After the rain we had over the weekend and the rain we’re going to get tomorrow – this weather has been crazy! – I thought I’d toss my clubs in the car and go out and hit some balls. It was a P-E-R-F-E-C-T day – sunny, mid-70s, absolutely gorgeous for October around here. Too bad for me. Golf is closed this time of year.

Closed, you say? Golf? in Arizona? The land of a gazillion golf courses? How can that be?

Well, there are two forces at play here – forces that make Arizona the golf mecca it is. The first force is nature: it gets so hot around here that every golf course plants a localized form of Bermuda that can tolerate 110+ degree temperatures in mid-April, but by this time of year, it’s all turning brown. Second of all, with all the snowbirds about to start dropping in over the next few weeks, no one wants to see wheat-colored fairways and rough on their favorite golf courses they return to – especially at the increased greens fees all the courses round these parts start charging – so the golf courses all shut down for a few weeks and work in their winter rye. The same thing will happen next April, as the exodus of the snowbirds begins and the courses go from winter rye back to Bermuda.

That’s just the way it is here in Arizona. It’s just so weird to drive around on a picture-perfect October afternoon and see golf courses closed: the doors locked, the parking lots empty.

We’re about another week to ten days away from all my favorite courses opening up. I’m looking forward to it – I’m even looking around for a league I could join so I can play regularly with an eye towards retirement in a few years. The break from golf after Goodboys weekend and my experience at TPC Scottsdale have helped rekindle my love of the game. Now I just have to wait for the damned courses to open.