First, for those of you not familiar with South Carolina, there are four regions in SC (map below) referred to as: the Upstate (green), the Midlands (yellow), the Peedee (tangerine), and Low Country (blue). I live in the Upstate which boarders North Carolina (near Hendersonville and Asheville).

Side note: I was curious where the Peedee region got it’s name and it comes from the river Pee Dee which was named after the native American Pee Dee Indians that lived in the region.

A crazy storm is crossing the United States today (January 9, 2024) and for us that means a month of rain (four to five inches) in one day with winds gusting up to 50-55 miles an hour. Anyway, sitting here watching the local news has made me reflect on my winter golf the last few years.

Our golf courses are open all year and we can post scores to GHIN for handicap purposes all year. However, after living here for a few years I have realized that playing golf in the winter is limited, not because of the cold but because of the rain in the winter.

It does get cold which does create frost delays at golf courses so most days we teed off around 10 am. And last year we had a number of days were it was too cold (high in 30s) for me to play. On good days it warmed up into the high 40s or 50s (sometimes 60s but often times a day in the 60s came with rain). So it really wasn’t the temperature that limited my golf last winter.

Moving to the south I expected the typical southern summer rain (heat creating thunderstorms in the last afternoons) but I didn’t realized how much it rained in the winter or in general. Turns out the Upstate averages 50.24 inches of rain a year. Someone told me we get more rain than Seattle (that shocked me) but I think the difference is Seattle has dreary light rain for days on end and we can get a day with significant rain often making courses unplayable.

Actually I think my first two years the rain wasn’t as big as impact as the last few years. In 2023 (based on scores posted in GHIN) I posted a score once in January, twice in February and really it wasn’t until late April that regular weekly golf was in my schedule. I remember last year being so frustrated when a warm day would come and it would rain all day, then a cold front would come and it would be too cold to play for a few days, then it would warm up and yes, rain.

So I have realized that I’m not going to play as much golf in January and February as I thought (when I originally moved to SC) but it has turned out that it probably is a good thing because it gives my body a bit of a break; and I get excited when I do play. It’s also a good time to practice (putting inside) or going to the driving range (my choice to practice a half-hour versus playing a 4 hour round when the high is below 40 degrees); and thinking about what goals I need to set for the new year.

My final thought on this issue is that perhaps it’s time to think about a winter golf trip to Arizona. I have never played golf in Arizona so time to do some research.