Tag Archives: golf

Golfing On The Cheap In Hilton Head, Our Caddyshack Adventure

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Golden Bear

Last year we found a golf course a good ways away from the core activities of the island, that was relatively cheap.  But this year we wanted to be on the island and golf at one of the better courses.

We choose “Golden Bear”!  It’s a golf course in a gated community in Hilton Head.  The course is a beautiful Nicklaus-designed course, with a fairly challenging layout.  We saw exotic (local to the area) birds in the water hazards, and even a few alligators basking in the sun.  The houses along the golf course were spectacular (at least million dollar homes)!  Needless to say, I was amazed by both the scenary and the beautiful homes along the course!

To save on cost, decided to book our tee time at discount hours (after 4:00pm).  So we had a tee time set for 4:32pm.  The deal we got was $31.00 (it’s regularly priced in the $70s) per person, and we got my son in for free (perhaps because he’s 10).

So it was a bit expensive for my taste, but a lot cheaper than it could have been!  As we played, we had a blast!  At some holes, we looked like we were living scenes from Caddyshack.  In particular, my dad was driving off of the tee, and when he hit the ball, it hit a tree and came flying back at him (really it came back 10 feet to the left of him, but it was close enough).  My brother-in-law and I were roaring in laughter!  Another Caddyshack scene was when my son hit a ball that almost hit a very large stork-like bird.  The ball land so close to the bird that the sand that kicked up from the ball landing, hit the bird and causing it to fly away to another water hazard on the course.

One final moment was when my dad hit the ball and it hit the water, yet somehow the ball managed to skip across the pond surface and landed high on the fairway on the other side.  Without skipping a beat, I said that somewhere in pond, there was a turtle swearing out loud at my dad.  It’s still a mystery how his ball bounced out of the water, after all he was over 100 yards away when he hit the ball.  That was a first for me!

After we finished the 15th hole, the sun got tired of waiting for us and decided to go down.  The lack of light and the voracious appetite of hungry mosquitoes caused us to decide to leave the last two holes unplayed. 

It was a great experience, and by far the most challenging course I ever played!  Hilton Head is definitely a place full of discounts and deals… if you look!

Do you have any great ways to get deals on entertainment while in vacation locations like Hilton Head Island?

-MR

Christmas Presents That I’m Excited About

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I got the usually presents for Christmas… jeans and a few work shirts.

So why did I call the title “Christmas Presents That I’m Excited About“?  Because they are my son’s presents (mostly)!

I have a secret confession to make:  I like living Christmas vicariously through my son.  Yep, it’s true!  And this year was awesome for me my son!

We He got the following presents:

  • Mind Flex – This is a game that where you connect an apparatus to you head, then concentrating on a ball, it then rises and falls based on how hard you focus on the ball.  This is an awesome game for kids that love Star Wars.  It’s the closest thing that I’ve see that will let a kid “Use the FORCE“.  I can’t wait to try it soon!
  • Golf Clubs – I’m just an occasional golfer, even my 9 year old son “putts” better than I do.  But he’s been using odds and end golf clubs, with a set designed for his height, he might match my score next year.  We’ll see, it should be great fun (not to mention the bonding experience of such a father and son activity).  I have taken my (then) 5 year old daughter to the driving range already too.
  • Air Hogs Police Helicopter – This is actually my son’s 4th one of these.  The first three were handled a bit to roughly, and they didn’t last long…  My son has better control now…  I’ll get to play with this soon too.
  • Foosball Table– He actually got this 2 years ago, but he was too small to use it.  We have a ping pong table setup downstairs, and he now gives me a run for my money on it, so now I’ll build the Foosball table, and we’ll play that too.  Besides, I might actually invite some old friends over and we’ll play perhaps will play it some too.
  • Star Wars Legos – I won’t play with this (or build it…), but I have to admit, these sets are cool to explore once they are build.  My son loves all of the Star Wars sets.
  • Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” – Okay, this isn’t my son’s… this is my wife’s present.  I’m a big fan of Stephen King.  My wife collects his novels in her own personal library.  Stephen King is one of the authors that I read as a college student, and I’ve been hooked on them ever since.  I won’t get to this for a month or 2, but I’m patient…

Of all the presents, the one that I will enjoy the most is the Golf Clubs.  Actually the time spend golfing with my son this summer is what I’m excited about.  He is just growing so fast, and I want to spend as much quality time with him as possible.  Hopefully, this will be another memory created for him (along with our Christmas Traditions memory), so he can look back and remember those times fondly.

We’re lucky, I found a relatively cheap course to go to.  Then again, we even have fun just going to the driving range.  We conclude our golf outings with a quick trip to a local ice cream place where I buy my son a chocolate peanut butter pie treat (his favorite).

This coming year we’ll try to go every other week, either to the golf range or actually playing golf.

So really the best present that I got this Christmas is the time that I’ll get to spend with my son playing golf next summer.  Of course, I’ll do the same with my daughter once she gets older too…

That is why I’m really excited for next year to come!