The Best for 1st.......

It has been a long layoff from my last blog. I just came back on a vacation that included going out of the country to Seoul, Korea and visiting Maui for the 1st time. In the weeks prior to my vacation I was able to play in a few tournaments on the Golf Channel’s amateur tour. I wanted to post something after a two day tournament in Hershey, PA but I was so disappointed in my play on the 2nd day of the tournament I couldn’t bring myself to write about it that day. A week later I played in two tournaments one at Bulle Rock on Saturday and at 1757(the last tourney of the year) on Sunday. I was going to start writing then but I was finalizing my trip to Korea and Hawaii. I thought of combining all 3 weeks into 1 blog but my lady convinced me that I should write and tell about each event. So it brings me to first talk about the great first, the good second, and the ugly last.


If I haven’t stated previously I first started playing golf at around the age of 19, I can’t give you an exact date I can only tell you my older brother introduced me to the game and I fell in love with the game ever since. So 15 years later I am writing to tell you in Maui I have played the most beautiful course to date. I haven't experienced places such as St. Andrews or Pebble Beach but I have played courses on the RTJ trail in Alabama, some beautiful courses in South Carolina, and a lot of courses in Virginia and Maryland.

So I stopped in Maui on my way to visit my parents in Korea with no intentions on playing golf and didn't bring my clubs.  I was only going to be in Maui for a short time and didn't think I would get the chance. I definitely thought about it but I was visiting a friend I graduated with in college and knew she didn’t play. I was to make two trips to Maui, one on my way to Korea and on my return back home. Basically Maui is the halfway point to Korea from the Washington, DC area and financially it made the most sense to purchase two roundtrip tickets from DC to Maui and from Maui to Korea instead of buying a one way tickets to Hawaii and Korea. I used to stop to see friends on the west coast in my previous trips to Korea-something about flying 17 hours straight on an airplane makes me want to jump off the plane at the 10 hour mark.  My friend recently moved to Maui and it was a great opportunity for me to see her. 

When I arrived in Maui and to my surprise my friend’s boyfriend was also an avid player(surprise surprise) and told me that on my return to Maui that he would setup a round at the local course that hosts PGA’s first tournament of the year the SBS Championship at Kapalua Resort. He told me he couldn’t promise anything but would do his best. Of course he came through and on the last day of my vacation I was able to play Kapalua’s Bay course, the resort has two courses and the Plantation course is where the pros play their tourney, not like I was disappointed to play just the "Bay" course.  As I mentioned before I didn’t bring any of my equipment, I knew I would need to rent clubs and other accessories to play.  I was able to get hooked up with rental clubs and played in my nikes.  Did I forget to mention that my rental set was a set of Titleist AP1's decked out with Titleist woods and a Scotty Cameron putter to match.  Not bad for a rental set. 

By far and away playing on a course that borders the pacific ocean is one the most breath taking scenes you could ever see or get a chance to play.  I could care less on how I shot, I was just giddy to play.  If you ever get a chance to play Kapulua's Bay course I highly recommend it-just don't expect to shoot your lowest round.  As breath taking as the course was from the water outlining many holes, the wind on the island is just as fierce.  Maybe on a calm day if a day exists you might be able to go after some of these holes.  We played from the white tees that measured only at 6051 yards with a rating of 69 and a slope of 129.  Don't let the numbers fool you as much as you can score low, you could easily put up crooked numbers on many holes.  To my surprise I was able to shoot a 91 with the clubs I rented and sneakers I wore.  I was very pleased.  To sum it up I state it like this playing golf on Maui is one of the greatest joys I ever had on a golf course.

Here is the breakdown on what I paid for this experience:  Hat $28, Clubs $50, golf balls free, Beer $30, not losing a ball in the ocean(lost two in the bush), and paying only $28 for a $200 round...... priceless......  Here is a picture of one of their many signature holes a par 3 that played at about 160.  By the way I pulled my shot to the left, chipped to about 12 feet and 2 putted.  No way was I going into the ocean.  Now I started with the best and will slowly post the good and the ugly.

Mahalo

Triple Exposure