Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

The Golfing Life

Get out and play, but play it safe

By LOGAN MABE
Published August 5, 2005

Summer golf. It's the best of times and the worst of times.

From a cost standpoint, there's no better season for the Florida golfer than summer. Greens fees plummet to their lowest rates of the year as courses compete for your golfing dime.

Several local courses, including the Eagles in Odessa and the TPC of Tampa Bay in Lutz, even offer all-day, all-you-can-play deals for less than a single round costs on the weekend.

But you pay, and often pay dearly, in other ways: dehydration, sunstroke, mosquitoes, rogue thunderstorms from out of nowhere with the killer lightning strikes they pack.

"The most important thing is to keep them well-hydrated," said Nikki Rainey, the beverage cart attendant at Northdale Golf Club. "Powerade, water and lots of ice. That does the trick."

Rainey tends to her clients like a field nurse, giving out as much ice as she can carry and offering free squirts of battlefield medicine.

"The other thing is mosquito repellent," said Rainey, who packs an emergency supply for her afternoon rounds. "We don't sell it. I just give them a squirt and they're happy. It's something they probably didn't think of until they're out here."

But you can't always rely on the kindness of strangers while in the heat of battle.

If you're going to handle the elements, the summer golfer needs to be prepared. Basically, it boils (literally) down to four key aspects: Keep cool, keep wet, keep dry (I know, I'll explain) and keep safe.

You've got to have a good hat. And I'm not talking about the baseball-styled caps players like Tiger Woods wear. Yes, the TW emblem above the bill looks cute, but these kinds of hats do little to turn back the vicious effects of the sun.

You need a real hat, the kind Greg Norman wears when he's out there busting par. Most often made of straw or something the Norman marketers call "twisted seagrass," these full-coverage models do the trick.

They shield your head from the sun, offer shade to the ears and neck, and allow whatever breeze you might encounter in the Florida heat to waft gently over your thinning pate.

The Greg Norman models sell in the $30-and-up range. You can find similar styles, that cover just as well but don't have a shark on the brim, in discount stores for about half that.

Remember, nothing screws up a round of golf like a visit to the dermatologist to have a cancerous mole burned off.

Speaking of cancerous lesions - use sunscreen. Not the 8-SPF stuff your teenagers use so they can get that oh-so-natural bronze tan. Load up on 30-SPF or higher. Your hide will thank you later.

Alternately, a long-sleeved shirt is a good idea. It may sound, and look, odd but it seems to work for lots of men and women employed by landscaping crews. And these pros go toe-to-toe with the sun on a daily basis.

Another nifty gadget to keep the heat at bay is something called the Chill EZ neckband I found at an Edwin Watts golf store. It's like a bandanna, but filled with polymer beads. You soak it in ice cold water, drape it around your neck and the beads keep it cool for hours. Pretty neat trick for $7.

Lastly, get some slick shades. Former No. 1 golfer in the world David Duval popularized the neon-tinted wraparound shades before his career went into a neon-tinted tailspin. His golf game might stink now, but at least he can see the ball clearly as it arcs majestically into the water hazard.

Sunglasses, with the proper UV coating, protect the eyes from the brutal midday sun and keep you from going blind. Unfortunately, they don't keep you from playing like you may be blind.

Lots of water. Most golf clubs provide water coolers and refreshment stations at regular intervals around the course. While these oases of aquatic relief are a welcome respite for the sun-stunned, thirst isn't something that can be regulated.

Aside from being potentially hazardous to your health, dehydration can play havoc with your golf game.

"It really gets scorching out there," said Max Hutson, 18, a golf cart attendant at Northdale and former member of the state champion Chamberlain High School golf team. "The heat can play games with your mind."

Speak it, brother. Once, I ran so low on precious bodily fluids during a round at the Eagles that I actually started hallucinating. Lining up one of my last putts of the round, I was convinced that Elin Nordegren (that's Mrs. Tiger Woods to you) was tending the flag for me. The best solution is to pack a refillable water bottle with you, preferably 2 quarts. You can refill it throughout the round and chug when the need hits.

