Monday, January 9, 2012

16 of 70: PGA Ryder Course, Port St. Lucie FL


On Sunday January 8th, after a one week frost delay, we played our first game of the New Year. No kidding, one of our friends here in Florida lost some potted plants during the cold spell. People walked around in winter coats and boots. Not us Canadians, of course. However, we had no intentions of impersonating Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey so we stayed away from golf courses for a while.

As we had moved to the PGA Village, we enjoyed playing the Ryder course with Jean and Armand who had played the first two rounds with us back in November. The Ryder Course is another Tom Fazio design and it was so named in honour of Samuel Ryder who was the founder of the much coveted Ryder Cup tournament which is fought for on alternate years by American and British teams. The course is visually very attractive and appears to be player friendly, and is player friendly provided you stay out of the water hazards and numerous sand traps. I was lucky enough to find no water and only one bunker, but more on that later. The Ryder course, designed in rolling hills, is quite undulated, and the greens, large for the most part, are often multi-tiered and elevated.

As mentionned previously, I only found one bunker but it did cost me dearly. It was on the par 3 twelfth where first I missed the green on the right then I faced a downhill chip shot which flew past the pin and rolled to the back of the pot bunker on the left, tight against the back lip. Behind the bunker ran the river so there was no escaping that way. Three sand shots and a conceded putt later, I walked away with a triple bogey 6; however, I still managed a respectable 88 for the round. Both Jean and Armand seemd to have balls that preferred the beach to the fairway on this beautiful sunny day and Armand probably set a new course record in that respect, but he managed it with grace and good humour. The course was appreciated by every member of our foursome. Yes Brenda did play with us, enjoyed the course and the wild life and was particularly delighted to get more bird pictures, especially the limpkin, which is a fairly rare sighting we are told.

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