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When Does Your Golf Season End?

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Does September really mark the end of summer activities? Is golfing after Labor Day like wearing white shoes in the fall? Maybe college and pro football have something to do with it? Take our poll and tell us when your golf season ends.

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Golf in November – From left: Stinky Golfers Chris, Greg & Tom in 2013

Labor Day – the most dreaded of holidays for those who make their living in the outdoor recreational industry. It seems the holiday we set-aside to break from work ironically signals the end of play for many activities – golf notwithstanding.

Now, it’s my own personal opinion that Labor Day isn’t the catalyst (at least for golf anyway). No sir – the true culprit is American football – both college and pro. Once football graces television sets across America on Saturdays and Sundays, the waits on the tee-boxes disappear.

But this is just speculation on my part. I’m not really sure why the course seems less crowded after Labor Day – perhaps just the fact that it’s now September is enough for people to realize summer is basically over and with that, so too is golf. Or maybe it’s a combination of both the onset of fall and the start of football?

At any event, the golfers who are putting their clubs in hibernation this week are missing out. They’re missing out on a more enjoyable round that includes more comfortable temps and less crowds on the course. Not to mention a bit later in the fall (depending on your location) some really awesome foliage. For me, this is the best time of year to play golf.

Despite living in a northern state, my golf season typically ends sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving, depending on the weather. But I surmise for many average hacks like me, this is not the case. And that brings us to today’s poll: When does your golf season end?

Now I realize that some of you might live in a climate that allows for golf all year – so this poll isn’t for you. And it’s also not for my friends in the desert, who look forward to the cooler temps of winter. But if you happen to live in a locale where Labor Day marks the end of warm weather, please tell me if you also think it marks the end of your golf season…

When Does Your Golf Season End?

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Losing Your Grip On Your Clubs…No Sweat.

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no-sweatOne of the most common excuses we all hear from our golfing buddies after a bad shot is “The club slipped.”  Hey, it’s not really an excuse though.  It happens.  It’s happened to me several times.  After the first couple of times it happened, I was given the old “you should try wearing a glove” advice.  So I gave it a shot, but just found it to be a bit uncomfortable.  So, gloveless, I just had to keep my hands as dry as possible throughout the round and learn to live with it.  And, as many people know, keeping your hands dry in a humid New England summer is no easy task.  Enter No Sweat.

We here at golfstinks.com are sent lots of products to try out.  So far, luckily enough, just about all of them have been useful, done what they were supposed to do and worked as advertised.  Well, you can now add No Sweat to the list.  No Sweat is a spray-on lotion which, with one application, claims to keep your hands dry throughout your golf round.  And, as mentioned earlier, that’s exactly what it did.  As a matter of fact, No Sweat lived up to all of it’s claims – there’s no odor, it’s not sticky and there’s no powder.  It’s also non-toxic, but rather than test that out the only way I know how, I just took their word for it.

Another of their claims is that the effect will last all day.  And again, No Sweat lived up to it’s claim.  I sprayed No Sweat on my hands just a few moments before my first swing, and nine holes later, there was no need for reapplication.  Now I can’t say it would have fully lasted 18 holes without another spray because I didn’t play 18.  However, if it required another shot to each hand…then so be it.  It’s doing it’s job, so it’s well worth it.

Speaking of worth it, that’s another term worthy of describing No Sweat.  At only $8.99 per bottle and with a claimed use amount of up to 50 applications per bottle, how can you go wrong?  Even if it’s a super-humid day and you do have to reapply it for the back nine, that works out to only 36 cents per eighteen hole round.  Now that is a good value.

What about uses for non-golfers?  You can put No Sweat to use in just about any situation where having sweaty hands would be a problem.  Maybe in football, baseball or, basketball.  Or how about billiards?  That’s a terrible sport in which to have sweaty hands.  Or maybe you’re on a job interview.  You can’t have sweaty hands for the initial handshake.  And you sure can’t keep wiping your hands on your pants all interview long.  Heck, even holding hands with your girlfriend, boys!

