If you are not a 'morning person' or 'early riser' ...

[naval2006]

In my teens and dreaming of becoming a pro I decided I had to play my best at any time so I got used to playing either morning or afternoon.  Story goes my best was not that best and I always preferred the afternoon.  However, now that I can, I've been playing in the morning frequently of late.  I'm a morning person but starting the round in the morning seems hard sometimes.  I try to get up as early as I can so that the body gets adjusted.

 

There are times in life when you don't sleep well or you are fatigued from the weekly grind and you have to play early to spend time with family or the house chores.  You have to hang in there then because better times will come.  

 

 

[infinii]

I'm also not a morning person but I play regularly before 7am on Mondays to avoid weekend rates and be able to still get half a day of work in at the office.

 

I can't count how many times I've not been able to fall asleep due to the excitement of golfing the next day. So often, I have to be up at like 4:30 that after tossing and turning in bed til 3am, i give up and just pull an all nighter which sucks for the golf game.

[willie991]

Our group has the first tee time at our course 7 days/week.  Start early.  Play fast and wait on no one.  During the summer months, 18 played and back home before 10:00 and before the heat.

I was an early riser my entire career.  The last 15 years, was out on the road during the week.  Wife likes to sleep in.  I could go play early and be back home by the time she was getting up.  Then, we had the rest of the day.  

Same since retirement.  Back home before wife arises and she never misses me! :>)  It's a great time of the day.  Smell of the fresh cut grass.  Still some wildlife out and about on and around the course.  Love it.

Hardly ever set an alarm and am always up before 5 a.m.  Usually up be 4:30.  Plenty of time to eat shower and shave, eat breakfast, and check emails, etc.  Usually have the first 16 oz. of black coffee down the hatch.  I only need about 6 hours sleep.  In bed by 10 p.m. and the 4:30 to 5:00 wake up gets me 6 1/2 to 7 hours.

The problem with so many and early play is the sleep until the last minute and rush to the course.  Stay up until midnight gaming or watching SNL reruns.  If you can get your sleep/wake hours worked out and follow a new routine for a few months, pretty soon it will be much easier.  Good luck!!

[ruascott]

Biggest downside to me about early morning play is the dew. It's just generally annoying, particularly when trying to get into your round.  

 

Upside is greens are freshly cut/ rolled and pure. 

[AimingAtHazards]

I like to play early especially during the summer. Getting up early is not an issue, routine now but it does y k a bit when I want to sleep in but can’t.

 

One thing that helps me is to prep the night before, get everything you need ready so you have to think about it, clubs, shoes, balls, glove, towel, cart, umbrella, clothes, snacks, drinks, etc. Hate being on the first hole and remembering something I needed like sun sleeves.

[chippa13]

The Mrs. always laughs, "You can't wake up for work but you'll wake up for golf."

[Orchardist]

Golf courses are open in the morning?  

[mshills]

Used to get up much earlier than I do now....probably a residual from being a caddie.  Now in my late 40s, a 6AM wakeup is good for me, anything before that and it feels like I'm hauling azz to the airport for more business travel.

 

Pretty adaptable with the tee time windows -- I'll play whenever I can get a game and schedule permits.  What I don't really get is the badge of honor feeling around some of the earliest players.  "...I was there before the pro shop opened, those idiots weren't there to check us in!  Then we teed off just as the sun was coming up and ran into the crew cutting the greens 4x, yep we sure did, can you believe the nerve?!" 

 

Um.....how about wait until the establishment is open for business and ready for play?

[GoTime]

On 7/19/2023 at 9:15 AM, nvr3putt said:

How on earth do you play a round at 6:30am? My handicap doubles whenever I tee off before noon. 😁

Any advice? 

 

Set an alarm 90 minutes before you actually need to get up - when it goes off have a caffeine pill ready to pop, then go back to sleep until you actually need to wake up.

