G'day,Yes, we mean it - if you go to Jekyll Island STAY OUT OF THE WOODS. Watch the video above this post if you don't believe me...
Cool, huh?
So we headed out to the course at 8 am this morning. It was still a big thrill showing up to the course on playing on real grass, I don't know if I can get across just how much better it is to be out here for real than hitting off of mats inside a field house - so much better, SO so much...
Just after 9 am we were set loose on the course - Matt Butler and I led the way, followed by Ben, Nick and Dan, and Ellen and Jordan went off to play their own course (the men and women are playing tournaments on different courses this weekend). I also don't know if I can get across just how wonderful it is playing golf with one Matthew Butler - let's just say it left me really craving muffins (Martha found this out on the putting green after one particular exclamation I made...). It was also pretty informative; in the wise words of Matt Butler, "treeless golf is better golf."
For the benefit of all my fans reading this post, I'll break down my personal round a bit - it was a little tough adjusting to playing full scale golf again, my shots were falling WAY short of usual, but I managed to pull off a pretty solid 12-over 84. Highlights included hitting the pin with a 5-iron on #5 and making birdie on #16 with my brand new AUSSIE PUTTER!!! And of course, playing with Matt Butler was was massive highlight within itself...
For the benefit of those of you not on Jekyll Island, let me describe the course. The men are playing the "Oleander" course, so that's the only one I've seen, but it's pretty sweet; the course is lined by trees on pretty much every hole, but they really don't come into play unless you hit it really off line, it's a surprisingly open course. In the trees, however, it's pretty much jungle - and gators. Don't go in there. The course is on the short side, but it plays longer than the yardage. There's not a lot of water, and none of the water is really in play, but it's pretty beautiful and the marshy setting adds to the jungle-like feel of the course - it's also tempting to stroll along the edge of the water looking for gators (though not advised)...
After the round, we chilled for a bit and then got a couple hours of practice in. While we were on the driving range, Martha spotted a HUGE gator emerging from the woods beside the 18th green... needless to say that interupted practice for a bit. And yes, that's the gator that's in the video in the post above... you always hear that there are gators on courses down in these parts, but until you see a 10-foot gator wander out of the woods that close to you it doesn't really sink in...
So yeah, in the afternoon the men's team went out as a fivesome to play the front nine again. Things already felt better the second time around (again, for the benefit of my fans, I shot a 4-over 40 this time around). Martha ran into another gator, she got around 10 feet away from it before she even noticed it was there (she ended up seeing three on the day).
That was pretty much it for the activity of the day... when we got back, Jordan cooked spaghetti for everyone, we gave Dan a birthday cake (he turned 19 today, he didn't wanna make a big deal about it) and then we put on "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"... OH, and now we're watching Japan vs. Cuba in the World Baseball Classic!!! GO JAPAN!!!
Well, come back again tomorrow for more - we're playing our official practice round tomorrow, all the teams that are playing in this weekend's tournament will be on the course (there are over 50 men's and women's teams combined...). It's a late round (starts 1:09 pm for the guys), so we have the chance to sleep in a bit tomorrow.
By the way, there are 147 steps to the beach from our front door.
Keep it real,
- Colonel
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