Summer time is coming and the golf industry cannot wait

By Margery A. Beck

Omaha, Neb. (AP) – Are you looking forward to the evening sun thanks to summer time this weekend?

Many in the golf industry as time also change, and they push to make this annual change permanent.

This decision aims to encourage more golf in the evening and to consider efforts to establish a permanent standard time, which would leave less time for an evening on links. And it is these late afternoon players that tend to buy food and drinks in the clubhouse.

“We would last 100 times per day if the time of reduction of the day disappears,” said Connor Farrell, managing director of Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Nebraska. “Passing at permanent standard time would cost US $ 500,000 per year.”

Golf played a big role in summer time

Golf has deep roots in the history of summer time, which begins for most states at 2 am on Sunday when the “spring in front” clocks. A credit goes to William Willett, a British manufacturer and a passionate golfer who, in 1905, published a pleading brochure to advance clocks in April and bring them back to their regular environments in September. The United States adopted a version of this during the First World War and again during the Second World War.

The Congress adopted the Time Act uniform in 1966 which set up the change in biannual time, and lobbying efforts in the golf industry are widely credited for the expansion of the day of day light in the mid -1980s.

Legislators try to spend permanent standard time

But since as long as there are, the constant clock setting has attracted the anger of the Americans to lose an hour of sleep in the spring to be confronted with the early appearance of darkness in the fall. This exhaustion has led to hundreds of bills presented in almost all states over the years to stop practice.

The National Conference of States Legislatures reports that over the past six years, 20 states have adopted measures calling for a passage to summer time, many of whom, at the Cajolery of Lobbyists in the Golf Industry. But while states could move on to the permanent standard time – such as Arizona and Hawaii, Congress should change the law to allow a permanent summer hour.

This obstacle – as well as arguments according to which permanent standard time would improve the quality of sleep and promote safer morning trips – has seen more states consider withdrawing from daylight. Legislators of more than a dozen states have presented bills this year to make standard time permanent.

Nebraska is one of several states that envisage competing invoices to spend standard time or permanent day saving time. This attracted Joe Kohout, a lobbyist from the Nebraska Golf Alliance, to testify in favor of summer time.

The golf leagues at the end of the afternoon represent up to 40% of the annual income of certain Nebraska routes, said Kohout, while a majority of golf instructors said that almost 50% of their prices are taught after 16 hours

Under permanent standard time, “Nebraska golf courses will lose income, will be forced to increase prices and, in some cases, could be driven from business,” he said.

The Utah Golf Association also fights a bill to make standard time permanent.

“The argument according to which to change the clocks twice a year is a drawback does not prevail over the advantages all year round to have more usable hours of clarity in the evening,” he published on social networks.

In Indiana, the owner of the golf course, Linda Rogers, managed to lobby the legislature to institute a summer hour in 2006. Now a state senator, Rogers is fighting an effort to return to the permanent standard time.

“Summer time allows someone who, you know, worked up to 5 hours to go out and play at least nine holes,” she said. “And it’s not just golf. There are so many outdoor activities for which people want to be outside and enjoy later in summer. »»

Golf course owners like the status quo

The National Golf Course Owners Association, which has around 4,000 members, recently questioned stakeholders on the issue. The vast majority has favored the permanent time of daylight or the status quo of the modification of clocks, said CEO Jay Karen. Only about 6% supported a permanent standard modification of the standard time.

“If a standard time should be made permanent, thousands of lessons would be injured by this,” said Karen.

Despite this, the Karen group does not recommend a change in permanent daylight, as it could injure hundreds of courses that are aimed at golfers early in the morning, he said. These include courses in retirement communities, vacation stations where late Tee times interfere with dinner plans and solar belt routes where extremely end-of-account heat sees golfers favoring the early days.

“We believe that the status quo is not an evil, no fault,” said Karen.

The representative of the republican state of Iowa, John Wills, presented a bill this year to change the permanent savings of the day. But he was under pressure to modify the bill to a permanent standard time.

Wills considered him until he heard arguments on how this change could affect golf.

“” I think I could push in the future and say, you know, the golf industry needs it, “he said.

Originally published: March 7, 2025 at 11:21 a.m. PST