[TiScape]

Definitely not a morning person. I stay up til about 2/3 am and wake up ~9:30. Don’t foresee ever having a tee time even sniffing 7 am 😂 My tee times now are always during the week and between noon and 1:30. 11:30 once in a while, but that’s pushing it 😜

[Golfbit2X]

2 hours ago, TiScape said:

Definitely not a morning person. I stay up til about 2/3 am and wake up ~9:30. Don’t foresee ever having a tee time even sniffing 7 am 😂 My tee times now are always during the week and between noon and 1:30. 11:30 once in a while, but that’s pushing it 😜

Same here, TiScape. I'm a night owl too...I like to sleep in and do chores around the house before leaving to play so that I don't feel guilty staying out for 4 hours playing golf...

[Mrgreen36]

Makes me no difference, I'm in bed by 1am and always up at 630. 

[Yacho]

Same as OP here...

 

But it's not waking up that's the hard part.  It's playing quality golf soon after waking up that's hard for some of us.  My body is just not right in the 1st half of the day for the precision and flexibility that's needed to play anywhere near my best golf.  My handicap literally doubles...  goal is 80 normally, breaking 90 is celebration-worthy with an 8am-or-earlier tee time.  Comparatively to an afternoon slot, the amount of fat approach shots, chunked wedges, and snap-hook drives is comedic.  The back is tight and feels out of place, hips can't get through...  total mess.

 

Doesn't stop me from enjoying the round and having a bloody with the boys, I just won't be shooting any PR's.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Yacho

[mshills]

2 hours ago, Yacho said:

Same as OP here...

 

But it's not waking up that's the hard part.  It's playing quality golf soon after waking up that's hard for some of us.  My body is just not right in the 1st half of the day for the precision and flexibility that's needed to play anywhere near my best golf.  My handicap literally doubles...  goal is 80 normally, breaking 90 is celebration-worthy with an 8am-or-earlier tee time.  Comparatively to an afternoon slot, the amount of fat approach shots, chunked wedges, and snap-hook drives is comedic.  The back is tight and feels out of place, hips can't get through...  total mess.

 

Doesn't stop me from enjoying the round and having a bloody with the boys, I just won't be shooting any PR's.

Sounds like a good reason to play 36 holes 🙂. Warm up in the AM. Personal best in the afternoon. 

[Yacho]

Just now, mshills said:

Sounds like a good reason to play 36 holes 🙂. Warm up in the AM. Personal best in the afternoon. 

 

I'm taking this response straight to the wife.  Can't dispute the logic.

[smashdn]

On 8/20/2023 at 6:38 PM, ruascott said:

Biggest downside to me about early morning play is the dew. It's just generally annoying, particularly when trying to get into your round.  

 

Upside is greens are freshly cut/ rolled and pure. 

 

Right there with you.  I hate it.  Kills what little spin I can generate.  Grass clippings stuck to everything.  Pretty much have to mark your ball on the green to wipe it off.  Balls don't want to run-out in the fairways because of it.  Upside is your clubs clean easily with your towel. 

 

But I like golf more than I hate dew so I play when my group wants to play.

[Maine Golfer]

I love AM golf. Weekend its almost alway 8. Lately been playing for 7 am rounds before work with a friend. I don't try out my vintage putter's pre 8 am is my rule, but I always have coffee and love the mornings. 

[Nels55]

I love playing early morning!  Or mid morning or late afternoon it doesn't matter. Early it is cold and refreshing and what could be better then getting out with some friends to shoot some golf as the sun is coming up?  As far as scoring goes at one time I thought that I probably played better later on in the day but then I shot the best round of my life one Sunday morning last May so that pretty much ended that thinking.  In the end it doesn't matter when you play as long as you enjoy the game!  

[FuzzyWuzzy01]

I'm naturally an early riser so my weekend rounds typically are the first or second group off the tee. The added benefit is the round is quicker, no waiting on tee boxes, and I can get home well before lunch time and, this time of year, the start of televised football games. 

 

The only time I tee off later is if it's mid-week and want to sneak in an extra round.

