Should golf season be moved to fall?
WHAT started out as a pleasant afternooan was anything but by the end of the threehour plus, nine- hole round played by the four teams at the Connecticut National Golf Club in Putnam on Monday.
Killingly, Norwich Free Academy, Woodstock Academy and Putnam played in their shirt sleeves in the first half of the match, but most had donned jackets by the end as the wind kicked up and the heating of the day disappeared. Cold and, generally, wet weather has been the rule, not the exception, again this spring.
While many spring sports are weather dependent, golf is particularly vulnerable. The programs not only must wait for the weather to improve, but also for playable conditions and that includes waiting for courses to open.
On Monday, Killingly was playing its first official matches of the season -- the only caveat being the Redmen spent spring vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. -- NFA and Woodstock had played only one match each and Putnam had just three matches coming in.
It was already April 23.
“I say it every year so I don’t know if it’s getting worse, but ‘ This has got to be the worst spring we ever had,’” Woodstock Academy coach Rich Garceau said with a laugh. “I get it. The weather is what it is and you have to deal with it, but you have to keep the guys engaged and focused while we are creeping to the start. Then, we go from a slow crawl to get the season going to four matches a week and we’re sprinting to the end because we have taken April and
PGA golfers Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer were in the Saints’ draft room for part of the first round last year, and New Orleans ended up landing a draft class that
the Rookie of the Year awards.
Now, the Saints have to get Spieth and Palmer back, with both players in town to play together pretty much packed it into May.”
It begs the question that seemingly is asked every year. Why isn’t the golf season moved to the fall?
That may be even more pertinent now with the likely decision to move the New England golf championship to the fall in 2019-20 season although that is not a completely done deal. The New England Council voted unanimously, 6-0, in October to make the switch. It did so in the hopes to sway the lone holdouts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, to move the sport in those states to the fall. Massachusetts has golf in both the fall and spring, dependent upon region, while Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont now play in the fall.
But Connecticut doesn’t appear to be buying in.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference golf committee surveyed athletic directors and coaches two years ago and 59 percent of the respondents agreed that the sport should be moved to the fall. However, 41 percent did not. The survey did not include the question of girls golf.
“At the time, there appeared to be a growing consensus to switch seasons and then we got the results and it was like, maybe not,” CIAC Director of Information Joel Cookson said. “To have a sport switch seasons needs a lot of support.” But should the discussion be re- opened? “No doubt,” NFA coach Bill Howard said. “I’ve been a big advocate of (the switch) for a very long time. I think it would be nothing but beneficial for these kids to play in the fall. You can’t do much in the winter. You can play in as many golf simulators as you want, it’s not the same as getting outside and hitting balls. You have the possibility now of playing your first match when you haven’t even played nine holes more than a couple of times. These kids have to play themselves into better form and, sometimes, it takes a month to get there. I think there is more pressure coming from the golf courses and the professionals who I think would like to see it move to the fall. I hope it’s revisited.” Garceau agreed with Howard.
The Woodstock Academy coach, the Northeast Region National Golf Coach of the Year, said when he went out to the national coach’s banquet in Illinois last summer, he found that many states switched from spring to fall.
“They all said that is the way to go,” Garceau said. “The schools in the northern tier all said that it’s something that has to be done.”
But it will put athletes and some coaches in the uncomfortable position of having to choose; golf, soccer or football. It’s one of the reasons why Killingly coach Kevin Marcoux sits on the fence. He is an assistant football coach.
Marcoux also feels that multiple matches in a week is as detrimental to golf as it is to sports such as baseball, where pitching is a concern, or football where it’s the physicality or basketball with the fatigue. Plus, the weather generally goes uphill, not downhill, like in the fall.
“The weather is terrible at the beginning of the season, but we know in June that the weather will be beautiful for the championships,” Marcoux said. “Whereas if we go to the fall, you can get terrible weather in October. I wouldn’t want a state championship decided in 35- degree weather.”
Now, the mitigating factor. What if Connecticut golfers are not eligible for the New England championship?
“I love for our guys to qualify for New Englands, but you’re talking three kids from each division. This is my eighth year, I’ve been there twice and you’re bringing one kid, not your whole team,” Marcoux said.
Cookson said he isn’t sure if Connecticut will participate in the New England championship come 2019 or how golfers would even qualify since it will be in a different school year. Concerns like those may change the mind of the New England Council. There is the possibility, according to New England Council executive director Donn Friedman, that the Council may not even enact the move in 2019.
“A lot of the (logistics) still have to be worked out,” Friedman said. “The Council, itself, will have to come to agreement on a date in the fall.”
Bretwood Golf Course in Keene (N.H.) has hosted the tournament for over 20 years and Friedman would like that to continue. He is concerned that if the tournament is moved to mid-to-late October, frost delays are possible so far north and the tournament has to start around 8 a.m. There is also the question of Daylight Savings Time coming to an end.
The possible inability for Connecticut golfers to play in the New England championship in the near future also may be a little offset beginning this season. In addition to the state championship tournaments, the CIAC has instituted a State Open golf championship to be played at Black Hall Golf Club on either June 9 or 10 this year.