Golf in the heat, British edition: Met Office warnings, UKHSA alerts and winter-sun rounds

It is the first of October, the clocks go back in a few weeks and nobody in Britain is worrying about sunstroke on the 14th fairway. So why a piece on playing in the heat now? Two reasons. The first is the golf trip: this is the season when British golfers fly to the Costa del Sol, the Algarve or the Turkish coast for a week of winter sun, and step off the plane into temperatures their bodies have not seen since August. The second is next summer. The last few British summers have stopped being a safe bet for cool golf, and the habits worth building for a hot round abroad are the same ones you will need at home the next time the Met Office turns the map red. What follows is a plan for keeping your last six holes as sharp as your first six, whether the heat finds you in Antalya or in Norfolk.

The British golfer’s problem: we are not used to it

Golfers who live in hot countries adapt. Their bodies get used to sweating earlier and more efficiently, and their routines are built around the heat: dawn tee times, a cooler in the buggy, a hat that is never left in the car. Most of us have none of that. We play in a breeze off the sea, in a waterproof for half the year, and we treat a 25°C afternoon as a gift rather than a hazard.

That is why the danger on a golf trip tends to arrive on day one or day two. You land, you are excited, the course is in perfect condition and the package includes unlimited golf, so you play 36 holes in the afternoon sun after an early flight and very little water. The round feels fine until somewhere around the 13th, when the legs go, the putts start dying short and the decisions get lazy. That slide is the thing to plan against. It is not dramatic, which is exactly why it catches people out.

Build the first two days of a golf trip gently

The single best decision on a winter-sun trip is made when you book the tee times, not on the course.

• Know what you are flying into. October is still warm in the places British golfers like to go. Spain’s state weather agency, AEMET, gives an average October maximum of 24.1°C at Málaga airport, and Turkey’s state meteorological service gives an average October maximum of 26.6°C for Antalya. Those are averages: a warm spell can push well above them, and the sun at that latitude is stronger than anything you have played under at home since the summer.
• Morning first, afternoon later. Book the earliest slots for the first couple of days and leave the afternoon rounds until later in the week, once you have a feel for the heat.
• One round on arrival day, or none. A travel day is already a dehydrating day: early start, dry cabin air, coffee instead of water. Eighteen holes is plenty, nine is wiser.
• Ride or push, at least at first. A buggy is part of the package at most resort courses. If you normally carry, take the buggy for the first rounds and walk later in the week if you feel good.

Water, salt and the halfway hut

Thirst is a late signal. By the time you notice it, you are usually already behind. The NHS advice for hot weather is to drink extra fluids and have regular cold drinks, and on a golf course the easiest way to make that happen is to tie it to something you do anyway: a few mouthfuls on every tee, whether you want them or not. Start before the round, with water at breakfast and a full bottle on the range.

Plain water is not the whole story on a long, sweaty round. You lose salt as well as water, so at the turn eat something salty and consider a rehydration drink rather than a third bottle of water. The NHS lists sports drinks and rehydration drinks among the things to give someone with heat exhaustion, which tells you they have a place in the bag on a hot day.

Then the awkward one. The same NHS guidance says to avoid alcohol, caffeine and hot drinks in the heat. The pint at the halfway hut is a fine British tradition, but on a hot day it belongs in the clubhouse after the 18th, not between the 9th green and the 10th tee.

Food follows the same logic as water: small and often. A big fried breakfast before a hot round is the opposite of what you want. Something light before you tee off, then a banana, a handful of nuts or half a sandwich every few holes, keeps the energy level flat and stops the late-round slump that feels a lot like low blood sugar.

Sun protection that survives four and a half hours

The NHS says the sun is strongest between 11am and 3pm, and in the UK it puts that window from March to October. Abroad, closer to the equator, the sun is stronger again. Its practical advice translates well to a golf course:

• Sunscreen: at least factor 30, with at least four-star UVA protection, used generously. Reapply every two hours and after sweating. A round lasts longer than two hours, so a small tube in the bag and a second coat at the turn is the minimum.
• A proper brim: the NHS recommends a wide-brimmed hat that shades the face, neck and ears. A cap leaves your ears and the back of your neck exposed for the whole round; if you will not give up the cap, put extra sunscreen on both.
• Light, loose clothing: a pale, breathable shirt lets sweat evaporate. A dark, clinging one does the opposite.
• Two towels and a spare glove: one towel for your face, one kept dry for the grips. A soaked glove slips on the way down, and that is how a sensible round gets a ball into the trees.

A cheap trick from hot countries: soak a small towel in cold water from the cooler and wear it round your neck between shots. It works better than any amount of fanning yourself with the scorecard.

How the course plays when it is hot

Heat changes the golf course as well as the golfer.

• The ball carries a touch further. Hot air is less dense than cool air, so a well-struck shot flies slightly further than it would on a chilly British morning. It is a few yards, not a club and a half. Watch whether you are going long and take less club if you are; do not swing harder chasing the bonus.
• Firm fairways, softer greens. In the 2022 drought, England Golf advised clubs to embrace firmer, drier conditions and to put water where it is needed most: greens first, then tees, then fairways. So in a British heatwave the ball can run for ever on the fairway and still check on a green the greenkeeper has kept alive. Hit a few putts before you assume the greens are lightning.
• Decide in the shade. Pick the club and the line while standing under the tree by the tee, then step into the sun and play. Every extra minute standing over the ball is another minute in the heat.