[Fwitz11]

Never been an early riser but something about knowing that I’m waking up to play golf helps. Along with a large black coffee on the driver over, another at the turn, and a Red Bull in the bag just in case.

[bobleeswagger]

I’m a night owl, but after going to a hybrid work schedule, I’ve started playing 9 at 6.30a twice a week on days I wfh.  Cannot stand waking up early, but golf is for sure worth it.  Set my clothes out the night before, wake up, brush teeth, go.  Home by 8, can sort of casually check in on work while I get cleaned up.  Nap at lunchtime.

 

Hole 1 on my home course is the hardest hole for me, so I just go in knowing that a fast swing is probably uncontrollable and won’t help me.  By the time I’m on the second, with a creek down the middle of the fairway, I’ve had enough swinging to be loose.  

[Soloman1]

When I lived in the Chicago area in the early 80’s (1980’s not 1880’s), we’d head down to Forest Preserve National at midnight and sleep in a guy’s van.

 

They didn’t take tee times on the weekend then. I don’t know about now. It was first come, first serve. If we got there at 1am, there was already a long line of cars outside the gates. If you got there at 7am, you might get an afternoon time.

 

Being extraordinarily old now, I’m awake by 3:30am. It’s awful, but quiet. Hey, but I woke up!

 

I might play the day after tomorrow. I should start getting ready now.

 

 

[MountainKing]

I'm not a morning person at all, but yet all my best rounds this year have come when teeing off prior to 8am.   Maybe I should become one.

[SwooshLT]

For the past couple of years , I've been involved with an organization that plays a ton of 8-830am shotgun starts ....Veterans Golf Association.... normally I absolutely stink as I just sit in a fog as @chisag stated earlier in this thread ..... 

 

I think I just got fed up with poor play and now make it a point to arrive at the course no less than an hour before ( sure that doesn't apply to 0630) but take my advil , get water on board and light stretching..... I've actually broken par three times on early morning rounds 🙃  rather than dreading getting up, I now accept the challenge of trying to snap out of the fog and into my "golf bubble " 

[Mike_C]

When I was young, like HS and college, I never liked playing early, and rarely did, only really did for large field tournaments where they had to start early, or did morning and afternoon shotguns.   But  I also lived in northern Michigan, and in June and July you could play until 9:30 pm or so, so it was easy to play late in the day.  I remember playing on the twilight rate one time at Boyne Highlands, teed off at after 3:00pm, and we played 36 holes....

 

But all my adult life I have gotten up fairly early for work, so that has been ingrained in my system.  For many years we have had dogs, and always walk them for 30 minutes or so early in the morning, 5:30 to 6 am, so I almost always get an early start. 

 

The best parts of playing early to me are playing in well under 4 hours for 18, and having greens that are not bumpy from 6 hours of play.   I also tell my wife I can be home before noon and have the rest of the day to do things, but that usually ends up being watching golf and taking an afternoon nap.......

[bcflyguy1]

On 7/19/2023 at 8:15 AM, nvr3putt said:

How on earth do you play a round at 6:30am? My handicap doubles whenever I tee off before noon. 😁

Any advice? 

Not a morning person either; what I've found works best is to get up even earlier so I've got time to get going. Probably sounds counter-intuitive, but that's the best solution I've found.

[Soloman1]

I wonder if there’s a correlation between not being able to get up in the morning and never being in the military?

[nvr3putt]

35 minutes ago, Soloman1 said:

I wonder if there’s a correlation between not being able to get up in the morning and never being in the military?

Maybe, but I know a lot of non-military people who 'instinctly' wake up at the crack of dawn. 

[larrybud]

How many of you guys who can't get up are drinking yourselves to sleep?

[mshills]

I actually get up later now in my late 40s than I did when I was young. I was always built a little different so there’s that 😁 but I was also a caddy and that meant early mornings.

 

I do like a cocktail but being over served means hot garbage sleep cycles, period. 

 

I have no real preference on time to play but do find myself playing late in the day more often since a lot of my kids’ activities are earlier.