Golfing In The Tropics…At The Wrong Time of Year

A few months back, my wife told me she was planning a vacation for us along with another couple. This being our first “real” vacation since our honeymoon, I was excited to go! Besides the obvious “Where are we going?” only two other questions remained for me.

After learning of our destination, Key West, the first question that came to mind was “Is there a golf course there?” The second question, “Does the guy we’re going with play?” Lucky for me, the answers to both questions were “yes.”

So my only real concern with this vacation was the time of year. It’s July. In the Florida Keys. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be humid. All signs point to discomfort. But I guess I didn’t much consider the effect of the weather on the golf course itself. Maybe I was fooled by all of those beautiful pictures of tropical golf courses. The bright, cloudless skies. The crystal blue ocean waters. The lush green grass. Well, I guess two out of three ain’t bad. Excited to head to the Key West Golf Club, America’s southernmost golf course, those aforementioned visions were dancing in my head. But man was I in for a let-down.

I should have known when we called the day before to make a tee-time and everything from 11:30 on was available, that it was going to be rough one. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the course or its employees. I suppose at this time of year, with non-stop sun baking the grass and temperatures consistently in the 90’s (with a heat index regularly approaching 110), course maintenance can’t be easy. But outside of the tee boxes and greens (which were in nice shape), there was an incredible amount of brown on this course. It makes me wonder about other tropical courses. Are the conditions similar at this time of year? Did I just pick the wrong time of year to play a tropical course?

Now, it’s not that I so much mind some brown patches on the course. As I said, with the weather and temps being what they are, I can understand the challenges in keeping this course green. But the grass in the rough (where I tend to spend a lot of time) was so dry and hard that it was having a seriously negative effect on our swings. Quite simply, the game just became much more difficult than it already is. Combine that with the heat and humidity and the back nine (well, the front nine for the second time because the actual back nine was closed) was just overbearing.

So with all this in mind, if I do return to Key West in the future, it will certainly be at a different time of year. I’d like to play this course again as I did find it to be fun all around. Some of the scenery wasn’t all that great as a few holes run parallel to Route 1. But some others were quite pretty, with the palm trees sprouting throughout the course, ponds aplenty and the tropical wildlife including the iguanas, herons and various other tropical birds and ducks.

But again I ask, was I in the right place at the wrong time? Did I head to a beautiful part of the country at a bad time of year? Are other tropical courses in less than perfect shape during the summer?

Well, no matter the weather or course conditions, I guess the whole situation was summed up by my playing partner Chris, when he said “Hey, we’re playing golf in Key West. How many people do you know that can say that right now.”

He was right.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

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