Golf’s next big battle is with Congress…and the sun

Scientists estimate that in about five billion years, the sun will exhaust its hydrogen supply, expand to “red giant” status and begin its slow death – engulfing Earth and the inner planets in a wall of fire and ending life as we know it in the solar system.

That’s bad news for us on the planet, including our more than 30,000 golf courses.

this OK The news is, as far as golf’s existential crisis goes, it’s not too urgent! Before we figure out the first question – What to do when facing the sun five billion years from now? – We should have enough time to figure it out other There are problems, such as overseas investments by sovereign wealth funds, the threat posed by slow growth in distance, and the struggle to keep an old, slow sport alive in an increasingly young, attention-challenged world.

But it turns out that sunshine still has some luster as golf’s issue in 2025. The issue is big enough to prompt National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA) CEO Jay Karen to speak before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday morning. As Karen explained to Congress, the odds are against the clock for American golfers.

As much as I’d like to keep making corny astronomy puns for the rest of this story, the actual content here is actually very relevant to the daily lives of American golfers: Daylight Saving Time, the annual tradition of “going back” and “forward” an hour each year in (mostly) the United States. Daylight Saving Time plays a vital role in the health of the golf industry — and it’s possible billions of dollars That’s if you believe NGCOA’s latest estimates.

That’s how Karen and the NGCOA stood before Congress, and why they’re now on the front lines of the fight for full-time daylight saving time.

“Our data shows that the golf industry as a whole is going to grow at least 1 percent, and that’s the bare minimum,” Karen told a House committee hearing. “I guess [changing to permanent Daylight Saving Time alone would add] Overnight, the golf economy grew by 2-5%. “

The story of the permanent daylight saving movement — and the potential windfall for the golf industry — begins, like so many other American stories, on the battlefields of Europe.

The first attempt at daylight saving time in the United States began with the Standard Time Act of 1918, which was passed at the height of World War I to encourage energy conservation during the war. The legislation was controversial from the start. Farmers took to the streets to protest the loss of morning light and the overwhelming annoyance of being out of sync with the city dwellers who bought their produce. The law was repealed shortly thereafter and passed again in the 1940s to assist the United States’ efforts in World War II.

In 1966, national divisions reached a fragile compromise under the Uniform Time Act. The law adopted the current U.S. practice of half daylight saving time, half standard time, but the solution was a compromise measure, and like many compromise measures, it was deeply unpopular on both sides of the debate.

The clock controversy died down somewhat in the 1960s but never completely disappeared. In 1974, the U.S. government modified permanent daylight saving time to save energy use during an oil shortage. (Voters resented the dark mornings, and the on-and-off system was restored.) In the 1980s and 1990s, a group of consumer brands and citizen advocates formed the “Daylight Savings Alliance” to campaign for a return to permanent daylight saving time under the guise of potentially boosting consumer spending. In the early 2000s, the government extended daylight saving time by an additional four weeks, causing daylight saving time to take up most of the calendar year.

But none of these initiatives were as significant as the sudden effort in the U.S. Senate three years ago, in March 2022, when lawmakers began debating a bill called the Sunshine Protection Act. By congressional standards, the SPA is simple: just one page and only a few hundred words. Our goal was singular: to restore daylight saving time as a permanent law of the land, a goal that had the sympathy of a winter-weary Senate.

After a brief debate, the SPA was put to a vote. The bill passed unanimously and attracted widespread attention on social media. It was quickly sent to the House for review and then forwarded to then-President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

What happened behind closed doors in the next few days The agreement remains a mystery, but what happened publicly is the simple fact: The Sunshine Protection Act died without a vote in the House. Some U.S. House members blamed the inaction on “stalled momentum,” while others said it simply wasn’t a “legislative priority.” Whatever the reason, the bill languished in the House for more than three years without a vote, occasionally resurfacing for further investigation by smaller U.S. House “committees.”

On Thursday, Karen was invited to testify before such groups as the Energy and Commerce Committee on the potential impact of permanent daylight saving time, or permanent standard time, on the golf industry. It didn’t take long for the head of the golf trade group to make his point.

“Our data shows that permanent standard time will cost the industry at least $1.6 billion per year,” said Karen. “The revenue loss was approximately $200,000 per golf course and the number of golf courses lost was 37 million rounds.”

Karen said golf depends on what he calls “recreational daytime,” which is when the sun overlaps with the time people spend outdoors. American golfers overwhelmingly prefer to be outdoors in the afternoon and evening, which can generate 40% more course revenue than in the morning.

“It basically frees up a lot of inventory for the golf industry,” Karen said. “It’s just the golf industry, but it also brings good health to Americans.”

Course operators agree that the extra sunshine is good for business and golfers, according to the NGCOA. The only concern, Karen said, is that a permanent shift to daylight saving time could impact the ability of some golf courses to provide adequate downtime for clubhouse staff and employees.

“A survey showed that around 64% of members support permanent daylight saving time, while 83% believe it would help their business,” Karen said. “27% support maintaining the status quo and only 7% support permanent standard time.”

In NGCOA’s view, there is only one solution: If the United States is to change its relationship with sunlight, it needs to be rolled back.

“If we never change our clocks again, we’ll support permanent daylight saving time,” Karen said.

At least for the next 4.9 billion years.