The majors might be over, but nothing beats playing golf in the fall

It’s a glorious time. Last week, college football kicked off and on Wednesday night, the NFL season gets underway with the Cowboys at the Giants at The Meadowlands in New Jersey just outside New York City.

Up north, for the next few weeks, the leaves will start to turn. And at courses like Bethpage Black and resorts like Turning Stone in central New York, for example, it’s never prettier.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for the leaves to turn down here in Houston, more like late October. When that happens, we like to invoke something called the leaf rule, which occurs when you can’t find a ball you should be able to find because you assume it’s under a leaf somewhere. You lose a ball, but you get a free drop and you don’t hold up the group with a fruitless search.

Fall is when many of us get to combine our two favorite pastimes, golf and football. And down South, it’s when the temperatures finally get bearable as well.

Dallas, which has hotter summers than Houston, gets relief a little earlier than us. The forecast for the Dallas area today is 103 degrees. By Sunday, the high is supposed to be 86 with sunshine. Now that’s getting closer to golfing weather. Check out a story I wrote with a few suggestions on courses in the Dallas Fort Worth area for a few course suggestions.

This is also the perfect time to start planning a trip for my favorite fall destinations, Las Vegas. Although Vegas is fun any time of year, as the temperatures get cooler, the football action gets hotter, and there’s nothing like spending a Sunday at one of the cool new sports books there.

As for the winner of Wednesday night’s Cowboys-Giants game, I could care a less; I’m a Houston Texans fan. I don’t like either team. But I’ll be watching; it’s football, and it’s finally here.