The prairie saves its best hour for the end of the day, and its best season for the end of the year. If you can choose when to come, choose autumn — when the grass has gone gold, the crowds of summer have thinned, and the light does something in the last hour before dark that no photograph has ever quite held.
The course plays firm and fast in the cool air. The greens are at their truest. The wind, which can be a bully in high summer, settles into something you can play with rather than against. And the rooms, which face west on purpose, frame a sunset every evening that empties the bar onto the terrace without anyone having to suggest it.
Come in summer for the event. Come in autumn for the place.
There is a particular pleasure in a fine place half-full. The staff have time to learn your name and your order. A tee time is yours for the asking. The Aquatic Center is calm, The Sheaf is unhurried, and the whole estate takes on the feeling of a private house in the country that happens to be very good at looking after you. The shoulder season is when Strawgrass is most itself. Those who know, come now.
