By Craig Kessler, Executive Director, California Alliance for Golf
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When all was said and done about this year’s standard versus daylight time battles, one might have concluded that the whole thing was “much ado about nothing.” No state legislature made a move in the direction of permanent standard time, albeit two state legislatures (Texas and Maine) did join California and many others in indicating a preference for permanent Daylight Saving Time if and/or when enabled by Congress. And as expected, Congress did nothing; however, when the Senate heard the matter, among the handful of experts asked to testify before Senator Cruz’s Committee was NGCOA CEO Jay Karen. That alone was much ado about something – an indicator that golf’s profile in the halls of Congress is on the rise. Maybe all of those who have been dutifully traveling to Washington, D.C. every spring for National Golf Day festivities have something to show for their efforts. And maybe more will heed the call by their national leadership organizations to follow suit and join them in 2026 and beyond.
The California Alliance for Golf (CAG) expended effort and political capital opposing California’s version of a permanent standard time bill (SB 51), and it too found the same fate as parallel bills in other states – barely escaping its State Senate policy committee of reference before disappearing in the great void known as Appropriations. Bills that permanent standard time supporters told us were “moving” in California’s neighboring Pacific Time Zone states of Nevada, Oregon, and Washington didn’t move at all in Oregon and Washington but did move in Nevada through that state’s lower house before stalling out in the upper house for reasons that may have had much to do with these failures in the neighboring Pacific Time Zone states.
As for Arizona’s continued support for permanent Standard Time, it’s time someone points out the obvious. Arizona is not in the Pacific Time Zone. It is the westernmost state in the Mountain Time Zone. By hewing to year-round Standard Time, it is in sync 8 months of the year with Las Vegas and Southern California, the two population centers to which it is closest and with which it has the most contact. Dare we suggest that Denver and Salt Lake City are not exactly in Arizona’s geographical wheelhouse? Were Arizonans to “flip their clocks” as 48 states now do, they would be out of sync with Nevada and California 12 months of the year. That more than anything animated Arizonans to avail themselves of the permitted permanent Standard Time option in 1968, and it more than anything sustains their interest in sticking with it.
Not to worry? Hardly! As the California Alliance for Golf (CAG) has made clear since SB 51 was dropped on us last December, the proponents of permanent Standard Time are organized, funded, passionate, and true believers in their cause. They are doctors and scientists whose laser focus on what they discern as a health advantage based on Standard Time’s better attunement to our diurnal clocks motivates them to just keep trying until they eventually convince the rest of us that any decision about permanent Standard versus permanent Daylight Saving Time, or for that matter “flipping the clocks,” ought to be made solely on their “discernment,” and not their “discernment” as part of a multiplicity of other factors relevant to what we would suggest are indispensable to a fully formed public policy decision – e.g., other health factors, outdoor recreation, public safety, economy.
A peek at the websites of “The Coalition for Permanent Standard Time” and “Save Standard Time” tells you all you need to know about why we do indeed need to worry. Unlike golf, which tends to operate in silos, these folks understand the power of communication, collaboration, and organization in the public arena.
CAG stipulated to the permanent Standard Time supporters’ claim about permanent Standard Time’s marginal health benefits, because CAG has neither the expertise nor the credibility to issue any claims or conclusions about such stuff. But there is one question we have long burned to ask them. How does the fact that the sun sets 2 ¼ hours later in the summer in Seattle than it does in San Diego, both Pacific Time Zone cities, fit into their conclusions? The same goes for Maine and Miami in the Eastern Time Zone. Not to mention those places in the middle of the country, like Indiana, where one can drive 2 miles and gain an hour.
California fully anticipates another version of SB 51 in 2026 and suggests that those reading this in other states ought to do the same. We might also be so bold as to suggest that this time, the affected golf communities in the Pacific Time Zone might be better served by coordinating their efforts and communicating with each other just as the proponents of permanent Standard Time routinely do. The same goes for the golf communities in other time zones.