Eric C

All good courses, I play three of them on the regular with my men's group. Shingle Creek is a resort course, meticulously well maintained, and a favorite. A keeper. Providence, Southern Dunes, and Highlands Reserve are fun courses and well maintained, but just know they located within neighborhoods and not quite on the same level as Shingle. The difference in green fees reflect this. Out of the 15 or so courses we play in rotation, these three are among my favorites for sure. If your budget allows, I'd look at Streamsong for a bucket list round, located about an hour from Orlando. They have four amazing courses, and May is the perfect time to play it. Walking only that time of year I believe. You won't regret the extra effort and expense. Grand Cypress is going through some major construction, but I'd still recommend a round on the Jack Nicklaus designed Links Course (formerly the New Course). Celebration would be my Disney course of choice, but others may recommend differently. Slightly less fancy, but still one of my favorite local courses, is St. Cloud. Mission Inn is about 40 minutes outside of Orlando, and has two world class courses that host a lot of amateur events. Las Colinas is a Gary Koch design that I love, wide fairways and big greens. Less water than the other course, El Campeon. So many great courses around here I'm sure you'll get some other great suggestions. Hope you and your friends have a great trip!

Depends on whom I am playing with. With regular golf buddies I'm either keeping my mouth shut or making fun of you. If you're someone I don't know then I don't say a word. If you congratulate me on a poor shot I just ignore you. I play with guys that will retort with a "no it wasn't" or whatever ... they know far better than I do how good their shot was, and I find it's best to say nothing at all about fellow player's shots unless it really was a great shot.

I saw this hawk on Saturday, cool cat. This gator is from about a year ago, and no - that's not my ball next to him.

I played TPC Sawgrass earlier this year, and they strictly enforce pace of play. Several signs that you couldn't miss, the starter reminds you, and your caddie encourages your group. Somewhere around the middle of the round we had to wait a few times for the group in front, and low and behold a marshal in his cart shows up and chats with us for a few minutes while we wait, telling us that he'll talk to the group ahead and "take care of it". Having been told the same before, I wasn't placing any bets. Two holes later he drives past and waves, picks up the group in front of us and moves them ahead to the next tee. At the end of the round I was chatting to the same marshal, super nice guy, who told me he does it all the time and does his best to get the group back to the hole they missed at the end of their round. Takes some extra effort and excellent customer service on the part of the course, perhaps takes the group's score out of alignment with the rules of golf (others can answer that, but I assume so), but solved the problem and was well executed.

Just outside of my distance limit for weekend golf, but thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like a great course!

Shot Caller - Stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of GOT Jaime Lannister fame) as Jacob/Money who is a former stock broker who ends up doing hard time for DUI manslaughter when he kills his best friend in a car crash. This is a gritty thriller that nicely captures all of the reasons that I would never make it in prison - on his first night in prison he sees another new guy get gang raped and decides he'll do whatever it takes to stay alive. And he does. Really well done movie that flashes between the past, present and future in a way that really helps tell the story. My wife and I both got a bit lost around the climax of the film, but the director nicely pulled it all back together in time for a pretty spectacular ending that you don't see coming. Coster-Waldau is excellent in this movie, as is Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice). Jon Bernthal (TWD/ The Accountant) plays the same weak person character he always does - not a fan, but he doesn't distract from the story. If not for the jumbled climax this would have been an Eagle, but I still give it a solid birdie. I think we watched it off of Prime.

I don't know that that is accurate, and it definitely depends on the state. In Colorado and California, for example, medical marijuana is exactly the same as the recreational strains available in dispensaries. The difference is the level of taxation. I did find one article that stated that 14 states limit THC potency, but after researching state-by-state wasn't able to pin that down. I don't disagree that it's possible, but will argue the efficacy of doing so. But to your point - Florida is considering legislation to limit the potency to 10% THC because levels above that "can induce psychosis in some users" (anyone seen Reefer Madness? 😄) A fools errand - the pot our parents smoked was around 7%, with the high-end "sinsemilla" coming in at around 9.5%. It still gets you high. Admittedly, the strains produced these days are much stronger, with 18-20% being considered high potency, and 30% being the upper limit for flower. Extracts from marijuana plants, like hash oil, generally come in between 50 - 80%. To tie it all back together so I'm less off topic - regardless of the THC level, marijuana impairs a person mentally more so today than it did 20 years ago. Golf is proven to have a significant mental component, aligned closely with the physical aspects of the game. Thus weed absolutely has a negative impact on ones golf performance - though it might make a shitty round more fun.

Having played many, many rounds while under the influence of marijuana I can personally attest to it not being performance enhancing. Against the rules? Perhaps. But not performance enhancing. Quite the opposite. Everyone reacts differently to being high, and while it may well reduce stress it also certainly reduces one's ability to focus. Golf requires focus. I'd get high and kick ass for about two holes, then be all over the place. I haven't used marijuana since moving to Florida because it's not legal here, and I don't have a qualifying medicinal reason to get a prescription. I could of course make one up, because it's not like getting a prescription is difficult, but it's not such an important thing to me that I feel the need to go out of my way. I personally don't see a difference between drinking or smoking beyond the legal aspect - both are personal decisions, and when used responsibly should be an individual's choice.

Heck, I will occasionally do this when playing with my wife. I always feel like an ass when it happens, but she's a good soul and cuts me a break.

On Saturday I played a course I'd never played and shot an 83 after starting the round bogey, double, double. Kept my head in it, and managed a real nice 2 over 39 on the back. Best round by far that I've had in awhile.

DeChambeau goes on profane rant about 'haters' With slow play questions following him from New Jersey to Illinois, Bryson DeChambeau had a colorful reply to those still hounding him about a putt he hit a week ago.

They are definitely sexy as hell! At the end of the day you still have to have a swing - it's the Indian much, much more than the arrow.

Welcome from Orlando / Groveland!