Two rules points worth knowing

The umbrella. Under Rule 10.2b(5) of the Rules of Golf, you may hold your own umbrella or wear protective clothing while you make a stroke, but you must not play while your caddie, another person or an object deliberately placed is protecting you from the sun. Your partner can shade you with an umbrella between shots; they need to step away before you swing. Get it wrong and the general penalty applies: two strokes in stroke play, loss of the hole in match play.

Nine holes count. Under the World Handicap System, a nine-hole score can be submitted for handicap. If a hot afternoon is the only slot you can get at your club, nine holes played properly is a better use of the day than eighteen played on empty for the last third.

Heat exhaustion and heatstroke: know the difference, and stop

The NHS separates two conditions, and every golfer who plays in the heat should be able to tell them apart.

Heat exhaustion can show up as tiredness, dizziness, a headache, feeling or being sick, heavy sweating with pale, clammy skin, cramps in the arms or legs, a high temperature, thirst and irritability. The NHS steps are to move the person somewhere cool, take off unnecessary clothing, give them plenty of water or a sports or rehydration drink, and cool their skin by spraying or sponging with cool water and fanning them. They should start to feel better within 30 minutes.

Heatstroke is an emergency. Call 999 if someone is still unwell after 30 minutes, or has a very high temperature, hot skin that is not sweating, a fast heartbeat, fast breathing or shortness of breath, confusion, a seizure or loses consciousness. On a trip to Spain or Portugal, the number is 112, the European emergency number.

On the course, the hard part is the decision, not the first aid. Nobody wants to be the one who walks in on the 11th. So agree on the first tee that anyone can stop without having to explain, and that the others will take them in. Save the clubhouse or pro shop number in your phone before you start: the staff know how an ambulance reaches each hole, and you do not.

Where to check the heat before you tee off, at home and abroad

Start with the reason this matters in Britain at all. On 19 July 2022 the Met Office recorded 40.3°C at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, the first time the UK had ever passed 40°C. This year it went further in June than ever before: the Met Office has verified 38.0°C at Lingwood in Norfolk on 26 June 2026, beating the old June record of 35.6°C that had stood since 1976. It also issued Red warnings for extreme heat on three consecutive days that week, a first for the current warning system, and England went on to record its warmest June since records began in 1884. In other words, a British summer can now produce exactly the conditions this article is about.

There are two separate systems to know, and golfers often confuse them.

• Met Office extreme heat warnings. Part of the National Severe Weather Warning Service, these come in amber and red and cover the whole of the UK. A red warning means the heat can make fit, healthy people ill, not only the vulnerable. On a red day, the right golf decision is usually not to play in the afternoon at all.
• UKHSA Heat-Health Alerts. Issued by the UK Health Security Agency together with the Met Office, these are colour-coded yellow, amber or red, cover England only and run in a core season from 1 June to 30 September, though an alert can be issued outside it. You can see them on the UKHSA data dashboard and sign up to receive them by email. A yellow alert is aimed mainly at vulnerable people; if you are older, have a heart or breathing condition or take medication that affects how you cope with heat, treat a yellow as your cue for an early tee time or nine holes.

Check the hourly forecast for the time you expect to be on the back nine, not the daily maximum. And ask your club secretary what the committee does in a heatwave: whether competitions move to earlier starts, whether the dress code is relaxed, where water can be refilled on the course. Policies vary from club to club, so ask rather than assume.

Abroad, go to the national weather service of the country you are visiting: AEMET in Spain, IPMA in Portugal, and the Turkish State Meteorological Service for the Antalya and Belek coast. All publish warnings and forecasts, and the resort’s own staff will usually know how the afternoon heat behaves on their course. If you are booking a trip for the hotter months, remember that the comfortable October averages above do not apply in July and August.

The hot-round checklist

• The night before: check the Met Office warnings, any UKHSA Heat-Health Alert for your region and the hourly forecast for your back nine. Book the earliest tee time you can, or plan nine holes.
• In the bag: two full water bottles (one frozen), a rehydration drink or something salty, factor 30 or higher with four-star UVA, a wide-brimmed hat, two towels and a spare glove.
• On the first tee: agree that anyone can stop without explanation, and save the clubhouse number.
• Every tee: a few mouthfuls of water, thirsty or not.
• At the turn: sunscreen again, food, refill the bottles. The pint can wait.
• From the 13th: quicker decisions in the shade, an eye on whether you are flying the green, and an honest check on how you feel.
• On a golf trip: morning rounds for the first two days, a buggy until you are used to it, and the local emergency number (112 in Spain and Portugal) saved in your phone.

None of this makes a hot round heroic. It just means the golfer who walks off the 18th green is the same one who stood on the first tee, which on a properly hot day is a decent result in itself.

How this page was put together: the UK temperature records, the June 2026 Red extreme heat warnings and England’s warmest June come from the Met Office; the Heat-Health Alert colours, season and England-only coverage from the UK Health Security Agency’s weather-health alerting user guide; the symptoms, first aid and 999 advice, the hot-weather tips and the sunscreen and hat guidance from the NHS; the watering priorities from England Golf’s 2022 water resiliency guidance; the October averages for Málaga from AEMET and for Antalya from the Turkish State Meteorological Service; and the umbrella rule from Rule 10.2b(5) of the Rules of Golf published by The R&A. All were read in October 2026. This page is general information, not medical advice: if you have a heart condition or take medication that affects how you cope with heat, ask your GP before playing in hot weather. Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any organisation mentioned here.