So you live in San Diego or Florida eh?? About this time every year I begin to not just feel jealous, but somewhat loathe you. Not YOU personally, but just……well you.

You get to live a life that others around the world vacation to. You get to golf year round.

Those of us that do not have this luxury are so jealous that we all just might mobilize and take over so that you can’t get a tee time ha ha ha. I kid, of course.

Of course I am not about to move from the greatest place on Earth, but I am going to be faced with a choice. Okay, its not really a choice, but I will have to face winter golf.

Winter golf in Seattle means cold, windy, rainy, gloomy, grey, wet conditions, EVERY STINKING DAY! Don’t get me wrong, I understand that we must endure that to truly appreciate the glorious summers and springs that we get up here, but it sure sucks when you are in the throws of it.

So it is time to “winterize” my golf bag and my golf game.

Just like adding some anti-freeze to your car or awaking early to start your car and warm it up while you scrape ice from the windshield, you have to winterize your golf game too.

It all starts with the equipment for me. I change a good amount of my golf equipment in preparation for winter. I start with the golf ball. That Bridgestone B330-RX that I played in the heat of summer when the ball was easier to compress is replaced by the E5+ (still my favorite ball out there).

The reason I change is that as the weather cools, it becomes more difficult to truly compress the golf ball. So I go with something that plays a bit firmer so that I can recover some distance that will be lost in the cooler temperatures. Because the ground is softer, I won’t notice any loss in spin so it is a win win. Besides, I won’t be too hurt in the wallet if a ball is lost under a pile of leaves.

The second change I make in my equipment itself is to go to higher bounce wedges. Because the ground is softer, I find that higher bounces in my wedges, most specifically the sand wedge and lob wedge, perform better.

I play the Nike Victory Red Wedges most of the time and have a couple different bounces, but I am going to give the Clevland CG 15 wedges a try as well. I will go with the 14 bounce in my 56* wedge and 12 bounce in my 60* wedge. That will handle the softer conditions perfectly, even if I don’t ha ha.

The last change I make is in the way my clubs are carried and stored. I tend to leave my sticks in the car an awful lot in the summer. I do this because you just might not know when my car will end up driving itself to a driving range or a course. I want to be prepared.

Winter is different. I will NOT leave my clubs in the car at all. The reason is that I do not want the grips to harden too much and I hate the feel of the cold shafts ha ha.

I also take my shoes in the house so that they do not stiffen. Golf balls too…….the cooler they are, the tougher they are to compress so they sleep in the warmth of the closet too.

The bag itself is a change as well.

Though I carry and cart in the summer depending on the course, I will only use the cart in the winter. I run the Sun Mountain Speed Cart and typically use a Ping Hoofer golf bag. This year I am going to make a change to winterize though.

I am going to trot out the Sun Mountain Superlight 3.5 bag. This bag is lighter than the Ping bag is and is made of a more water repellent substance. Sun Mountain also makes a “completely waterproof” bag called the H2NO which I find intriguing. I will probably not go that route simply because our rains here are rarely heavy rains.

It is about that time for most of us. Winterizing your golf bag can be the difference between enjoying a round of golf in garbage weather, or letting your game go the way of the skies.

Take the time to winterize your golf game………then hop a plane where its warm and vacation a little.

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