Putting out on 18 just after 6 p.m., at a time when the rest of the country's been dark for a good hour, is one of the great, little pleasures of Arizona golf. Yes, Arizona's figured out how to give you more sunshine too.
By ignoring the stupid "Fall Back" end of Daylight Savings Times rules that everyone else (except for Hawaii and a few kooks in Indiana) followed this weekend, Arizona allows hackers to get in a good chunk more golf. And everyone else to see the sun when they can actually get out in it.
You know, in the evenings when they're not hurrying to work or school.
This argument that we need the sun to rise in the 6 a.m. hour has long held as much water as the argument the world is flat. Get over the farmer's lifestyle thing already. No one's farming in the U.S. anymore. Heck, even the farmers in Butler County Pennsylvania are running golf courses these days.
The question isn't why has Arizona chosen to ignore this rollback to darkness. It's why haven't other golf meccas caught on after all these years. The Carolinas? Vegas? Since when does Vegas ever identify with the establishment? (Guess the baby stroller thing runs really deep.) California? You've got more destinations than anybody. Florida? Surely, even the Disney people would approve.
That extra hour of sun is priceless. You can tee off at 3 p.m. in the late fall and winter in Arizona and still get in a full 18 if the course isn't packed. 3 p.m. It's a lot easier to sneak away from work at 3 p.m. than it is at 9 a.m.
But Arizona's out of synch with the rest of the country! Who cares. The rest of the country are morons. The U.S. Government is already doing its experimental changes of lengthening Daylight Savings Time by a few months each way starting in 2006. In another 20 to 25 years of countless taxpayer-funded studies, they'll come to the same conclusion as Arizona.
Why wait for everyone else to catch up? Arizona's already there. Let the Neanderthals live in darkness at 4:30 p.m. all winter. Some of us have some evening golf to play.
To leave a comment, click here.
