Well, I had my first round of golf in the Tennessee heat yesterday, and came to understand why the Irish emigrated to areas like Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, and Canada. We just ain’t meant for this kind of weather.

Normally, I like to tee about between 6:30 AM and 8:00 AM – even back when I was in Pittsburgh – because that means my round is done when the sun can do the least amount of damage, but our tee time was for 9:15 AM which meant that we started the back nine just before noon.

The first inkling that something was wrong happened on hole 12. I was on the green, and the world shifted slightly and I got a bit dizzy. It was only for a second, so I drank half of a liter of water and tried to stay in the shade, but by the next hole, I realized that something was wrong.

The heat and sun were just too much. Luckily, modern science has created Coppertone Sport which I applied very liberally throughout the morning (and I still got dangerously close to a burn) and saved me from complete agony.

Lesson learned: Play golf between March and May, or October and November, and if it’s in the summer, I have to either only play nine, or tee off at 7:00 AM.

It’s good thing that potatoes don’t like extreme heat, because red-headed, fair skinned, blue eyed Irish farmers couldn’t have survived here.

P.S. If you like in Nashville, and haven’t played it before, I highly recommend Forrest Crossing. It was a beautiful, well-maintained course with just the right mix of hard and easy holes.