Holiday Gift: Southern golfers look forward to warmer temperatures for Christmas

     Everything is relative, including weather (especially weather).  In the last few weeks, a couple of readers from Chicago have asked me to help them find golf community homes in the southeastern U.S., and I believe the spate of interest from The Windy City is a direct result of the weather.  Winter has come to Chicago a little earlier than typical this year, and the deep freeze has been relentless over the last month.  But although the grass is certainly greener, literally, in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, a chill has been going through the golf communities in those states as well.

        Few areas outside of San Diego have been immune from the cold-aired blast of Mother Nature these last couple of

weeks.  (San Diego will have a high temperature of 62 today, but there will be rain.)   Wilmington, NC, and Myrtle Beach, SC, for example, will not quite reach 45 degrees today, and it will rain.  Farther down the coast, Charleston will reach only 48 and Savannah 53 (raining too).  Jacksonville, FL, temperatures will make it to 66 degrees but rain will prevent most golfers from their appointed rounds.  Of course, players at the famed TPC Sawgrass and other northern Florida golf courses can look forward to playable conditions throughout the rest of winter (although tomorrow’s high temperatures of 53 will necessitate a sweater and/or windbreaker).

        We all know that temperatures in the south will rise again, and soon.  At this time next week, on Christmas day, Myrtle Beach temperatures will tip the scales at 55 degrees, not quite short-sleeve golf shirt weather but the equivalent of a heat wave for us northerners.  The expected high in Chicago on Christmas day is 29 degrees, with snow showers.  According to weather.com, the best day for golf in Chicago this week is Thursday when the thermometer will reach 32 degrees under partly cloudy skies.  The good news is that if you find a course in northern Illinois that is playable, you will have it all to yourself.

        If the cold weather in the north has you dreaming of a home in the balmier climes of the Carolinas or elsewhere in the southern U.S., contact me and I will be pleased to provide you with some ideas about golf communities that best fit your requirements.  The service is free and without obligation.