Having been living in NZ for over 4 years now, I have to admit that I still struggle with the concept of golf being considered a winter sport. Everywhere else in the world it is a summer sport. I get that it collides with cricket, and being another sport that takes up the greater part of a day, playing both can be tricky (getting permission for the good lady boss, her indoors to do both would potentially result in a costly divorce), but as far as I am concerned golf is a summer sport, and here in NZ, frankly, you have got it wrong. Further proof of my certainty can be provided in under 3 weeks when golf takes it's place in the pantheon of sports at the Summer Olympics - not, the sharp eyed among you will notice, the ":Winter Olympics". The idea of playing golf on ice or in snowy conditions is a non-starter. Golf on skis won't work, and while ice-hockey could be considered as golf on ice-skates, there is far too much fighting for the generally more genteel golfing clientele (quick aside: true fact, fighting is considered an integral part of ice hockey, with it's own sub-set of rules and regulations - the governing bodies tried to do away with it once in a foolhardy attempt to clean up the sport, but it only ended up with more injuries, and so it was re-instated and has become a motivational tactic used by skippers to get their teams going if necessary). Anyway, all of the golfing majors are played in the Summer. As are all of the professional golf tours, and that includes the European PGA Tour which rather bizarrely includes a New Zealand leg in January - which is, I note, in Summer - do you see my point? Of course, New Zealand winters in Canterbury are not as tiresome as some of those in the Northern hemisphere. Today, by way of an example, I managed to play 18 holes in shorts., and I was not alone. I mention this, not as a way of demonstrating my manhood (the shorts were whole, not holey), but merely to point out that the winters here are not as consistently miserable as they are in the country of my birth - the odds of any muppets playing in shorts on the golf course in the colder months of the UK are pretty much nil. Still, decent weather aside (ok, decent-ish, the memory of 2 weeks ok still lingers like the mould I can feel growing on my bones), golf is a far more pleasant past-time in the warmer months, when shorts can be worn with confidence and combined with a classic t-shirt (collars optional, depending on your level of daring). A of year time when a brief, warm shower of rain is welcomed rather than being a harbinger of pneumonia, or some form of rusting of the joints (to be fair, that might just be age). A season when you have to wear a hat to keep the sun from beating down relentlessly on your noggin, burning your emerging scalp because you have forgotten to put sunscreen on your head as there used to be hair there (ok, I might be admitting to a bit more than planned there) In summer, the ball travels further, the greens are faster and roll better, a cold beer is more refreshing, there is more daylight and it is warmer - did I mention it was warmer? Maybe I'll just put the shorts away next week Stay safe, stay warm, and play well Steve |