(Photo link coming soon!)
How can a golf weekend with the guys that ends up a wet mess still be a good time? When the guys you are with comprise a fun bunch to hang with, and you’re in Ocean City, Maryland. Thanks to Mike Cleery from www.oceancitygolf.com for setting us up!
Wiz and I met at his house in the Northeast early Saturday, got some good diner food in us and hit the road, with a plan to meet Doc, flying solo this week out of Bucks County, and Glenn, who cruised up from Carolina. A good sign is when people come from different directions, and wind up arriving at the first course within minutes of each other.
The Links At Lighthouse Sound, designed by Arthur Hills, was already looking like the best play of our weekend, and this visit only underlined just how amazing this place is for golfers. True links-style golf with eight holes right along the Assawoman Bay, our front-nine was like playing in a sunny, tropical setting. The course was in world-class shape, presenting a tough, but fair play, as long as you stayed in the shorts. The rough there was not like most courses in the Philly area, dense and deep and made of ball-sucking grass. I know I lost 3-4 strokes just getting out if it and back in the fairway.
The ever-present winds presented an additional challenge.
I also have to note that the staff at Lighthouse Sound were awesome, and their practice set up is one of the best I have seen, featuring a putting green, real grass driving range and a chipping green. All were excellent warm-up spots for our group.
Now, Doc regularly shoots in the low 80s, and Wiz and Glenn both score right in there, too, leaving me as the sole member of the 100+ stroke club in this crew. But who should start strong, shooting pars and bogeys? That’s right, yours truly. In fact, I hit a 47 on the front for my best half-round of the season. The real me returned on the back-nine however. Hey, when you’re a bad golfer, your inner shanker eventually comes out. Only one of us rose to the challenge, took their licks, and broke 100, and it was not me. Listen, I feel good when I am 6-10 strokes off the leaders, and that was the case in this round. After a run back to the hotel on the beach, Clarion’s Fontainebleau, we pushed through the traffic to get to Harrison’s Seafood, on the Inlet, for a fine dinner and drinks. Moving slowly down the island was made more enjoyable by the amazing classic cars slow-cruisin’, as part of Cruiser Weekend in OC.
Sunday morning’s early wake-up call got us to the window quickly to find heavy skies and a steady rain in progress. Doppler did not make us feel any better, but we made the move, got out for breakfast at Dough Roller, and made our tee time at Rum Pointe, a Pete and P.B. Dye layout, with skies clearing as we drove. After getting stuck behind a large, disorganized group (I’m not saying anything, but the one guy was wearing a Mets jacket), we got it going, and I felt pretty good. Could this golf getaway thing be the key to unlocking my inner Tiger? Nope!
Two times in the last ten years, I got things going early, and looked like I might have a personal-best kind of day, and both times downpours curtailed my round. I thought of the Bishop in Caddy Shack and heeded the call to the clubhouse. So much for Rum Pointe, but someone said, and I agree, I’d come back to play there again, but on a nicer day.
So we jet over to Ocean City Golf Club to wait and see, maybe have some lunch. The bar was packed with wet people, fresh from the course, and dry ones, hoping to get out. One look at the radar on the Weather Channel convinced us that the rest of our day was shot. A quick huddle and we decided that despite this revolting development, we had a good time, and made our plan to cut and run, and reconvene (three of us anyway) on Monday at Island Green.
Needless to say, my inner Tiger was nowhere to be found once I was home, which makes me want to get back down to Ocean City, Maryland, to finish what I started at Rum Pointe, and hit a couple more clubs, like Bear Trap Dunes or Glen Riddle. Top of my list for my next visit is a return to Lighthouse Sound!