This Week at TravelGolf.com: Nov. 21, 2007

Golfing in the sun this Thanksgiving? Where's your parka and knit hat, man!?

I'll bet some are planning to tee it up tomorrow on Thanksgiving in one of those warm, golf-all-year places like Myrtle Beach, Orlando or Scottsdale. You might live there, or you might be traveling there for a little four-day golf holiday. I just want to say one thing.

You're pathetic.

Okay, I'm only half serious. But before you think I'm simply an envious writer cursing the luck of a fortunate few, let me explain.

Thanksgiving for me has always been as linked to golf as it has NFL football. But here's the twist: Where I grew up, and where I continued to return for the holiday after leaving home, that Thursday round of golf was always punctuated by numbing cold.

In New England, Thanksgiving is really golf's last gasp before bedding down for the long winter. If you lived way up north, forget even that. But in Connecticut, the winter would often hold off just long enough to get in a few last rounds this weekend. After that, it was off to our dens and basements and golf simulators.

Some years, the snows and deep frosts would come early, and golf wouldn't last much beyond Halloween. But in others, November gave a reprieve. Those Turkey Day rounds were always cold, though, sometimes fantastically so.

We'd arrive at the golf course and go off around 8 a.m. Ski hats, turtle necks and sweaters were essential. There were some years when you had to wear mittens between hits, and once I tried to negotiate 18 holes in a ski parka, not the greatest thing for one's swing.

We'd push on stoically. We'd complain an awful lot about all this, about the pain of hitting irons in the cold. We'd say "not next year." We'd drink a few beers.

We were back at the house by noon (the course wouldn't be crowded), eating by 2 p.m., dozing on the couch by 4 p.m. Likely we'd go back out the next morning.

That's Thanksgiving to me.

There was this fanatical devotion to the golf, something rooted in the reality of the place we lived, and that's lost a bit when the golfing is easy. I mean, heading out in shorts on an 80-degree Las Vegas day is a no brainer.

Of course, if you want me to tag along this Thanksgiving, I guess I could be convinced.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

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