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Bahamian golf lesson
WHAT-TO-DO - FREEPORT/LUCAYA & GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND - JULY 2003
Bahamian golf lesson
Off-season tips from the pros
If you stroke a putt dead on line in The Bahamas but it comes up a bit short, you can always blame the grass. Or the time of day.
Most courses in The Bahamas are seeded with Bermuda grass, which has a broader and thicker blade than the bent grass varieties favoured on northern courses. Bermuda is usually a shade slower than bent, says Max Russell, pro at the beautiful Lucayan Course off Midshipman Rd in Lucaya.
However, the greens at the Lucayan Course and at The Reef, a sister course on Sea Horse Rd recently redesigned by Robert Trent Jr, are seeded with Tifton, a finer variety of Bermuda grass, and they can be "very quick," says Russell.
"If we have two shotgun starts, we have to cut the greens a second time for the afternoon round," he says. So it might shave a stroke off your score to remember that the greens get progressively slower after lunch.
Follow the water
"When you're putting our greens, look for the water," advises Russell, "because the ball will always break towards water." If there's no water nearby, the grain will generally move your ball to the west as it slows down and comes to the end of its roll.
The same advice would apply on almost all golf courses in The Bahamas, whether they are seeded with Bermuda or seashore paspalum, a salt-resistant turf developed from a grass that originally grew wild on beaches and seaside dunes in South Africa.
Many courses to play
The Lucayan course is home to the prestigious Butch Harmon School of Golf, where students play and receive expert instruction.
Harmon is the former PGA player and teacher who helped Tiger Woods redefine his swing in 1998, just before Woods began winning just about every tournament in sight. Every time Woods wins another major, it adds lustre to Harmon's name.
His school in Grand Bahama uses state-of-the-art teaching methods to analyze a swing in great detail. Instructors use video cameras to record a student's swing from several different angles - including one positioned directly overhead.
Whether you're in Grand Bahama for serious instruction or to play a few casual rounds during your winter layoff, there are five excellent courses to play here.
In addition to the Lucayan Course and The Reef, there are the Royal Oasis Golf Resort's two fine courses on West Sunrise Hwy, The Ruby and The Emerald, and the Fortune Hills Golf and Country Club off West Beach Rd, a superb nine-hole layout designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee.
The Emerald and The Ruby were recently given multi-million dollar facelifts by the Fazio Design Team and were in pristine condition for the beginning of the busy winter season, according to the director of golf operations, Brian Roddy, and his staff.
Getting out of the rough
Actually, for most visiting golfers, it's not the greens that take some getting used to in The Bahamas, it's the rough.
Some thoughtful chipping and putting will help you dial in the touch to make the ball go the required distance on the greens, but the rough will always be a challenge, even for the best players.
Bermuda rough is infamous for its ability to grasp a golf ball, making it all but impossible to get the club head cleanly on the ball.
Russell advises golfers, especially visitors with rusty swings, to "leave your long irons and woods in the bag, take a shorter club; concentrate on just getting out, not on putting the ball on the green." With the longer clubs, you run the risk of "mishitting the shot, or not hitting it at all," Russell warns.
If you've never played Bermuda fairways before, there's something else you should know about this grass: don't replace your divots. Instead, fill the divot with sand and step on it to level the mound. Some courses include a bucket of sand and seed with their golf carts for this purpose.
Hitting the range
Golfers escaping from frigid weather in the northern United States, Canada and Europe usually can't wait to get out on the golf course. But if your swing isn't in good working order, it will subtract from your enjoyment of playing in the land of permanent June.
If there's one thing all pros agree on, it's the need for amateurs to hit the range - just as the professionals always do - before playing a new course. It's easier to knock the mid-winter rust off your swing on the range than it is on the course.
They'll also tell you not to expect too much right away. Many golfers arrive in The Bahamas believing they have figured out all their swing flaws and are now ready to shoot career numbers. That rarely happens.
It takes awhile to get your swing back into shape, they say, and until it is, it's better to moderate your expectations and visit the practice tee.
One area where the experts differ is on tips. Some say you can get too bound up in all the requirements of the swing, and try to think of too many things at the same time.
Others advise golfers to forget tips altogether and pay attention to the fundamentals: grip, posture, alignment and ball position. Get those right, the purists say, and you'll be better prepared to play the grand game anywhere, including the sunny Bahamas.
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