The Good, The Starr & The Ugly!

While I was away from NYC, I was unable to take my weekly swim class. That doesn't mean that I didn't get to swim... I lounged in the pool and I played in the pool and I lounged on the beach and I played in the surf... Vacations with water activities rock!

On the first full day at our resort, we went to the Owners Meeting to hear all about the things they wanted us to spend our money on. One of the things presented to us was a Golf Clinic. I had ALWAYS wanted to learn to play golf and I jumped at the chance. It cost about 70 bucks to get coaching by a professional golfer, have lunch and play 9 holes. My aunt and I signed up and were very excited.


The next day, we went off to find the golf course. I was a bit miffed that we were leaving the resort, since there was already a golf course on the premises. We went a few miles away to another space and that is when things began to get UGLY! I got there, and then dude wanted to charge me 30 bucks to rent some clubs, so that I could GO TO THE CLINIC TO LEARN TO PLAY GOLF. Then I learned that the clinic was ONLY an hour long, and all I'd learn was how to putt the ball and that the instructor wasn't going to go around the course with me to guide and instruct me. Then I learned that the same dude, who wound up "loaning" me some clubs for free, wanted to charge me for some balls, and he decided to "loan" me some more, but only as much as he could carry in two hands... not like the buckets full that the other golfers had, and then we didn't know where to go! Some golfers who were in the clinic, asked if we were supposed to be with them, we said plainly that we didn't know what we were doing, and that we were okay. Turns out we were supposed to go as a group, they knew it and took advantage of our ignorance and started without us. We missed our chance and a few minutes later, we were stuck waiting in the hot sun for almost 20 minutes trying to get IN for our tee-time. The person running the first Tee on the "GOOD" course, felt sorry for us, and seemed to know a thing or two about conflict resolution because we were getting pisssed off watching these people who came after us go before us and we wanted our money back and to go home to the cool AC or pool and out of the blistering hot sun!


After a few calls on his radio, he got someone to escort us to another course... Introducing the "UGLY" on the opposite side of the property. We were the only people there, so although there was no one to ask for help or assistance, there was also no one to hurry us along or to get in our way. We soon realized why the course was called "UGLY"... there were lakes and sandpits all over the place, it was the most challenging of the three courses, but we did pretty well and only managed to lose two of our balls in the water!

After a while, we started to have a LOT of fun. I was even putting through my lower back pain. I'd managed to develop pain in my back while learning how to swing. I apparently was using far too many muscles and trying way too hard! When I learned to loosen up and relax, it was less taxing on my body and my swing was much more effective!

It was a great workout... trust me! I did quite a bit of walking, and I felt the soreness in my muscles the next day, not to mention all of the water weight I probably lost sweating in the sun while sipping on once-ice-cold water!