The Ocean City Swing

Welcome to the 2009 golf season!

With the weather up north not exactly ideal yet, it became almost mandatory to get somewhere where it's a bit warmer -- this year my brother planned a little trip to Ocean City, MD, which we just completed this past weekend. Here's a quick rundown:

4/4/09: First, A Detour -- The Golf Course at Glen Mills, Glen Mills, PA

We were originally scheduled to play a warm-up round of sorts in New York, but with a forecast of steady rain and high winds, we decided to get a jump start on the trip and headed south to Glen Mills, which is just outside Philadelphia. We weren't entirely sure what to expect from the course, having chosen it somewhat last minute based on it's ranking as the #2 public course in the greater Philadelphia area according to ESPN.com's travel website. In short, it was spectacular. The conditions were fantastic for this time of year. The layout was unique, challenging, with hazards that were obviously well thought-out and punished bad shots, but if you hit it where you are supposed to, you would be rewarded. It immediately vaulted to my short list of favorite courses.

Unfortunately, 2 things conspired against scoring: (1) we avoided the rain but not the wind -- balls were literally blowing off the green... from a standstill; and (2) I sucked. Badly. Can't say I did much of anything right. I hit just 5 fairways (with 3 of those coming on holes 2-4), and 4 greens. I made a 9 on the 9th hole. The final tally: 94. Ugh.

4/5/09: Welcome Cheerleaders -- Glen Riddle Golf Club (Man O' War), Berlin, MD

We arrived in Ocean City to find that there was some sort of national cheerleading competition in town that weekend, and it seems that all the 10 year olds were staying in our hotel. That meant we got a bit of an early wake-up call when one of the mother hen's knocked on our door thinking it was a cheerleader room (probably since every other room on the floor was), and then had to endure about 2 hours of a screaming/running/make-up/hair session across the hall. So that was fun.

Eventually we escaped to our first scheduled round, at The Beach Club. We knew in advance that it was the weakest of the courses we were scheduled to play... but my God, was it bad. When we arrived there were about 50 people just milling around in the parking lot, which turned out to be due to the fact that they were out of carts and the starters were so flumoxed they had no idea what to do with everyone. Then we saw the putting green, which was mowed to a length I would normally associate with the 1st cut of rough. After a few quick phone calls we were able to transfer to our scheduled course for the next day (Glen Riddle Golf Club), and we fled The Beach Club like a trio of cockroaches when the lights turn on.

Best decision of our lives.

We played the Man O' War course at Glen Riddle, which is a links-style track with impressive rolling dunes that interweave with pristine fairways. It clocks in at an impressive 7163 yards (par 72) with a rating of 74.9 and slope of 137 from the tips. (A quick confession here, though: it wasn't playing anywhere near that slope/rating as the fescue that covers the dunes hadn't grown in for the season yet, and even the rough wasn't expected to really bloom for another month). This was the round of the weekend that came closest to even par, shooting 77. Some of that was a bit fluky (I holed out from 115 yards on the par-4 12th), but my play was infinitely better than it was the day before, hitting 9 fairways, 8 greens, and making just 27 putts.

4/6/09: Rained Out

We were supposed to return to Glen Riddle for 36 holes (at Man O' War and then their soon-to-be private course, War Admiral). We ended up playing 11 before thunderstorms and torrential rains poured in. Oh well.

4/7/09: On the Coast -- Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links, Berlin, MD, and The Links at Lighthouse Sound, Bishopville, MD

The storm was gone, but the winds were not, and both our rounds on the final day of the trip were on coastal, relatively unprotected courses, and it seemed that every long hole played directly into the wind -- not an easy day to score.

First up was Rum Pointe, which is at Pete Dye design, suppossedly without the typical Pete Dye bite. At 7001 yards, though, and especially with the wind, it played to considerably more difficult than it's 72.6 rating/122 slope. It's definitely a scenic course with gorgeous bayside views, but overall a little repetitive; in fact, the best holes were probably the ones that headed away from the shore and briefly into the woods, which was a little disappointing. Despite hitting 71% of fairways, I shot 89, which tells you all you need to know about how hard it was to hit and hold greens in the conditions we had. Either that or I'm an awful iron player.

The final round of the weekend was at The Links at Lighthouse Sound, #89 on the Top 100 You Can Play. They claim it's been called the "Pebble Beach of the East," and I have to say it mostly delivered. The stretch of holes that runs directly along the coast (4-5-6, especially) is gorgeous; both the 4th and 5th greens are on precipices with the bay directly behind them (a la number 7 at Pebble), and the black and gold tees on 6 are seemingly in the middle of the bay itself. It's also incredibly challenging (73.3/144, 7031 yards), and, according to the guy in the pro shop, "unbeatable with a west wind" (which, of course, is exactly what we had). The 7th hole, in fact, has a forced carry that was quite literally impossible into the wind ("I've never seen anyone do it," said the pro shop guy). Statistically I had a good round -- 71% of fairways again, 6 greens, 33 putts, 9 pars -- but big scores on a few holes (3 triples) doomed the round and I shot 88.

All in all, I highly recommend the Glen Riddle courses and Lighthouse Sound if you're in the Ocean City area.

And now that I'm officially warmed up, it's time to get back to the task of reaching even par.