The Mountain West has no shortage of golf destinations, but there is an undeniable fact that goes along with these unparalleled recreational opportunities, and it is this:

Snow.

The white stuff.

The ol’ winter blanket.

Sure, we have a few cozy pockets in our region’s southern reaches where golf continues (even thrives) unabated well into the heart of January. But for the most part, we have to endure. We have to wake up in the morning and try NOT to think about heading out for a long, now-impossible 9-hole lunch. We have to inch along the icy roads and focus on the last thing many of us want to look at—a long stretch of lifeless road that reminds us of a long forgotten fairway, marked by OB in every possible direction. The markers are not stakes in this ungodly season, however. They are icicles. And the sprawling mowers in front of us are not mowing, exactly. They are plowing.

If you are anything like me, you probably spend a sizeable chunk of your Intermountain winter wondering how you could live here and still be a golf nut.

Have you ever considered, however, that it is the winter that MAKES you a golf nut?

Players residing in the St. George/Mesquite area tend to be just as passionate as their neighbors farther north, but as you fan out to destination cities in the perpetually balmy Southwest, attitudes change somewhat.

I recall that the last time I was in Phoenix, it was plenty difficult to get a tee time, but only because so many other sun birds had the same idea. (A cob salad of out-of-state license plates pretty much told the story.)  Then there were the locals, who couldn’t care less.

“I used to go out and play just because I could,” one Montanan-turned-Arizonan told me. “Now I go out and play just because I’m bored.”

If that sounds like golfing sacrilege to you, join the club. You are probably our kind of golf nut—the kind of nut who knows that your days are numbered.

Even now, however, in the recesses of a long, late winter, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The 2015 golf season is upon us, and there is no better way to usher it in than a visit to your favorite golf show.

Suggestions

Boise: Feb. 7-8 (www.boisegolfshow.com)

Spokane: Feb. 21-22 (www.spokanegolfshow.com)

Denver: Feb. 20-22 (http://www.denvergolfexpo.com)

(We’d also love to tell you about Salt Lake. Shockingly, there’s nothing to report here. If you know of a Salt Lake or Utah golf show in 2015, let us know.)

In the meantime, keep your spirits up. The sport we cherish—and the beautiful region in which we cherish it—will be running full-bore before you know it.