Could this be the last year golfers enjoy that extra hour of sunlight that accommodates all those “twilight” tee times and after-work leagues made possible by “springing” our clocks forward every March?
The answer is yes if the proponents of California Senate Bill 51 have their way. They argue that the public supports eliminating the biannual switching of the clock, and they cite sleep studies that indicate that “ditching the switch” would yield certain health and public safety benefits.
They’re right on those two counts. But why “ditch the switch” in favor of Standard Time when Californians voted by a margin of 62% to 38% in 2018 to ditch it by going to Daylight Time? Why ditch it in favor taking what we now do for four months of the year and extend it all 12 when it would be so much simpler to just take what we do for eight months and extend it to 12?
Given that we’re talking about politics here, you may have already guessed that the reasons are complicated – things like paths of lesser resistance, federal preemption and the usual suspects that rear their heads whenever the subject is legislation.
Those of you who have the interest and the stomach for diving into those complications can click here to read a California Alliance for Golf (CAG) article that dives into all of them.
This won’t be the last time you hear of the subject as it moves through the laborious California legislative process. The allied associations/organizations of CAG, of which SCGA is one, are all over this. There are a lot more factors than just golf twilight hours that require consideration before California decides to “ditch the switch” in favor of one permanent option or the other.
