If you can play golf on Thanksgiving, consider yourself lucky.
For those of us living in the Northeast, the 2024 golf season is officially over.
It’s a sad time of year, knowing that the USGA’s official GHIN service forbids you from posting scores online. Yet, at this point, golfers can reflect upon their past season, recalling both good shots and bad, smiling at the birdies they made while kicking themselves over three-putts that no doubt gave them vain.
Look no further than my own game. My first round of the season came at Lancaster Country Club ahead of this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. It was a shotgun, so our group started on the dogleg right par-4 14th, a beautiful golf hole, if I may add. After finding the right fairway bunker off the tee, I hit a solid 9-iron from 150 yards up and onto the green. It stopped about 20 feet above the hole. Then, I made it for a three—pretty good start to the season. But alas, it was short-lived, as I three-putted four of my next six holes, leaving me frustrated beyond belief.
Hence, I tried to work on lag putting—and working on my speed—all season. It’s also something Sam Burns told me at the Travelers Championship that all amateurs should try to improve. Speed on the greens matters way more than direction. So, with the golf season more or less behind us for a large swath of the country, this is also a time when golfers should think of where they need to improve, whether off the tee, on the green, or somewhere in between. Perhaps your irons need work, a facet of the game where a few sessions in a simulator over the winter can work wonders.
Yet, many golf courses up North will remain open for us diehards this week, giving us one last shot at glory before the doldrums of winter descend upon us. I have had the good fortune of playing on Thanksgiving in years past, a rarity in my native Western New York. But that opportunity will not present itself this year, leaving me reflecting on my season instead.
Alas, if you are a Northerner and one of the lucky ones teeing it up this week, here are three easy tips to remember when playing on Turkey Day:
3. Club Up
The ball does not travel as far in colder weather since the air is denser. Whenever I play up North between late October and mid-March, I usually take an extra club. A 150-yard shot immediately plays like 160 without considering any wind or elevation changes.
Of course, at this time of year, the wind seems to blow harder, too, making already tricky conditions even more challenging. When I play a hole dead into the breeze, I even take two or three extra clubs, choking down while trying to play a lower trajectory, almost links style.
Anyways, remember that your stock yardages are not the same in colder weather. Club up. You won’t regret it.
2. Remember the Leaf Rule
Ah, yes—a rule golfers wish existed all 12 months of the year.
When someone hits a ball into a pile of leaves, it often becomes impossible to find—like a needle in a haystack. Given that leaves are seemingly everywhere right now, remember the leaf rule. If you miss the fairway by five yards to the right and know that your ball came to rest in that area, save everyone around you the time and take a drop. Obviously, if your ball is clearly visible, then yes, continue to play that ball and play on.
But the leaf rule also helps maintain a solid pace of play, something that all golfers—especially the LPGA’s biggest stars—long to improve.
1. Count your blessings
The most important tip of the year.
If you can play golf on Thanksgiving, count your blessings. It’s a day meant to reflect upon what you are thankful for, whether it be your family, friends, good health, or good fortune. Playing golf falls under this category, too, as not every golfer has the luck of teeing it up on Turkey Day. But if you are one of them, consider yourself lucky—and be sure to club up, too.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
