Semi - Celebrity Death Match - Golfer vs Hurricane (Sort Of..)

So we decided to take a nice relaxing weekend trip to the world's most beautiful beach , and yours truly would be the beneficiary of two rounds of excellent golf with a great friend. One small problem - a hairy,unwashed dude named Ike. Although he was supposed to be long gone by the time we arrived, it seems that his presence was a bit larger than we imagined. We rolled into town Thursday afternoon, with me eagerly awaiting my Friday morning tee time. Within the first 5 minutes I was there, two things were immediately obvious: (1) the waves were freaking humongous - no sandy beaches were visible, and (2) the wind was HOWLING.

I willingly confess that I am a bit of a fair weather golfer - windy,wet,cold weather is not for me. Couple that with what is typically a high ball flight, and you can see that mentally and physically bad weather does equal a fun day on the links for me. However, my partner in crime for this weekend is a solid individual (and a kick a$$ golfer to boot), so I could not let him down. Therefore, off we went on Friday - damn the torpedoes, as Tom Petty (as well as some old navy type dude) once said...

I won't bore you with a hole by hole recount, but I will give you a few of the notable moments:
- First hole, short par 4 - Hit my drive in the fairway, leaving me 119 to the pin (110 to the front)...into the, uh, breeze. figuring a two club wind, I pulled a 9 iron, smote a mighty blow, watched the ball arc gracefully toward the flagstick....and fall 25 yards short. My estimate of a 2 club wind was, uh, not so good.
- 8 foot level putt for birdie on the second par 5 of the day, hole cut on a slight ridge with the green falling off past the hole. Nice roll, the ball is trickling toward the cup slowing down and about to stop inches to the right...however, a 40 mph gust had other ideas...I watch in amazement as the ball accelerates (wind aided, thus not eligible for a world record) away from me, and speeds about 20 feet past the hole. I am, at this point, a LITTLE frustrated with Ike...
- 13th (or 12th or 15th, or...) hole - 169 yard downhill par 3, wind howling in our face. I have by this point accepted that a "4 club wind" can, in fact, exist in Florida. I pull my 3H (normally a 200-210 yard club), set up to hit a draw that I can keep under the wind, strike (another) mighty blow, and ...watch in amazement as the ball falls a full 20 yards short. Good afternoon,Sir - meet Mr. SIX CLUB WIND !!!!

In spite of all of the frustration with the wind, I had a lot of fun, although I limped home with a cool 88 for the day. My thanks to the super nice folks at the pro shop, who really took care of us. We will return...just not when there is a hurricane churning.