Had Alfred Lord Tennyson been a golfer, he may have written: “In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of golf,” rather than love – and he might have changed “lightly” to “obsessively.” Spring means go-time for golfers and superintendents who are often afflicted with a well-known malady, cabin fever. Cabin fever makes golfers impatient to get out and play and it makes superintendents impatient to achieve midseason course conditioning. Patience often is scarce in golf and is almost treated like a four-letter word sometimes. However, there are some areas where patience is important at this point in the golf season: