6 of 70 : Club Med Sandiper Bay Golf Club, Port St. Lucie, Florida

 

As mentionned previously, Club Med used to own two golf courses adjoining each other at Port St. Lucie, The Saints, which was the first course I played on this adventure, and The Sinners which is now known as Sandpiper Bay. The course is quite flat and fairly wide open. It is generally well bunkered and has water on all 18 holes but the water mostly comes into play as lateral water hazards. Compared to the first five, this course would normally be the easiest one to play. That being said, I learned a few «life lessons» on the golf course today.

Lesson # 1 : It doesn't matter if it looks easy, it is all about decision making, and today I felt like the sinner of all sinners making too many bad decisions. In golf parlance, we talk about course management and I sure didn't do that well during this round. I didn't give the course the respect it needed, lost my concentration, lost my swing and made one mistake after another.

Lesson # 2 :   One should always trust oneself and, again, I didn't do that either which brought me right back to lesson #1. I twice tried to use the «Texas wedge» (my putter) out of a sand trap and both times paid dearly for that mistake. As there was hardly anyone on the course, I practised the shot again, with my sand wedge,  after finishing the hole. This is allowed in Match Play, of which the Skins Game is a more difficult variation where the hole is carried over if not won sqarely by any player. When practising, I ended up with a par instead of the double bogey actually on my scorecard. I just needed to trust myself and my swing.

Lesson # 3 : It isn't always «your» day. Today, it was all Brenda's. She played well finally breaking 100 on this trip. She shot a 96 to my 93, a win for her when you factor the handicaps. She also won 11 skins to my 7. The one positive for me is that I won the last two skins in a putting contest after we finished the 17th and 18th holes even. These Bermuda grass greens had been eating me alive  all day, therefore, it was good to finish the round on a positive note. And, it must be said, Brenda was too happy with her overall result to be worried about losing the last two skins in a playoff.