There is something soothing about September, and it may be as simple as the fact we are leaving August behind.
As months go, August has the charm of an abandoned strip mall, absent of holidays and absent any sustained relief from the summer heat that, by this time of the year, is testing the patience of most of us.
That doesn’t mean it will immediately feel cooler after Sunday’s end of the Tour Championship in Atlanta because it was the first day of September, but it was the first day of meteorological fall, the day scientists consider to be the onset of autumn, solstices be damned.
Cooler days, we trust, are coming.
Summer golf, as glorious as it is depicted to be, can be downright unpleasant and sometimes avoided when the heat index equals a temperature setting on your oven.
Consider the locales of the three FedEx Cup playoff events this year:
Memphis. Denver. Atlanta.
Sticky hot. A dry, 95-degree heat. And sticky hot with frightening traffic.
It’s a tribute to the fans who sweat it out, particularly at golf tournaments where there tend to be hills to climb and the pleasure of standing shoulder to shoulder with other sweaty people trying to see over the other sweaty people in front of them.
To their credit, fans continue to show up, dealing with the heat to watch Scottie and Rory and Xander, whose job requires them to play outside in the summer. It’s a big ask of fans, particularly those who aren’t privy to air-conditioned hospitality chalets.
When family members joined me at the Tour Championship one year, it was so hot that they couldn’t finish their ice cream before it melted, the cookies and cream mixing with the sweat running down their hands and arms.
It’s hot for other sports. Ask fans of the St. Louis Cardinals how those midsummer games feel. Ditto for Atlanta Braves fans.
Southeastern Conference football is the high cathedral of college sports, but no one talks about how it feels sitting in the afternoon sunshine in Athens, Georgia, when it’s 90 degrees. Or at the University of Florida. Or Texas A&M.
The old adage that says don’t let them see you sweat does not apply at golf tournaments this time of year.
But September is here, a month worth singing about. Those of us of a certain age remember The Happenings’ “See You In September,” Neil Diamond crooning about a “September Morn” and, thanks to the illustrious Earth, Wind and Fire, “the 21st night of September.”
We have survived another summer, with the sweat stains to prove it.
Ron Green Jr.
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