A few weeks ago, my buddy Gabe asked me if I wanted to play TPC Sawgrass. Of course I wanted to play. I mean, there is so much history there. I had the chance to visit TPC a few years ago, and I will never forget the tour of the clubhouse, the locker rooms and the golf course. I never thought I would get the chance to play the course. It was a long trip, but it would be worth it to play another PGA TOUR course. Then Gabe told me we were playing Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, too. Talk about an unforgettable weekend. I was in!
Ponte Vedre is about 6 hours from Naples, and I hate to drive! Especially at night. The tee time was on Friday, so I either had to leave after work and drive overnight or fly up on Friday morning. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights and it takes nearly 9 hours to get there. Hard pass on that. Thought about breaking it up and taking some more PTO, but Gabe said he would drive. He lives in Tampa, so I headed up there after work on Thursday. As a bonus, I got to visit a few breweries there, too.
When I got to Tampa I hit Angry Chair Brewing, one of my favorite breweries in Florida – maybe one of my favorite breweries in the country! I sat at the bar and ordered a flight. Gabe met me there and we hit 7venth Sun Brewery. We had a flight there and talked shop, and I grabbed a hotel for the night. The next morning we met at Gabe’s house and headed north!
To round out the foursome, Gabe invited his friend Wade and his dad Jon. Talk about a rowdy bunch! It was great meeting them and spending the weekend with them. We shared a lot of great stories, beers, and created a lot of memories. I hope to stay in touch with them and play more golf with them in the near future. We talked about a trip to Streamsong… Guys, think about it!
We got to TPC early and grabbed a quick tour of the golf course. We had some lunch at NINETEEN and hit some balls before being introduced to our forecaddie. We didn’t realize we had a forecaddie, but he helped us throughout our round. We also didn’t realize it was cart path only. Had I known that, I would have planned to walk the golf course. I ended up walking over 7 miles that day. It was a lot of back and forth and made for a long day. We also had a weather delay. That didn’t help pace of play.
It was cool playing the golf course. I’ve played the course a million times on Xbox, but to be there hitting the shots was something else, especially the last 3 holes. 16 is a long par 5. I crushed a drive down the middle and hit hybrid just in front of the green. I hit a bad chip and barely missed my birdie putt, but made an easy par with a daunting island green ahead. We agreed to hit from where the TOUR players play. It was a front pin about 123 yards. Gabe hit his tee shot in the water. Wade hit his tee shot in the water. Jon hit his tee shot in the water. I grabbed a PW and hit my tee shot to 3 foot!!! The group behind me started clapping as I was giving high 5s to everyone on the tee box. I walked up, made the putt, and walked away with a birdie on one of the most famous holes in all of golf. I made par on 18 from the back bunker to play the final 3 holes in -1 par!
When we said our goodbyes to our caddie, I wanted to get my complimentary bag tag engraved. In addition to my name, since I birdied 17, they engraved a 2 on 17 green. You can see a photo of that below. Talk about an unforgettable day of golf… We left there, grabbed dinner across the street and checked into our hotel. Since there were 4 of us, we grabbed a suite. It was a great start to #PGAWeekendTOUR.
We woke up early on Saturday because we had an early start at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando. It was cool to play TPC Sawgrass, but Tiger has won 8 times at Bay Hill. Think about that for a second… He has won 8 times on this golf course. I’ve heard a lot of stories about Bay Hill, too. I was excited to see it in person.
When we got to Orlando, traffic was bananas. It always is. We finally got there, and there was no gate and the parking lot was empty. It was not what I expected. Based on the huge clubhouse at TPC, and the “to do” they create, Bay Hill was the complete opposite. It was “homey” and very relaxed. I loved it!
We parked, dropped our clubs off and headed to the bar. It was lunchtime, after all! The range was closed, so we had some time to kill. Wade and I walked in and there weren’t many people there. I grabbed a table near the door to ensure Jon and Gabe could easily find us. We had a view of the bar and of the golf course behind us, so I decided to sit in the chair facing the bar to give the others a better view.
The waitress walked up and asked if we picked that table on purpose. “No, just seemed like the right table at the time,” I said with a smile on my face. She replied, “This is Mr. Palmer’s table. You’re sitting in his chair.” Are you kidding me? What are the chances? I asked what he would typically drink. Ketel One Vodka on the rocks with a lemon twist. I’ll have one of those, please. Everyone else ordered an Arnold Palmer. Seemed appropriate at a place like this.
When we walked in the restaurant, I snapped a picture of this sign on the wall.
The waitress said that Arnie would sit in that chair and just wait for people to come in with a hat on only to remind them to take it off while indoors. I love that. I always take my hat off indoors. I also always wear pants on the golf course and button my golf shirt to the top. I am a traditionalist. What can I say? Anyway, lunch was incredible, and I will forever remember sitting at Arnold’s table in Arnie’s chair drinking The King’s favorite drink.
After lunch we took a tour of the men’s locker room. I had to see Tiger’s locker. Gabe and I snapped a selfie:
Gabe also said they left Arnie’s locker untouched when he died. The locker is unlocked and it was just crazy to be there with his shirt, shoes, hat… His cologne right in front of me.
There is a bar in the locker room, too. I’ve seen that at a few clubs, but I can imagine the stories told in here. There were tables throughout and decks of cards on every table. We didn’t have time for a game of Texas hold ’em. Maybe next time. It was time for us to play.
After we played a few holes, clouds started to roll in and the siren blew. I hadn’t heard thunder, and no one had seen lightning. We decided to keep going. Before we could finish the hole, the staff came out and said we had to stop and return to the clubhouse. I’ve never seen that before. We went in and waited for the storm to pass. It did. We got 1 more hole in and the siren blew again. We headed back to the clubhouse and almost gave up. Finally we got to the back on the course and were able to finish. It was raining, but we didn’t care! I made a couple of big putts on the back, and Wade and I ended up winning the match!
I shot 84 at TPC Sawgrass and 81 at Bay Hill. Not a bad couple of scores on TOUR quality golf courses.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we headed to Clearwater for dinner at The Original Hooters. I hadn’t been to Hooters in years, but I LOVE their BBQ wings. Also, Wade’s office isn’t far from here, and he knows all of the Hooters Girls. We walked in, had a few beers, ordered some wings, and reminisced about the weekend. It was a perfect way to end an unforgettable day.
After dinner I started the drive home. I can’t stop thinking about all the laughs, my birdie on 17, Tiger’s locker and the wings at Hooters. I also got to see Gabe chug a beer. I’ve never seen anything more impressive in my life, but that is a story for another time.
Gabe, thank you so much for the invite. It was an absolute pleasure sharing a weekend with you, Wade and Jon both on and off the golf course. I will never forget this trip, and I have all of these photos to remember #PGAWeekendTour. I can’t wait for our next adventure. FORE!!!
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