So all-in-all, No Sweat is a winner in my opinion.  And at only $8.99 per bottle, which will likely last you throughout your golf season, it’s a no-brainer.  And being the good-hearted, sharing bunch we are, we here at Golfstinks don’t want to hog all of the good stuff.  So as usual, we are going to choose one lucky winner who will be awarded a free bottle of No Sweat.  Just click here to head over to our Facebook page and “like” the post on our wall entitled “Golfers! Win a free bottle of No Sweat!” We’ll pick a random winner and put their hand-sweat problems and concerns to rest.  Well, for at least a golf season anyway.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

It’s Monday and I’m On The Golf Course

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It’s a nice feeling when you get to say “It’s Monday and I’m not at work.”  Everyone hates Mondays.  There’s a reason it’s not called “Blue Tuesday.”  No one gets a “Case of the Thursdays.”  No, we all start feeling that way about Mondays, usually, on Sunday mornings.  But when you have that Monday off from work, even though you have to go in on Tuesday, it somehow just doesn’t seem nearly as bad, does it?  But do you know what’s even better than being out of work on Monday?  Being on the golf course on Monday.

There’s been a few times where I’ve skipped out on work to play golf, and most times it’s been on a Monday.  And although I’ve included Wednesdays and Fridays as well, there’s nothing quite as liberating as standing on the first tee and saying to yourself “It’s Monday, and not only am I not at work, but I’m playing golf.”

So that leads me to some questions.  I began to wonder what is the most popular day for golfers to play hooky from work and hit the links.  But believe it or not, it seems there has been no clear research done on the subject.  But in my research, I’ve learned a couple of things.  For starters, it seems most golfers prefer to play on Saturdays vs. Sundays.  Not sure why as, again, no clear reasons are given.  However, if other golfers are anything like me, at least late in the season, I’ve mentioned how once football season starts my golf season comes to an abrupt end, or at least gets a change in schedule.  But that only explains from September on.  What about earlier in the season?  I have no answers.

Secondly, there is no real information about which days golfers will miss work most often to play golf.  Out of all of my research, strangely enough, I seemed to come across Tuesday quite often.  Really?  Tuesday?  I don’t think I’ve ever taken a random Tuesday off for any reason, let alone golf.  But that seemed to be the trend.

Anyway, my point is, at the time you are reading this, It’s Monday and I will not be at work.  Better yet, it’s Monday and not only am I not at work, but I’m playing golf.  So a question for all…when you’re going to skip out of work for a day to play golf, what day do you choose to take off?  Monday?  Friday?  Tuesday?!  I guess as long as you’re playing golf, it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Swing ’til you’re happy!

In the Time of PED’s, How Has Golf Stayed Clean?

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Me and one of my boys were feeling a little under the weather this past Sunday afternoon.  So even though it’s a beautiful day, we’re just hanging out on the sofa scanning the channels.  I’m hoping we land on some type of a sporting event.  Well, in actuality, I’m just hoping we land on something other than Power Rangers.  But with the remote in his hand…who knows what we’ll end up watching.  There’s a good chance I’ll end up watching the back of my eyelids.  But lo and behold, he heads to one of the ESPN’s and says “We could watch high school football.”

So at first, I’m partially satisfied.  I mean, even though it’s high school, it’s still football.  But after I thought about it further, I began to wonder why the heck we are watching high school football on a nationally televised cable network.  A local cable access channel?  OK.  But, being that I’m in Connecticut and watching two teams from Florida on an ESPN channel?  What’s going on?!

Then, this just gets me thinking deeper into youth sports on television.  We have high school football being nationally televised.  High school basketball, and McDonald’s All-America games are nationally televised as well.  And in baseball, we go even further past high school, as every year we are nationally televising little league games!!  I can’t be the only person that sees the problem with this.  What problem?  Over-exposure, that’s the problem.

