Opinion & Analysis

Autumn golf is the best golf

Published

7 years ago

Oct 21, 2019

For many, golf euphoria occurs the second weekend of April when the flowers start to bloom, courses begin to open, and the biggest tournament of the year is on television. But I believe the absolute best season for golf is the fall.

Let me explain.

SPRING

Spring is the season of hope and rebirth, and for most golfers, it’s the first opportunity to break out new clubs or take the game you’ve been working on all winter to the course for the first time in many months. Depending on where you are in North America or around the world, golf courses are just opening up and the ground is drying out from a winter filled with snow and ice.

Yes, spring is fantastic, you can shrug off the occasional mud ball since it’s probably your first round in four months and you’re willing to cut “the super” some slack for the slow greens, because you’re just happy to be out on terra firma chasing around a little white ball. Your game is rusty. Courses aren’t quite there yet, but it’s golf outside, and you couldn’t be happier.

SUMMER

The dog days. This time of year is when golf courses are the most busy thanks to the beautiful weather. But high temperatures and humidity can be a real deal-breaker, especially for walkers—throw in the weekly possibility for afternoon “out of the blue” thunderstorms, and now you’re sweating and drenched.

Unless you are a diehard and prefer the dew-sweeping pre-7 a.m. tee time when the sun breaks on the horizon, rounds tend to get longer in the summer as courses get busier. And you’ll often find more corporate outings and casual fairweather golfers out for an afternoon of fun—not a bad thing for the game, but not great for pace of play. Summer makes for fantastic course conditions, and with the sun not setting until after 9 p.m. for almost two months, the after-dinner 9 holes are a treat and you take them while you can.

FALL

As much I love nine holes after dinner with eight clubs in a Sunday bag and a few adult beverages in June, nothing compares to the perfect fall day for golf.

The sun’s orbit, paired with Mother Nature, allows you to stay in your warm bed just that little extra, since you can’t play golf when it’s still dark at 6:30 a.m. The warm, but not too warm, temperatures allow you to pull out your favorite classic cotton golf shirts without fear of the uncomfortable sweaty pits. We can’t forget that it’s also the season for every golfer’s favorite piece of apparel: the quarter zip (#1/4zipSZN).

Courses in the fall are often in the best shape (or at least they should be), since player traffic and corporate tournaments are done for the season. As long as warm afternoons are still the norm, firm and fast conditions can be expected.

Last but not least, the colors—reds, oranges, and yellows—frame the green fairways and dark sand to make them pop in the landscape. Fall is the final chance to get in those last few rounds and create happy thoughts and mental images before the clubs go away for the inevitably cold, dark days of winter.

Fall is meant for golf! So take pictures, smell the smells, and make great swings, because golf season is quickly coming to a close, and now is the time to savor each moment on the course.

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Ryan Barath

Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

11 Comments

Over Forty Degrees

Oct 24, 2019 at 7:47 pm

It’s all relative to where you live. Fall golf can be absolutely miserable in Northern Wisconsin/Michigan/Minnesota. Highs in 30’s, extensive frost delays, cold rain/sleet/snow, leaves everywhere, no mowing, aerified tees, greens, fairways, and approaches… however fall golf is awesome in southern Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan. You wouldn’t think 250 miles would make a difference, think again…

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DougE

Oct 23, 2019 at 10:48 am

I agree, fall is probably the nicest time to play, at least here in the Mid-Atlantic region. Right now our greens are fast and true. Our fairways are green and lush. The rough is manageable. And the crowds are beginning to subside—a little. Couldn’t ask for better conditions.

In addition, I can now wear pants again. The 85-100+ degree days kind of required golf shorts all summer. I’m much happier wearing golf pants. So the cooler temps are perfect, plus I get to wear my extensive collection of golf vests now, too. I still miss the late sunsets of June and July, though.

Yes, I find fall golf great, yet I know what’s around the corner; That dastardly winter. As long as there is no snow and the course is open, I’ll be out there then too…dreaming of fall golf and the long days of summer, while freezing my butt off. I love this game.

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SAS

Oct 23, 2019 at 8:28 am

Aerating the greens is bad enough, and then doing the fairways as well! Trouble finding balls amongst the leavee, more (natural) litter on the greens. It all slows the pace of play and doesn’t allow playing the game as purely as I prefer. I’d rather be sweaty and play in the summer.

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Scott

Oct 22, 2019 at 9:50 am

Summer golf is awesome but everything about fall golf is better. The colors, the conditions, talking football, reminiscing on the season. “Stealing” that one extra unusually warm day, the feeling that “this” might be the last round. Fall just seems like a more relaxed time of the year. You don’t have time to jam and rush your entire summer day filled with golf, yard work, then kid event, then family event, etc.

Fall in the Midwest has always been my favorite time to play.

If the greens are aerated properly in early September, they are healed within a couple of weeks.

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Mardukes

Oct 22, 2019 at 8:54 am

Ryan obviously doesn’t golf around Chicagoland. You would guess only the “better” players would be out for sweater golf. That would be wrong. You would guess you you could get around more quickly than usual. Nope. You might even guess those aeration holes would have mended after two week. T’ain’t so. I love fall golf.

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dat

Oct 21, 2019 at 9:23 pm

It’s one of many reasons the PGA Tour season shouldn’t have been truncated.

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Ardbegger

Oct 21, 2019 at 7:42 pm

Fall golf in the northern areas can be very challenging- courses do not always manage the leaves on the ground, frost delays set back tee times, the weather is more unpredictable, and the bunkers can be like asphalt. I’ll take summer.

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Jack Frost

Oct 21, 2019 at 4:27 pm

Unless you live in the upper midwest. Then it’s summer straight into winter.

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blake

Oct 21, 2019 at 4:20 pm

good write up. my only beef with fall golf is leaves on the ground and the increased liklihood of losing balls that otherwise would be found.

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Jc

Oct 21, 2019 at 2:55 pm

I agree with most of this, but you fail to mention fall golf is also when you are most likely to encounter aerated greens meaning other wise good weather and conditions are offset by your ball bouncing along the green in whichever direction it chooses.

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JJ

Oct 21, 2019 at 2:20 pm

Don’t forget that the cooler temps make the grass grow more slowly in the fall, so the staff can get to more of the course and keep it pristine. In turn, the supers can push the line in terms of mower height and speed up the course all over.

Lower temps are great, but the course conditions are what sets fall apart for me.

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Opinion & Analysis

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