It’s the holidays; what a great time for a game of golf.

Many Lawrence golfers have taken advantage of warmer than average late December temperatures this week to hit the links and enjoy their outings while they still can.

“I’d rather play in this kind of weather than when it is 90 or 100 (degrees),” said Emil Heck Jr., 85, as he relaxed at a table with other fellow golfers Tuesday afternoon inside the office building at Orchards Executive Golf Course, 3000 Bob Billings Parkway.

Outside the sunny afternoon weather pushed the mercury up to 57 degrees. That followed Monday’s record high of 61 degrees, which broke the old record of 60 degrees for Dec. 26th set in 1934.

The average temperature for this time of year is around 40 degrees.

By 12:30 p.m. Tuesday the temperature was in the mid-50s and more than 40 people had already showed up to play golf since the course opened at 8 a.m., said Mac Hay, a golf course employee.

“We get a lot of old men and college kids,” Hay said.

At Alvamar Golf & Country Club, 1800 Crossgate Drive, Leroy Komma, 67, and Don Sherman, 77, played for the second day in a row. They were glad they got an early start because of the influx of golfers. They said they enjoyed playing golf even when the temperature is in the 40s as long as the wind isn’t too high.

“That wind chill makes a lot of difference,” Komma said.

Wind was minimal Tuesday, out of the northeast ranging from 5 to 10 mph.

The big warm-up Monday and Tuesday followed Saturday’s steady daylong rain. It also followed two snowstorms and a bout of sub-freezing and even sub-zero weather earlier in the month. But this kind of roller-coaster December weather is not unusual for Lawrence or Kansas, 6News meteorologist Matt Sayers said.

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“At least we get the ups with the downs, whereas up toward Iowa and toward the Great Lakes they just kind of get stuck in the cold and don’t get these warm-ups,” Sayers said.

Last year Lawrence experienced similar weather after Christmas when the temperature reached 60 on Dec. 29 and 71 on Dec. 30. But a few days later on Jan. 4 the area was hit by an ice storm.

There are no ice storms in the near future this year, however. Today’s high will reach 43 and then be in the 50s the rest of the week, Sayers said.

Little, if any, precipitation is expected the rest of this week, he said.