Day Two at the Grand Palms

On Easter Sunday, Christians all over the world were celebrating the Lord’s resurrection. Meanwhile, golf fans from across the globe were following the final round of The Masters at Augusta, Georgia. In the neighbouring state of Florida, all I wanted to resurrect was my own golf game, after a less than stellar debut to the season a day earlier.

Divine intervention was welcome as I teed off for another round at the Grand Palms Golf Resort in Pembroke Pines. The Royal and Sabal nines offered a surprisingly different experience than the Grand/Royal combination of the previous day. Sabal features a trio of straight and narrow fairways, flanked on both sides by houses and backyards. It’s a bit like playing golf in a bowling alley. There is less water to contend with on Sabal, though you wouldn’t know it walking alongside the expanse of water that hugs the entire length of the fourth hole.

Through the first three holes on Royal, I amassed two more strokes than I did the day before. Fortunately, I earned three of those back with a well-executed par on the fourth hole, a 465-yard par-5. I hit a crisp drive off the tee, avoiding water on both the left and right. From the fairway, I hit an easy layup to the front of another pond that wraps around the green. My approach shot sailed over the water, landing safely on the green and setting up the two-putt.

I had less luck on the sixth hole, a 369-yard par-4. For the second day in a row, I could not negotiate the tight fairway, bordered on one side by backyards and on the other by a long, narrow pond. I took a couple of splashes in the water before emerging with ten strokes added to my scorecard. Yuck!

The situation improved to some degree once I reached Sabal. The bowling alley fairways on the third, fifth and sixth holes forced me to hit a 3-wood off the tee, instead of driver. Playing conservatively, I managed to hit all three of those fairways. Good iron play carried me to greens in regulation on two of those holes, resulting in a couple of pars. A less than perfect iron shot on the sixth hole landed in a bunker and the outcome was double-bogey.

Overall, it was another enjoyable round and a step in the right direction.

Score: 106
Par: 73
Putts: 38
Fairways: 5
Greens: 5