Wednesday, Jan 5, 2005
Montego Bay, Jamaica:
7:15 am came early after partying late Tuesday night, but somehow Dan and I were able to drag ourselves down to the lobby to disembark ahead of the rest of the guests as part of the golf package we had signed up for just about 4 hours earlier. Unfortunately when I was rushing to pack my backpack for the day, I left my glasses and my sunglasses sitting on the desk in my room... I had tossed them in their cases, and put them on the desk so I could toss my camera into the bag, then just forgot to put them back in my bag.
Anyway, the golf package included rental clubs, which were brand-new Nike's, but were really not the best clubs, especially since I'm not used to using one of those paint-can on a stick sized drivers. It also included golf carts and caddies.
We dragged our clubs and our tired asses off the boat to a gorgeous, wet Jamaican morning. It had been raining quite a bit the few days before we arrived, and it was so humid that nothing had dried. We took a bus from the dock around the "highway" (a two lane road with no striping and a lot of traffic) to Rose Hall on the other side of the island, about a 45 minute drive. There we drove up a small private road to the top of hill where an old sugar plantation house serves as the club house for the White Witch golf course.
The story of "The White Witch" is one about a French woman that came to Jamaica in the 1700s to marry a rich sugar plantation owner. She eventually killed her husband, her next 2 husbands, and like 6 of her lovers, in addition to being a brutal slave owner. She was eventually killed by one of her slaves, and they say she still haunts Rose Hall. True or not, 200+ years later there's a golf course on her plantation, and Dan and I shot a round there.
The course was wet, and only dried out a little bit as the day progressed. Also, the morning was *very* windy, and mostly cloudy... but the clouds were actually a blessing, since I didn't have my sunglasses.
Dan and I hit the range. I was having issues with the clubs right away. Part of it was that I hadn't played in like a year, part of it was the wind, part of it was the lack of glasses, but most of it was that my game isn't as good as I wished it was. But I finally got my driver straightened out and we hit the 1st tee.
The theme for my golf game that day was inconsistancy. Mostly I was slicing the ball, but how much was variable, and occationally I'd hit a great, long, straight shot... 'course I was aiming way left to compensate for the slice, so it still wasn't all that great. It also sucked that Dan and our father/son pair are all better golfers than I. I like to keep at least one crappy player on my team so I feel better about my game.
No matter however, because I was having a blast playing such a beautiful course.
One of the most challenging aspects of the course were the greens. They're bremuda grass which has a pronounced grain to it that affects the roll of the ball. Since I've never played bremuda greens, I was useless in reading them. They were also *very* fast compared to the greens that I'm used to playing. 3 or 4 putts were the standard, which really does a number on your score when you're not playing well off the tee. However, Michael our caddy was very adept at reading the greens since he's been doing it every day for three years. If you put it on the line he gave you, and got the speed right, you would make any put.
The signature hole for White Witch is the 16th. It's a par three, which like many of the holes on the course, has an elevated tee. Bunkers guard the green and there's a ravine to clear from the tee.
I didn't play that hole very well and shanked my 9 iron into the trees. And while they're not technically out of bounds, the underbrush in Jamaica is such that there's pretty much no way to ever find a ball off the fairway. In fact, I think I lost 11 balls in 18 holes... which explains my 104.
Dan on the other hand followed a mediocre front 9 by shooting 1 under par on the back 9 with 2 birds and a bogey! We think it was the Red Stripe beer he had at the clubhouse at the turn.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew headed out into Jamaica's little shops, getting their hair braided, buying illicit materials only to leave them behind, drinking Red Stripe Lights on the beach, and making fun of a poor wet donkey parked in the rain.
One the ride back from the course, I spotted some "cool" Jamaican rides, like this Honda and a few Toyota Levins, all right hand drive of course.
Once back on the ship, we regrouped on the sun deck to watch the ship leave Montego Bay, and headed back out into the Carribean at sun-set, headed west towards the Cayman Islands.
Day 6 Cliff notes:
Dan and I played golf all day while the rest of the crew checked out Montego Bay. There was a wet donkey.