Had my first round of "vacation golf" last week!

[mburton]

like the title says, i went to destin florida with my girlfriend and my best friend and his fiance.  we played at "The Links" located in sandestin, and wow what an experience.  this was my first time at a nicer course and i had such an amazing time.  they sent a driver to pick us up from our hotel and we were greeted by a staff member who completely hooked us up with all the info we needed and got us ready for our round.  we went up to the pro shop and looked around for a while and bought some souveniers while we waited for our tee time to get a little closer before we went to the range and hit some balls, which was included in our price.  maybe it's because i haven't played many high end courses, but i was so impressed with the condition of this course, and the friendliness of it's staff.  we got paired up with a really nice guy and his 10 year old grandson, i've never been paired with strangers before and was a little nervous as first.  it ended up really adding to the experience getting to know this guy who was real friendly and cheering on his grandson who was pretty good for his age!  i've also never played on a packed course, but thanks to this site i knew the etiquette of staying on the heels of the group in front of you.  it was actually quite a bit more relaxing and enjoyable with so much time between shots, we got to soak in the views and enjoy the weather! needless to say i'll be buying a travel bag and playing every chance i get on vacations from here on out.

also as a sidenote we both rented a set of the new nike clubs (covert 2.0 driver, 3 hybrid, 3 wood, new irons, and method putter) and they were a blast to play with!

[boogielicious]

Cool.  it is fun to play on vacation and see great courses.

[dave s]

sounds like a great experience, Mike.  Glad you enjoyed it and rightly so at a nice resort course.

We were on vacation 4th week of June as well.  Managed to sneak in FOUR rounds this time.  My wife played with me twice but prefers to lay on the beach and bake like a lobster!  Both times I booked a single tee time I was paired up with some really great folks.  My partner on one day was a VP level guy retired from AT&T; / Ameritech.  He was pushing 70 years old and was a very competent player.  We carted together, shared a bunch of business stories and just had a really enjoyable round..

The other round played as a single I was paired up with a couple of mid-20s aged guys who could flat out HIT it from the tee.  Sad when my 'bombs' are going 220 off the tee at sea level in North Carolina.  We still had fun, they didn't have to wait on me the entire round and both young guys were solid kids.  Really enjoyed their company.

Take your clubs wherever you go and play if time permits.  Get the wife playing also.  Our favorite vacations anymore are to resort areas with golf and casinos.  Golf days keep us from losing ALL our money to those criminal casinos!

Again, glad you had a good time vacation golfing.  Try to do it more.

dave