One Christmas, my husband and I decided to explore the island of Puerto Rico and so did a mini-tour picking up some of our favorite sites to see, enjoying Christmas away despite a few days of rain, and golfing. Of course, golfing is a must when you visit Puerto Rico because there are many fine golf courses.

During our stay at the Embassy Suites Dorado Del Mar, we played the Dorado Del Mar Golf Course which sits right beside it several times because they had a special deal that allowed us to play a couple times at reduced cost.

The Embassy Suites Dorado Del Mar was one of the nicer places for us to stay with a wonderfully large swimming pool, free happy hour, many restaurants, and comfortable chairs in the rooms, with a decent rate despite the holiday.

The Dorado Del Mar Golf Course is fairly wide and flat so is welcoming for newer golfers. The course has plenty of challenge from hazards, water being one of the major sources of humility causing events.

Anyone may play golf alone, as a twosome or foursome depending on the crowd, but no one will ever be alone on the Dorado Del Mar golf course because visitors are certain to find a green iguana or two to keep them company. The green iguanas often dart into the water if approached too close since they are considered food, especially since they tend to be overpopulated.

Near the end of the round, golfers are challenged to cross the water and land on a small green surrounded by sand traps, see golf photograph above.

There's a small snack shop at the Pro Shop but food is also available at the Embassy Suites Dorado Del Mar. In all, families and couples will have a grand time on this course.

My husband Bob and I played with the Central Florida Golf Club at Dubsdread Golf Course and found that despite their reputation as the oldest golf club in Orlando, that they offered plenty of the modern conveniences. 

Their golf carts feature a GPS system that was very accurate. Every time Bob measured the distance to the flag, he was within 1 or 2 yards of what the Dubsdread GPS system showed. Often we find that GPS systems aren't accurate to the flag, only to the front and/or back of the green. This system also allowed you to enter golfers and track their score so you didn't need to fumble around with your phone or worry about charges or having it short out on you on the distant holes.

Also, in honor of the upcoming Veteran's Day recognition, they offered the chance to win a package of balls and get a discount at the pro shop with charity proceeds dedicated to Wounded Warriors. Bob thought he'd never hit the green so skipped, while I, with only 90 yards to go took the chance. Unfortunately, I had a great drive but hit the apron which was very wet and stopped. I was sure I'd bounce at least a foot forward, but not even an inch was gained.

Dubsdread is in great condition especially the greens. Many homes front the fairways but were set back enough they never came into play. 

There is plenty of challenge on the course, especially slopes along water hazards that dump you in. Luckily, the GPS system shows most hazards.
Dining was especially good and popular at the Taproom at Dubsdread. We both had salads--me, fried chicken, Bob a Cobb salad. At first we were told it would be 20 minutes for food service but we were helped quite soon.

Well, for me it was easy because I had a husband who made all the arrangements for staying at the Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic including all of our tee times online the internet (the link takes you to their webpage where you can arrange a room and a tee time). That was the first step.

The second step involved getting our golf clubs to the golf course. We took the resort train from the pick up stop at the end of our hotel building (the place is very large) but I think perhaps getting the golf cart first and picking the clubs up in the same spot would have been much easier.

The third step is checking in with the pro shop--lunch is available in the dining room right next door and since our first tee time was late in the afternoon, this mean lunch first was a great choice. The restaurant here has a dubious reputation for being really slow with some of the people we met, but for us it worked out fine. The restaurant didn't open until 12:30 so we had drinks first until they opened. Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe is an all inclusive so the beer (Presidente), Coca Cola light, hamburger, roast beef sandwich, and a dessert had we wanted it were provided without charge. The tee time cost us a charge for use of the golf cart. Had we played 5 times instead of three, the cost would have been less but as it was ended up at $40 per person. 

Afterwards, we were able to store our golf clubs at the Lakes Golf Course.

The fourth step is choosing the appropriate tee. My husband thought the blue tee distance was about his pace for his first game, the next two were played at the more typical white tee. The reason is on a couple of holes over the water, the distance can be pretty long. My husband had a much happier, less stressful time on the white tees. For women, the red tees play within a usual handicap.

Other hints about playing the course involve the challenges. One of the hallmarks  (see photo above) of the Lakes Course at Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe are the scenic golf shot lakes especially the number 9 and number 18 hole with their wood braced raised greens. 

Play it with the exact right club (the holes play long when faced with wind) with a high arching chip shot.

Another is the hidden greens (see photo to the left). Place your approach shot so that a high, arching chip shot that lands and stops is your best bet.

Another hint is to stay in the center of the course, choose the right distance club to stay out of the lake with any additional roll.

