Closing the season, and never using the garage
The garage takes clubs from plus five to minus twenty and back all winter. Clean, store indoors, post every score, then use the four months.
In Canada the season closes whether you like it or not, which makes the fortnight after the last round the most useful two weeks in the golfing year. An hour of work protects the equipment, keeps the handicap honest and makes April considerably shorter.
Clean everything before it goes away
Wet grass, sand and mud left on clubheads through a Canadian winter corrode ferrules and clog grooves for five months. Wash the heads in warm soapy water with a brush, dry them properly and wipe the shafts. Grips get washed too: most of what makes an old grip slick is dirt rather than wear.
Never store clubs in the garage
This is the single most common piece of equipment damage in the country. An unheated garage takes clubs from plus five to minus twenty and back, repeatedly, which is hard on epoxy and brutal on grips and glove leather. Inside the house, in a closet, is the answer. Take the balls out as well.
Fix the things you noticed in August
Everybody finishes the season knowing about a wedge with dead grooves, a grip that turned and a gap in the bag. Winter is when workshops have time and last season’s stock is discounted. A fitting in November costs less and takes less time than one in April, when everybody in the province wants the same appointment.
The handicap and the record
Post every score you were meant to post before the season closes, including the bad ones and the nine-hole rounds. A Golf Canada handicap that reflects a full season will not embarrass you in a spring competition. If you keep statistics, total them now: they point at what the winter is for.
Rest, then use the winter
Three or four weeks with no golf is not lost time. After that, Canada offers something most golfing countries do not: four uninterrupted months in which a change can be made without any scoring consequence. Domes, simulator bays and indoor teaching studios exist precisely for this.
Then choose one thing
Not four. One. A grip change, a putting stroke, a wedge distance chart, or getting properly fit. Whatever it is has four months to become normal, which is the biggest advantage the Canadian off-season offers and the one almost nobody uses deliberately.
The end-of-season list
- Clean heads, shafts and grips; dry them properly.
- Store clubs and balls inside the house, never in the garage.
- Book the regrip, the wedge or the fitting in November, at off-season prices.
- Post every score and total the season’s statistics.
- Take three weeks off, then pick one thing for the winter.
The season starts in the fortnight after the last round, not on the first warm day in April.
