Professional golf effectively has no offseason, but that doesn’t mean that its yearlong lifecycle is monolithic. The PGA Tour’s “Season of Championships” gobbledygook aside, the turn of the calendar to March brings a definite change of tone to the pro golf landscape. The fields get consistently stronger. The courses get consistently bigger. Things are happening. It’s definitely not the best time of the year for pro golf, but it’s trending in the right direction.
So where’s the mountaintop? For my money, the year breaks down cleanly into two-month chunks that are easily rankable. Reasonable people can disagree, but if you feel differently then clearly you are insane.
1. June and July. The heart of the summer is the most brutal for weekend golfers, especially in the Deep South (either it’s pouring rain, or it’s 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity because it rained 30 minutes ago). For pro golf, though, it gets no better. The U.S. Open and the Open Championship are the headliners, but the European Tour’s events leading up to the Open begin the best TV viewing stretch of the year. The PGA Tour offers some of the calendar’s best low-key events (Travelers! John Deere!), and the new WGC FedEx St. Jude (regarding which I will brook no ill will) sneaks in before August too. It’s the time of year when you most desperately need an excuse to sit in a dark, low-humidity room to soak in some air conditioning, and the calendar delivers.
2. April and May. Whether moving the PGA Championship between the Masters and the U.S. Open will bring a marked difference in its enjoyability is a question on which the jury is still out. But even if it remains soulless in its new May home, the Masters almost never disappoints. And then one week later, there’s Harbour Town (maybe the second-best two-week stretch of the year, behind only the Scottish Open/Open Championship combo). Trinity Forest and Colonial also make appearances in strong supporting roles. April and May certainly aren’t the best time of year for pro golf, but if you can make it to this point, it’s golf season.
3. August and September. Hear me out. The FedEx Cup Playoffs are bad, but it’s still three straight weeks of really strong fields, often held at compelling golf courses. You could do worse (and come December, you will). Plus the European Tour calendar is terrific, with the BMW PGA Championship and the Dunhill Links (appearing in September for the first time since 2013) in back-to-back weeks.
4. February and March. This is the hardest stretch on the calendar to rank. February’s value to the pro golf calendar depends largely on one’s appreciation for the Farmers (which counts for more: its tremendous field or its abomination of a course?). But moving the Players to March saves this part of the year from a lower ranking; regardless of what you think of the way TPC Sawgrass gets set up nowadays, you wouldn’t rather be watching the Turkish Airlines Open. You just wouldn’t.
5. October and November. These months are essentially a Rorschach test for golf fans. If your heart starts racing at the thought of the PGA Tour’s fall events and the European Tour’s final push, then you’re a golf nut. If not, then you’re a healthy person with an admirably balanced life, and I salute you.
6. December and January. The calendar’s literal winter is also the schedule’s metaphorical one. It’s not altogether without value (this year’s Presidents Cup will be worth watching if only to see Royal Melbourne during primetime), but generally it is the time of year that most tries golf fans’ souls. When you’re waking up at 4 a.m. to watch the South African Open, you know you have problems.