Beating The Heat: 10 Golf Tips for Hot Weather

Try these 10 golf tips to enjoy golf during summer’s dog days.

Do you need some golf tips for surviving the hot weather of mid-summer? According to the climate gurus it doesn’t matter where we live: we’re living through the hottest year in recorded history. And here comes August! What’s a golfer to do? Sit it out in the air conditioning and wait for the cooler days of September or take a few practical steps to manage the heat, keep her core cool, and get out there and tee it up?

Let’s face it. We all spend a fair amount of money on golf equipment. This isn’t a cheap sport, and yet we often neglect the no-cost and low-cost strategies that could enhance our pleasure of the game.

Here’s my top-10 list of essential, no-cost/low-cost heat management golf tips that are keeping me on the course. I hope you’ll share a tip or two of your own that will help all of us.

#1. Beat the Heat & Tee Off Early

Start early. I know this isn’t always an option. My women’s league has four fixed weekly tee times and trying to rearrange those tee times would send the pro shop into convulsions and completely snarl a week-day morning schedule that’s fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. Still, we plan in advance and routinely make seasonal changes, teeing off earlier in the day during the hot months and later in the day during cooler months.

When I play outside my league, I try to get off the tee as early as possible. I can avoid the hottest part of the day and get an added bonus because there’s something spiritually refreshing about being first off the tee on a hot, steamy summer morning. I’m more than willing to sacrifice a few yards’ roll to enjoy the early-morning dew and be off the course before the worst of the day’s heat.

#2. Wait in the Shade

Assuming you’re not playing your round in the treeless desert, and assuming that you’ll have those inevitable waits before you can take your next shot, slip under the shade of the nearest tree. It’s at least 10 degrees cooler there.

If you have the bad fortune of golfing on a treeless track, take an umbrella with you and use it. They work for sun as well as rain.

#3. Start Hydrating Early

We all know that we need to keep pumping the water through our bodies during our round, but starting the hydration process 12-18 hours in advance of tee time gives me a bit of an edge. I minimize caffeinated products and avoid alcohol entirely and rely on Harry Truman’s good, old-fashioned branch water.

#4. Don’t Neglect Your Electrolytes

Whether it’s a sports drink like Propel or Gatorade or one of the many available supplements you can add to a bottle of water, don’t overlook the importance of electrolyte replacement during hot weather golfing as well as more strenuous physical exertion.

My personal favorite here is Nuun — it comes in a tablet that I drop into my water bottle, and that produces a subtle, pleasant lemonade-flavored fizz. (There are several flavor choices so if you don’t like lemonade you can probably satisfy your palate with one of the other options.)

#5. Keep A Cool Head!

Cover your head! I learned the hard way during a hot season in south India that, as Noel Coward so wonderfully observed, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun without covering their heads. This is a case of something is better than nothing, although there are a number of products specifically designed to enhance cooling.

My current personal favorite is Nike’s featherlight dri-fit billed golf cap. The band absorbs and holds water and the top vents enhance circulation. (The cap comes in many colors, too, for those of us who need to look good while we sweat.) I keep mine wet throughout my round, which leaves my hair in a mess but my head cool!

#6. Eat!

Heat suppresses my appetite, but my body needs more fuel when I’m making it work in the heat. I have the added challenge of managing diabetes, but the basic problem remains unchanged. Bodies at work in extreme temperatures need easily digested carbs. I nibble — on peanut butter crackers, a banana, a few M&Ms, a handful of nuts.

Basically, this is my rule: I hydrate after every shot and I nibble before every tee shot.

#7. Cooling Towels & Neck Wraps

Use them. I store my Frogger towel in the freezer between rounds so when I start my round it’s filled with ice crystals. They don’t last, but my towel stays cool through my round, even in the hottest weather, and a judicious wipe on the back of my neck or across my belly will lower my core temperature just enough to keep me comfortable.

I drip cold water from the on-course coolers on my neck wrap every few holes and enjoy the shivery cold rush it gives me after every little soak.

#8. Clothes that Wick

I’m a big fan of clothes that wick away the perspiration that I produce. Read the labels and invest in golf shirts that will do the job. There’s an added bonus: wicking shirts keep looking good and you won’t end up a bedraggled mess when you get to the 19th hole.

Women face a challenge in the sports togs department that men don’t have: the sports bra. Check out my solution.

#9. Cooling Gels

Like electrolyte replacement products, heat-wicking hats and clothing and towels, there are a number of cooling gel products on the market. Some work, others don’t, some work for some people but not for others. Activating this golf tip requires some individual experimentation, but if you can find the right product for your body chemistry you’ll be able to dab a bit of gel treated with aloe and eucalyptus oil on the backs of your knees and in the crooks of your elbows and behind your ears and experience amazing little cool spots that do their part to keep your core at a manageable level for 18 holes of mid-summer golf.

#10. Watch the Pros

The pros maintain a steady pace during their rounds and they manage their emotional as well as physical pace. Nothing makes the heat worse than an on-course temper tantrum. The pros have learned how to step back and idle their engines between shots, to stay in the present, to take their round as it comes, one shot at a time. Follow their example.

Fore!

Next: My Search for the Perfect Sports Bra

Share your hot weather golf tips in the comments section. Let’s stay safe and healthy while we [lay our way through summer’s dog days.

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