Early Morning Rounds

[alittleoverpar]

I love to play early morning rounds.  I got out last Sunday at about sunrise and was the first off of the tee.  Playing by myself, I finished in about 2 hours and 40 minutes.  I beautiful morning for a walk.  It's just really great to get out and play at your own pace and enjoy the morning.  Other than a little dew on the greens it was a great round.

 

Here are a couple of spectators from the 12th tee:

 

[fr3sh]

I usually work Sunday mornings at a local course. We usually get out around 6:30-6:50 depending on day light. I always enjoy riding up on a group of deer as we setup the course for play. 

[Volnut]

I love dew busting. Bonus that it frees up the rest of your day. Especially Saturdays now that college football is in full swing. 

[mallrat]

7 hours ago, fr3sh said:

I usually work Sunday mornings at a local course. We usually get out around 6:30-6:50 depending on day light. I always enjoy riding up on a group of deer as we setup the course for play. 

At a previous course we used to see the same coyotes every morning. One guy got the pup to eat a pop tart out of his hand after a couple months of trying. Seen a lot of animals during set up but my favorite is sunrise. I take a minute every morning and just enjoy the sunrise. 

[ND2005]

Nothing like walking off the golf course at 9:30 after a full 18 holes, stopping on the way home for a cup of coffee, and then enjoying the rest of your morning! 

 

I'll take the first tee time any day I can get it. 

[alittleoverpar]

1 hour ago, ND2005 said:

Nothing like walking off the golf course at 9:30 after a full 18 holes, stopping on the way home for a cup of coffee, and then enjoying the rest of your morning! 

 

I'll take the first tee time any day I can get it. 

Agree 100%

[Ferguson]

Playing in the early morning always reminds me of Lightfoot's tune.

 

 

 

 

[alittleoverpar]

18 minutes ago, Ferguson said:

Playing in the early morning always reminds me of Lightfoot's tune.

Good song!

[596]

Nothing like standing on the course all alone at 5am, looking to the east and watching a rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral.  A super cool thing to see.

 

Oh, and critters everywhere! 

[Delta00]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:08 PM, mallrat said:

At a previous course we used to see the same coyotes every morning. One guy got the pup to eat a pop tart out of his hand after a couple months of trying. Seen a lot of animals during set up but my favorite is sunrise. I take a minute every morning and just enjoy the sunrise. 

If you can I'd generally discourage this, getting coyotes more comfortable around humans leads to them causing them to attack more pets and little humans

[mallrat]

3 hours ago, Delta00 said:

If you can I'd generally discourage this, getting coyotes more comfortable around humans leads to them causing them to attack more pets and little humans

I get it but they don’t last long over there. There is a badger on the course that makes quick work of them. Still can’t do anything about how used to a maintenance crew they are. Can’t tell you how many times you look up in the complete dark and there is a set of eyes 15-20 ft away. 

[mallrat]

One story from early morning set up. 
 

When our old super was an assistant, he was cutting cups one day. It was about 4:30 in the pitch black. He parks in the rough and walks through the collection onto the green. Cuts the cup, fills in the plug and turns around to walk back to his gator and there is a set of footprints following his about halfway on to the green and then turning around and walking away. Talk about creepy

[bobfoster]

When I was younger, I was a "First Light" fanatic. Loved playing with the sun just barely creeping over the horizon, shimmering off the dew. Birds just waking up. Early morning fog dissipating in the morning light. Aesthetically beautiful. Didn't even mind the rooster-tails of water my ball kicked up on the fairway. Robbed me of 5 - 10 yards of roll, but no drunken idiots in front of me slowing play to a crawl more than made up for it. Definitely something to be said for it.

 

These days though (I'm turning 65 in October), an entirely different rhythm. A perfect Sunday is waking up at 8 or 9 - getting the morning emails out of the way. Sitting on my patio and reading the Food and Arts sections on the NYT with some strong coffee and a warm croissant. Make some calls to friends, gradually get my clubs and stuff in the car and toodle off to whatever course I'm playing. Leisurely warm-up on the range. Tee off at noon or one-ish. It is usually slower, 4 - 4.5 hour rounds instead of 3 - 3.5 hour rounds on weekends, but I don't mind. Enjoy my friends, and the beauty of the course. (Sorta getting a bit Zen in my old age - don't like 5 hour rounds, but don't mind waiting for 5 or 10 minutes on a tee box when a course is jammed). Finish the round at 4 or 5, and either go home an watch the end of whatever the PGAT event of the week is, or have a 19th hole dinner with my foursome.

 

Finish the night with a Netflix or something, and a couple delicious beverages, often with a couple neighbors or friends popping by (I live alone, but my house is a pretty social place). Go to sleep tired, and thinking "damn was this just a thoroughly satisfying day". Standing back, this likely sounds perhaps a bit dull, but I no longer seek dramatic excitement (had plenty of that). 

 

So I totally get the delights of early morning golf. But also the (very different) pleasure - and pace - of afternoon (or even sunset) golf. 

 

WTF? I appear to be totally waxing poetic tonight.

Edited September 30, 2022 by bobfoster

[bobfoster]

11 hours ago, 596 said:

Nothing like standing on the course all alone at 5am, looking to the east and watching a rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral.  A super cool thing to see.

 

Oh, and critters everywhere! 

Dude! Are you okay? Funny thing - I'm house hunting in Florida, and have a bunch of livestream webcams I look at. Miami, Tampa, Everglades, the Keys & etc. One of them is Port Canaveral (https://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/). I've naturally been watching them constantly the last couple days. Weirdly, I got to watch the hurricane pass through Tampa, but it seems to have escaped - the city was empty, but the webcam was on throughout (i.e., it never lost power - https://www.porttampawebcam.com/ - looks like Fort Myers took the brunt). 