When the beverage cart comes around, load up on ice and stay away from the Budweiser. Alcohol does more harm than good when it comes to quenching thirst. Oh, and be sure to tip her handsomely to ensure that you'll see her again soon.

Remember: Nothing ruins a round of golf like finding yourself lying in the fairway suffering the inexplicable cold shivers of heat prostration. Because you know your playing partners are going to finish out the hole before they return to help you.

Never let them see you sweat? Get real.

Let's face it, you're going to sweat. A lot. Every inch of your body that comes in contact with the brutal humidity of a midsummer afternoon's nightmare is going to produce copious amounts of perspiration. This fact is non-negotiable.

But there are ways to keep the flow to a minimum.

First, you can't have enough towels. Most golf bags have an attachment for a golf towel, used primarily to wipe off crud-encrusted clubs. Do not use this towel to dry yourself! You will come home looking like a sand-filled divot.

Rather, carry along any number of all-purpose hand towels or even bath towels. My regular golfing buddy Steve uses enough to fill a white load during a round of golf. Yeah, you might look like the Sultan of Arabia draped in flowing robes while lining up a putt, but your hands will be powder-perfect dry when you sink that 12-footer for par.

If you use a glove, as most golfers do, make sure you have a couple of extras. When one gets soaked, strap it to the roof support of the cart to dry and grab another. You can easily go through three during a particularly sticky round.

Other over-the-counter items that can prove helpful include the Pro Grip rosin bag ($2.99), modeled after the ones major league pitchers use on the mound. Also, the HJ Gripper golf glove (available in many pro shops and golf stores, $6.99) is a great all-weather glove that stays soft and grippy even when damp.

And you'll meet with external moisture, too. Occasionally, the summer golfer will encounter a brief shower devoid of lightning. You can play on if you've got one of those huge golf umbrellas. The Ping model sells for about $40, but you can find similar and useful models at places like Target for about half that.

And yeah, you could wear terry-cloth wrist bands like the NBA players used in the 1970s. They're effective, but you know your playing partners are going to snicker at you. Let 'em snicker all the way to the 19th hole, where they'll be buying the beverages because you could still stick approach shots.

On the subject of lightning, know only this:

Nothing ruins a round of golf like death.

When lightning approaches, seek cover. Whether it's an oncourse weather shelter, a rest room, or a long return to the clubhouse, you need to be anywhere but in an open area holding a 2-iron above your head.

One caveat: Just about every golfer knows the famous adage by Lee Trevino, who opined that it was perfectly fine to golf during a lightning storm using a 1-iron. Trevino's reasoning: "Even God can't hit a 1-iron."

You need to know another thing. Lee Trevino was JOKING.

Now, about alligators. I don't care if you just bombed a 300-yard drive - most likely the most extraordinary golf shot of your otherwise ordinary life - if it rolls up next to a beached alligator, that ball is gone. Drop another one and play through.

Same goes for snakes.

Mosquitoes are another matter. Those you can fight.

In the camping supplies section of Wal-Mart, they sell a nifty product called Repel mosquito wipes. They're soaked in 30 percent DEET and you can get 20 of them for $3.82.

This may be the best money you ever spend on golf.

Best thing about wipes is, you can apply the repellent to those hard-to-spray areas like the back of the neck, the ears, the ankles, the forehead, and the like.

Golf is a gentleman's game of self-enforced rules. Just make sure you follow these rules that aren't included in the USGA manual: Keep cool, keep wet, keep dry, and keep safe.

And keep playing. Even when it's 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity.

- Logan Mabe lives in Northdale and plays as much golf as he can afford. He writes an occasional column about golfing in Hillsborough County. This is his first. You can e-mail him at ldmabe@aol.com

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 08:43:14]