Grand designs

Wednesday

 

Today's game was a 9:00 tee off at Grand Cypress, playing the East and North courses. They have a South and New course as well each of them are 9 holes.

After falling asleep at 11pm last night I woke up sometime after 3am and didn't get back to sleep. Curse you jet lag, why don't all countries just use the same time zone!

The course was less than 10 minutes away so I had plenty of time for the driving range, chipping green and putting practice. I was worried that I may have sore hands from the 2 games  yesterday but didn't expect a slight groin strain as well.

It was overcast all day but despite the threat,t didn't rain.

When I arrived at the tee I was told I was on my own and that there was a 4 ball a few holes ahead. After playing the first I was delayed as a staff member helped get the GPS working properly, I had driven off the second but a pair was coming up behind me so I waited and we joined up. Dale was a security guy at the club so knew the course well and Gary was visiting from Scotland. I worked that out before he told me.

When I drove in I could just see the sides of one hole that looked like they had deliberately planted spiky bushes to give that links look. I didn't think I would like it. However in general the course was not like that and was quite stunning in places. Greens had contoured approaches, grassy hollows and bunkers and were fast and undulating. There was also a lot of water on the course and these claimed a couple of balls, particularly the Island green, Par 3, 5th hole.

I played of the longest tees (gold) and my results followed yesterday's game. Started well with quite a few pars for 43 on the first 9 but had a poor second 9 with 52 for the same overall score.

The pair that joined me had already played the South course and left me after the first 9. I played alone and played through the 4 in front on the 5th hole. I was surprised to find I'd completed my round well under 4 hours.

The carts had a different, older GPS system. No touch screen but a row of buttons and a cursor to make selections. It had a fixed number of distance points on each hole and included a drive length option. My longest was 257m on the first which was also in the middle of the fairway. This continued for the next 4 holes and then I became less consistent.

After the game I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant near the hotel and then went back to my room. I had planned to visit the Outlet mall but fell asleep instead. I woke up at 5-30 and had to struggle to get up, shower and get ready for dinner. I was collected by the local secretary of the Mensa group and there were 7 of us at dinner. Apparently Wednesday night is not good for a dinner meeting with some people having other commitments or having baby sitting problems. One of those there was an ex Aussie member who is a pilot, with his wife and young son. WE ate at the Elephant Bar, which had a very large menu with American and Asian offerings. I had a scampi spaghetti with a lobster sauce, plus a Margarita.

Tomorrow's game is not till midday.