the final word on NJ golf

On our trip we also played the Bay Course at the Seaview Marriott Resort, the site of the ShopRite Classic tour stop for the LPGA. It was very short, in very good condition, had very small greens and was obnoxiously buggy. We purchased some pretty heavy-duty bug spray at the proshop at everyone's suggestion. It came in handy. We were warned that we must not spray the stuff unless we were on the cartpath or it kills the grass. Nice! What does it do to your body then?

The course was difficult only in that the greens were small and very hard to hit and hold. I found it very short, but in great shape. The 17th was a freakin' dogleg par 3 of about 220 yards. That hole was kind of a joke you could not see the green from the tee and of course I hit my tee shot i n the enormous bunker 30 yards short. On the 18th tee, we saw lightning and unwisely tried to play the hole out. We picked up near the green and took off for safety.

I took a lesson (the first that I have ever paid for) the next day and man it was cool. I focused on the 3 and 4 irons on the range and learned how to get my right hand through better. Also, the pro told me that amatuers should really be pretty happy with a long iron that ends up around the green and safe, rather than complaining about missing the green from 180+. This made a ton of sense. If you hit the green, great. If you miss it, trust your short game to get up and down.

The other part of my lesson was in the greenside bunker. He told me just to hit a few at first to see how I did it naturally. Of course I stiffed two in a row, really close, and he said, "my work is done". However, he gave me some great tips on how to make the proper moves from the bunkers and after hitting about 30 shots, I had improved quite a bit.

The pro gave me a great price to play nine holes on the other course on the property after my lesson. I only had time to play 9, but really liked the layout better than the other one and wished I could have continued on. I had 3 bunker shots in that nine holes (was I aiming for them?) and got up and down from one and blasted out of both of the others with reasonable results. I used the new technique on all three shots and what a difference.