 

But it was heading east at Orlando, so Canaveral would likely get hit with at least the the outer, southern bands of the storm. Probably insane rain. And the Port Canaveral webcam went dark a few hours ago. You okay (I see you posted this 11 hours ago, before it hit)? Did your local courses survive it?

 

[PS. Get that this is totally OT, but seems right to ask.]

[596]

10 hours ago, bobfoster said:

Dude! Are you okay? Funny thing - I'm house hunting in Florida, and have a bunch of livestream webcams I look at. Miami, Tampa, Everglades, the Keys & etc. One of them is Port Canaveral (https://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/). I've naturally been watching them constantly the last couple days. Weirdly, I got to watch the hurricane pass through Tampa, but it seems to have escaped - the city was empty, but the webcam was on throughout (i.e., it never lost power - https://www.porttampawebcam.com/ - looks like Fort Myers took the brunt). 

 

But it was heading east at Orlando, so Canaveral would likely get hit with at least the the outer, southern bands of the storm. Probably insane rain. And the Port Canaveral webcam went dark a few hours ago. You okay (I see you posted this 11 hours ago, before it hit)? Did your local courses survive it?

 

[PS. Get that this is totally OT, but seems right to ask.]

Thanks for asking. Yes, we did just fine. The eye missed us by about 30 miles to our south.  We are in Lakeland in Polk county.  We did NOT lose power.  Our house hangs out over a lake.  The water made it just over our seawall.  But not quite to the foundation.  We got about 5 inches of rain steady for about 32 hours. 40 miles south of us got 19 inches. 

 

Haven't seen the golf course.  I don't work there anymore, retired. I volunteered to help clean up the course but have not heard back from the Sup.  Must not be too bad. I'll go by there today.  

[nechris]

the local course lets us start before they get there, yes still in the dark.  Great to play with glow in the dark balls.  (makes it way easy to find if off the fairway).  usually by hole 3/4 we would switch to our normal balls.  nice being done by 8/8:30 and starting the rest of the day.

 

bonus is you get a true shot tracer...

[alittleoverpar]

7 hours ago, nechris said:

the local course lets us start before they get there, yes still in the dark.  Great to play with glow in the dark balls.  (makes it way easy to find if off the fairway).  usually by hole 3/4 we would switch to our normal balls.  nice being done by 8/8:30 and starting the rest of the day.

 

bonus is you get a true shot tracer...

 

I'm curious.  What kind of glow balls do you use.  The only kind I've ever tried are the rubbery ones that only fly about 150 yards.

 

 

[JWells]

frost delays here in the mid-atlantic are starting to put a halt to early AM rounds 😞

[llewol007]

Just finished another morning round today. Cool air with the sun barely peaking through. 

[DrDon]

The bald eagles nesting on our course are usually out and about early in the morning.   Magnificent birds that are always a pleasure to watch.  

 

 

[golfandfishing]

On 9/29/2022 at 2:10 PM, mallrat said:

One story from early morning set up. 
 

When our old super was an assistant, he was cutting cups one day. It was about 4:30 in the pitch black. He parks in the rough and walks through the collection onto the green. Cuts the cup, fills in the plug and turns around to walk back to his gator and there is a set of footprints following his about halfway on to the green and then turning around and walking away. Talk about creepy

People footprints or critter?

[mallrat]

On 10/22/2022 at 4:41 PM, golfandfishing said:

People footprints or critter?

 
Human

[golfandfishing]

30 minutes ago, mallrat said:

 
Human

Good lord. 

[Bonneville85308]

On 10/21/2022 at 8:48 AM, alittleoverpar said:

 

I'm curious.  What kind of glow balls do you use.  The only kind I've ever tried are the rubbery ones that only fly about 150 yards.

 

 

 

I'm not the poster you responded to, but I start rounds in the dark sometimes, and I use the "Glow V1" balls. They are different from the rest of the glow balls in that they don't have an internal light or battery. They have something in the cover that makes them glow when you shine a UV flashlight on them. They go as far as a normal ball and feel/spin like a typical 2-piece ball. Only downside is that they don't stand out as much when the sun is actually coming up and it's not full darkness out. You also need to "re-light" them on every hole or keep two in rotation with one on the flashlight and one in play.

 

I don't use the internally-lit glow balls anymore, they rob what little distance my game has, and feel like hitting actual rocks.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Bonneville85308

[alittleoverpar]

14 minutes ago, Bonneville85308 said:

 

I'm not the poster you responded to, but I start rounds in the dark sometimes, and I use the "Glow V1" balls. They are different from the rest of the glow balls in that they don't have an internal light or battery. They have something in the cover that makes them glow when you shine a UV flashlight on them. They go as far as a normal ball and feel/spin like a typical 2-piece ball. Only downside is that they don't stand out as much when the sun is actually coming up and it's not full darkness out. You also need to "re-light" them on every hole or keep two in rotation with one on the flashlight and one in play.

 

I don't use the internally-lit glow balls anymore, they rob what little distance my game has, and feel like hitting actual rocks.

Thanks for the info.  I occasionally find myself playing after sunset and into darkness, it would be nice to have a couple of glow balls in the bag. 

[00steven]

On 9/28/2022 at 9:04 AM, ND2005 said:

Nothing like walking off the golf course at 9:30 after a full 18 holes, stopping on the way home for a cup of coffee, and then enjoying the rest of your morning! 

 

I'll take the first tee time any day I can get it. 

This is why I almost exclusively golf mornings. You get used to the marine layer and honestly are a more versatile golfer because of it.