I could be wrong, but in my opinion, over-exposure is where all of the problems with PED’s in sports begins.  When the extra spotlight is put on players who are too young to handle or understand it, pressure is then created at an earlier age.  This pressure to perform in front of cameras on a national stage creates further pressure to perform at a greater level than they can naturally.  Athletes now feel the pressure at an earlier age to be bigger, faster and stronger than their peers.  Enter PED’s.

Thankfully, as far as we know anyway, the PED problem has not yet come to the world of golf – though we have questioned the possibility.  And maybe a part of the reason for that is, no one cares about amateur golf.  Well, not enough to nationally televise high school golf tournaments anyway.  But if it came to that point, do you think for a second the pressure wouldn’t reach those kids as well?  Sure, extra strength from PED’s would, for the most part, only benefit a golfer off the tee.  So it wouldn’t really help the all-around game.  But when a few 17-year old high school seniors are on ESPN ripping 300+ yard drives on a regular basis while reps from Callaway, Nike and Adidas are watching…well…I think you see what I mean.

So after all of these thoughts run through my head, I ended up changing the channel to something else.  I just don’t like the idea of over-exposing and promoting kids, who are at an age when they should be playing these sports for fun more than anything else, and I don’t want to help promote/support it.  We see what it’s doing to baseball.  It’s happening in football as well, although to a far smaller degree.  And it’s probably only a matter of time before it finds its way into basketball too.  So as long as we keep from putting high school golf on TV, maybe that can be one way to help keep the sport clean.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Variations on the Game of Golf – FootGolf

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FootGolf is starting to catch on at golf courses across the country

It’s been a while since we’ve added to this series of posts (see related posts at bottom), but finding an interesting take on the game of golf isn’t something you happen across every day. FootGolf, however, is a worthy golf variation to write about.

“…Combining the distinction, elegance and precision of golf with the passion, energy and fun of soccer in a marvelous sport full of life…” is how the American FootGolf League (AFGL) website (footgolf.net) describes this twist on two world-renownoud sports.

Founded in 2011, the AFGL is associated with the larger Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG). The AFGL represented the U.S. in FIFG’s first FootGolf World Cup in Budapest last summer (there were 12 countries represented in total). So as you can see, the folks who play FootGolf take it very seriously (and it seems to be growing in interest). But what really is this game about that boasts “our balls are bigger” as their slogan? Well, according to footgolf.net:

“FootGolf is a combination of the popular sports of soccer and golf. The game is played with a regulation #5 soccer ball at a golf course facility on shortened holes with 21 inch diameter cups.  The rules largely correspond to the rules of golf.  FootGolf as a game is played throughout the world in many different forms, but as a sport it is regulated by the Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG).  The American FootGolf League (AFGL) is the exclusive member of the FIFG and governing body for the sport of FootGolf in the United States.  The AFGL is organizing tournaments throughout the U.S. We are working with golf courses to bring FootGolf to their clubs as another avenue for revenue and to develop the game further.”

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As much as the image above might seem photoshopped, it’s not. Make no mistake – the powers that be in FootGolf are specifically targeting regular golf courses in this tough economy. A quote on the site makes the comparison to skiing – when the sport was struggling and snowboarding came along. Ski resorts carved-out a section of the slopes for snowboarders and subsequently added another revenue stream.

It’s in this vein advocates for FootGolf want to see normal golf courses accommodate their hybrid sport. And it’s hard to argue with their logic – everyone in the golf industry is aware of the current economic environment – anything that could help would be beneficial.

I have to admit – while I’m not a big fan of soccer, there’s something about FootGolf that entices me. I’ve never played, but I wouldn’t mind giving a shot. If you watch the video below, you’ll see that there’s no extended running involved – it really is in the style of traditional golf, but instead of using clubs you use your foot (it gives a whole new meaning to the toe iron)!

But can it help the traditional golf economy? That depends on how quickly it can grow – but if the snowboarding analogy holds true, this may not be the last time you hear about FootGolf.

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