A last warning is to stay out of the sand traps. Many are hidden. You get over one sand trap only to fall in the smaller one hidden behind.

The Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe golf course is in excellent condition. We played after heavy rain and found you had to punch the ball hard to get it in the hole on the green and we also had to walk (most of the course was closed via cart path only rules due to soggy turf). Two days later, the greens were fast and driving on the course was allowed. Rain drizzled and was a relief from heat, the heavy rains came at night. Be prepared with sun protection.

Note: WiFi from the Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe resort isn't available on the golf course.

My first tryout of the Free Android App for Golfers titled Swing by Swing, started out fine. I opened it up, picked the golf course local to my region and found the one where I was playing.

I added myself as a golfer using my email address then added by husband as a partner. You can add a foursome.

So what's the bottom line on this App?

It works well but it's not the best choice. Why?

It uses a aerial view of the golf course for providing GPS readouts along the golf course hole by hole. These readings don't seem very accurate; we had better results with our golf range finding device. Maybe it was the course we were on or availability of GPS satellites, others might get better results.

The golf pad portion of the application allowed you to record your score, but if you moved away from the end of the hole, it would move on to the next hole. The previous hole would use a default value (I had the wrong score at the end of 18 holes) and it was complicated to go back and change it. Admittedly, you're supposed to record your score before you leave the hole, but practicality wise, Android device records are slower than writing it on a score pad and my husband always moved on to the next hole while I was typing. Frustration city.

The recording of scores is pretty easy, it assumes par with appropriate number of putts and these are easy to add to. There was no record of penalties. 

Tracking shot by shot didn't work with ease.

My vote is still on the Free Android App Golf Pad.

I’m cool, warmed up, loose. 

I’m gonna crack this ball straight down the fairway all the way to the white post, clean and straight. 

Yeah. I’m the king of the worm burners, oh, no, I’m the baddest Tiger of these here woods. Ha ha, not bad, I launched that there rocket clean into that oak, missed my forehead, missed my partner, never you mind. I’m out on the fairway now. 

I’m cool, warmed up, loose. Got my eye on the ball. King of Zen. Just swing and … yeah. 

Okay. I’m King of the beach blanket beee-ing go. 

Okayyy. No problem. Golf is about practice and practice make perfect. Okay, closed my eyes there. Splash? 

Splash it is. Okay, I’m Chipping King, just smack that ball into that little ole hole. God’s be with me. 

Whew. I’m the man. Ain’t I the man? Blow me a-way! It’s all won on the greens guys. 

Ain’t I the King? Didn’t I just chip right in? Ever see anything like that before? MMMhmm. 

You on for five on the next hole?

River Oaks Golf Club is located in Meaghers Grant, Nova Scotia, Canada, close to Halifax and takes about an hour to get to from downtown. When you drive to this golf club from Halifax, you follow a nice highway through the mountains and over Middle Porters Lake until you reach Musquodoboit Harbor, then you turn up a road (Hwy 357) along a beautiful creek (see photograph below) to get the River Oaks Golf Club clubhouse. Traffic was not a bother. We arrived in time to have lunch, both of us were satisfied with our typical golf grub lunch. The service was good too.

One of the first holes leads you to a hole near a set of farm houses, showing clearly this golf course was probably built out of farm land, but has enough features that it is not your typical pasture land course.

Our first challenge came with the rain, the golf course manager told us if they were locked up by the time we finished due to few players, to go ahead and park the vehicle etc. This turned out to be the case but we were still able to get into the clubhouse and use the restrooms. Bathrooms mid course are available.

Some of the more challenging holes involved that lovely creek we followed, it provided some marsh land, lakes, and cut across the fairway a number of times.

Other players were on the course, but we seldom saw them during play, since the holes don't cross and have good spacing. You feel like you're alone in the mountains.

One of the last holes involves lots of water, the carry for men is a little long but the women make out okay.

The course played quick and fair and even with the rain, we still managed to have a great round of golf.

I thought Sweetwater Golf & Country Club's golf course was going to be easy to play until I reached hole 10. This is not to say that the front nine holes lack challenge.  

The Sweetwater Golf & Country Club in Apopka, FL is friendly to visitors. The golf clubhouse is split between several buildings--the snack shop for instance shares quarters with the pool crowd. Dining at the snack shop is very good, I liked the turkey sandwich just fine. There's a separate place for the pro shop and another place for dinner dining. We didn't get golf cart service but they provide drinks vending machines at the bathrooms halfway along each nine.

The golf photograph above is about half of hole number ten. The hole travels uphill through the trees and when you get to the top, you find the lake and the hole curving around it to the left. This hole is pretty tricky since the side hill lie tends to want to put your golf ball in the water as does any roll.

