When one thinks of golf, he or she thinks of 80 degree weather with lots of sun. They imagine a beautiful Michigan afternoon wearing shorts and a polo. This is not always the case for every golfer though. At the start of the 2018 boys golf season, there was still snow on the ground and temperatures hovered around the freezing mark. Many matches postponed. Many times players had to practice in snowy conditions or had to to practice inside the Fieldhouse.

There are solutions to these problems though. Many places, such as STS Athletics and Ironwood Golf Course, have driving simulators for players to use. This involves hitting a ball into a large screen, and using a computer system, the screen is able to show you where your ball will go.  While these are great alternatives to bad weather, there is a limited amount of them, and they are expensive. It costs $5 a day to use simulators at these places which adds up very fast. For the season, players only have to pay $50 one time and then they can use the facilities as much as they want to.

There are many advantages to having the golf season in the fall. For starters, players would have the whole summer to hone their skills in preparation for the season. Not only will the weather be well enough to play in, but players will have lots of free time to play a round or two because they aren’t at school. Players will be in mid-season form at the beginning of the season.

“ Our season should be moved to the fall so that people can train over the summer,” said Junior golfer Blayne Young, “If it got moved, every player’s score would be lowered due to the fact that most people get better over the summer.”

The biggest benefit though would be that golf would actually feel like golf. “Our Tryouts wouldn’t be indoors anymore,” said Senior Dan Onofrio. “along with the fact that the courses would be in much better condition.” If the season were in the fall, courses would have much more time to perfect their greens and fairways. The greens would not be going through aeration processes while the teams used them, which would also lower down overall scores.

“Tryouts would be a lot better,” said Senior Mitchell Balaka, “because there is not as much rain in the fall. As the saying goes ‘April showers bring May flowers.’”

One of the downsides to playing in the the fall is all of the leaves that fall. In Michigan, where all of the seasons are in full effect, this is especially true.

Another problem with moving the boys season to the fall is that the girls season is also in the fall. This could cause many complications because there is limited space on any golf course, especially with one team of players, but having two teams sharing one course could make it impossible for anyone to play.

Another problem is coaching. Most boy’s golf coaches also coach the girl’s teams. They would not be able to attend every match, and would have to rotate between the two teams.

If the boy’s can not move to the fall, another solution would be to move the season back by a couple of weeks. This would hopefully dodge all of the bad weather in April, and it would let the season go into the warm summer days. The season would go past when the seniors leave, but they could still play even after they are done with school.