s tolerable for me, I brave the elements because golf is always golf, and I love to play whenever I get a chance!  My “golf jones” is real!  So, even in the winter months, I “play the course as I find it” and get great exhilaration from having another opportunity to “feed my addiction.”