The golf photograph to the left shows one of the tricky par 3's on Sweetwater Golf & Country Club. Three of the par three's require a drive over 150 yards, including this one that has a deep gully and pond. Other challenges on the golf course include a sand trap hidden in front of one green, another long sandtrap beyond a tree that allows golfers to shorten the distance to the green.

This golf club is pretty lively with many events, an upcoming Thanksgiving Day buffet, and a long time on the golf course--5+ hours for our round.

The clubhouse at the Preserve at Turnbull Bay in New Smyrna Beach, FL is not intimidating. This photo shows the clubhouse from the first tee. Coming into the club, you're met by staff members who help you load your golf clubs into a cart right away.

This photograph shows the challenging second hole, a par 3 across water that isn't as difficult as it may seem. The houses, also, sit well back from the golf course on most holes, so golfers don't need to worry about accidents or a big audience. There are many water hazards on this golf course.

The way to handle the narrow starts on some of the holes is to use a shorter club, anyone that golfers find are easy to hit straight.

The drives over water seldom result in lost balls, unless they roll off from the side.

We found play on this course was crowded so we were glad we had a tee time, especially since we started at about 9:00. Although we often followed the foursome in front of us, play moved well and we easily managed our round in under four hours.

The clubhouse has a small snack bar in the pro shop and we did have cart service. The bathrooms were available about halfway and at the clubhouse. Afterwards, there was plenty of time for lunch at BlackBeards in New Smyrna Beach and a stroll along the beach, too.

Florida has some pretty explosive storms with lots of thunder and lightning. This warning, courtesy of the carts at The Preserve at Turnbull Bay in New Smyrna Beach is a reminder of what to do in the case of storms with lightning.  The Wikipedia write up about lightning strikes warns about electrical ground charge, the strike affecting electronics causing damage to hearing especially Ipods, and secondary reactions to lightning strikes such as explosions in vehicles and burns from holding metallic objects.

My two tales of unexpected storms occurred in two different locations, one in Wyoming, the other in Colorado.

The most unexpected storm I was in occurred in Wyoming on the golf course. It was a very hot, clear day. We were in the middle of a round when a high pitch whistle blew. You could hear the sound everywhere around. We looked up, the sky was blue, not a cloud in the sky. No rumbles were heard. Everyone except for us dashed in their carts to the clubhouse.  We shrugged thinking maybe it was a party or something. I got up to take a shot, when suddenly winds 70mph or more nearly blew me over. Less then two minutes later, the winds passed through and were gone. I missed the ball and it ended up in a creek, costing me two strokes. But that was a smaller annoyance than being dead. 

So, the warning here is when a golf course's emergency warning system sounds, head in, no questions asked. The club house often gets warnings of tornado or dust storms that can cause problems without ever having any sign of rain, thunder or lightning.

So the second tale of a storm occurred in Colorado on a golf course where the week before they had had a man killed by lightning. We paid attention to the notices posted on the walls. Again it was a beautiful day but on the fourth tee we saw clouds gather and then the whistle blew. We decided to play the hole out because we didn't hear lightning but only managed to get to our balls and pick them up. The older woman we were playing with just left. We barely made it inside before the deluge hit. Huge lighting blasts and rumbling of thunder and buckets of water. Everyone on the golf course was trapped inside the clubhouse for at least a half hour, by then everyone gave up and got wet since the thunder and lightning had stopped.

The message here is storms can hit incredibly fast. When the warning system sounds, get inside.

This advisory from the National Weather Service explains what can happen if you are struck by lightning. It also has some good safety tips. First Aid for Lightning Strike Victims steps is available from WebMD.

The Deltona Club in Deltona, Florida, offers an unexpected golf course in Florida, one that has no water hazards. 

So will you find a golf course with enough challenge?

The answer is of course, it's a golf course.
The best part of the Deltona Club golf course was starting off on the number ten tee and ending up on the number nine green. Why? Because after a tough round, I got to play an easy par 4 followed by this par three in the golf photograph.

The hole shown above shows the sense of humor that the golf course architect had in creating the Deltona Club golf course. Sand is used to save costs and to make it very difficult to do anything but land on the green.

Other golf course challenges at Deltona Club includes holes that climb uphill, downhill, very substantial doglegs including one surprise hole that wasn't right in front of us but off to the right.

The best way to handle Deltona Golf Club is to use plenty of sun protection,  pick the right club for the distance to avoid trouble and to use a firm but dug in attack out of the sand trap if you do get into one. Check out Amateur Golfer Benefits to Phil Mickleson's Secrets of the Short game for more help.