The best time of the year to visit, and play golf, in Phoenix, Arizona


There are two seasons in Phoenix 1) So absolutely glorious that you can hardly believe it, like now in March, which I call "Chamber of Commerce weather", and 2) So incredibly hot that you can't understand why anyone in their right mind would live there. So if you're planning a visit, especially to play golf, it's important to keep this in mind.

By the way, the "Chamber of Commerce weather", where the skies are not cloudy all day, and out on the golf course you'll think you're in heaven, is from October to April. And from May through September people will wonder what kind of lunatic you are to be outside at all.

And just to be clear here, you can visit Phoenix even when it's ridiculously hot out there - you just stay inside of an air conditioned building, and travel in an air conditioned car (preferably at night), just like Las Vegas. But stepping outside in Phoenix in August will make you wonder if you've just stepped into an oven - it's not just hot, it's unbelievably hot.

So, if you're planning a golf visit, and you want to be comfortable, plan to visit between October and April. If you've never been in Phoenix at the time, I guarantee you will be in absolute heaven. The drawback, of course, is that things get more expensive, like hotel rooms, and green fees, which brings me to:

If you want to save a LOT of money, plan on playing golf in the off-season, which is from May through September. The price of everything, from hotel rooms to green fees, drops tremendously. I don't play golf anymore myself, but in my younger days I would play during the off-season. Getting a tee-time was easy when the temperatures were already close to 100 degrees at sunrise, and the green fees were so low that even someone like me, on a very limited budget, could play. I usually played only nine holes, and tried to get out early in the morning - and even that took its toll on me. I carried my clubs, and wore enough sunscreen to allow me to walk on the surface of the sun, but I'd never do that again. Hey, I was younger then!

I hope this helps. Fore!

Image at the top of this post: Ingleside Golf Course (now the Arizona Country Club) in the 1940s, Phoenix, Arizona. No, I never played there, and no, these guys aren't out there in the summer I can tell!
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Comments

  1. kirkdooleyMarch 3, 2022 at 10:38 AM

    In Montana in the wintertime, you dress in layers. In Phoenix in between Mother's Day and Halloween, you can't run around naked: It's illegal, for one thing, and in my case, IT'S DISGUSTING.

    I'm sure that Brad has gotten used to the oven that is Arizona south of the Rim, or has at least been able to adapt to it (it is better than Minnesota in December), but I never could, which is why I went back to Billings, Montana 10 years ago after 32 years of exile. To each their own.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brad HallMarch 3, 2022 at 3:33 PM

    Yes, to each his own. I could never wear enough layers living in Minnesota, and was glad to get away to Phoenix, where my blood nowadays is just water. And yes, you summed it up nicely - to each their own!

    ReplyDelete

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