Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play the Seaside Course at Sea Island Club. Home course of the RSM Classic, where I volunteer each November as a part of the Walking Scorers group. One of the perks is for volunteers to play either the Seaside or Plantation Course (which is used thursday and friday of tournament week). Wednesday morning started off pretty chilly for the beach...35 degrees. By the time we got to the course, it was in the upper 40's with a 5-10 mph wind, off the water. I must tell you that when I got on the practice facility, which is unbelieveably nice...I was thinking about my cart cover and propane heater...which was missing me back in WashMo. After hitting a few putts on the putting green, which is relatively flat...I knew I was in for a tough day of figuring out the green complexes. The greens are very large and undulating, with closely mown bermuda surrounding them. Large deep bunkers do a great job of catching errant approach shots. As one of the caddies said earlier during the tournament, Seaside has some of the widest fairways on tour (keeping in mind most of the holes were a dogleg of varying degrees, which created a lot of decisions on which line to take off of the tee). As a result, my driving was the highlight of my round, missing only one fairway all day, plinking it out there 210 to 230 yards. Playing the White/Silver Tees, which played around 5700 yards, with good drives for me, still left me with 14 approach shots with mainly 5, 6, and 7 irons. Only 2 of the hole locations were close to the middle of the greens, with the remaining being close to the edges. Aiming at most flags never seemed like the right play, so I aimed at the center of the greens. As a result, my first putts were 30 -60 feet from the hole. Yikes!! My putting results were horrible for the day...7 three putts!! Only 2 one putt greens for the entire day. I missed a 3 footer on 18, to shoot 80. The conditioning of the course was truly unbelievable...everything was perfect from the tees , through the fairway to the green complexes. Bunkers were large, deep and everywhere. But extremely playable and fair. The views of the water and many marsh areas could be a little distracting, but really added to the overall experience. As Lynne was able to ride along with me, (she was not allowed to go to the tournamant) it turned out to be one of my best days ever on a golf course. Sea Island Golf Club is definately a destination that should be on your bucketlist. Bring your checkbook with you, as it is a little pricey.
See you all in a few days.
