July 15th Day 40 - Slammer & Squire Golf Course, St. Augustine, FL 

Drove 436 miles

Got up and headed to Ponte Vedra, FL where my brother in law, Gordon, and his significant other, Heather) moved to when they left Olympia, WA. Gordon & Heather had a business for years in Olympia and Margaret's parents made Olympia their final retirement home. After selling their business, (Margaret's parents had passed by this time)  they decided they should move closer to Heather's family (Atlanta) for a change. It was just a little over a two hours to drive there from Savannah.

They have a nice home in a retirement village in Ponte Vedra. It's a private gated community where a LOT of people travel by golf cart. They don't have one (yet) as they don't play golf, but if they live there long enough they may end up with one as an additional means of transportation. Their home is on the (current) edge of the development so the woods (jungle?) is right outside their small yard. They get a lot of wildlife visitors when all is quiet. I hadn't seen them in a couple of years and we had a nice visit. When Margaret flew out of Connecticut she flew down to visit them too before she flew home.

St. Augustine is about 30 minutes south of Ponte Vedra. It is the home of the World Golf Hall of Fame and there are two great golf courses on this property. I still had a LONG drive ahead of me after golf so I did NOT go into the Hall of Fame (didn't really have the itch to either!) and the hardest part of the golf course I played WAS JUST GETTING THERE!

Sounds strange, but my GPS (and evidently everybody else's too) sends you to the service entry and there is a LOT of backtracking to get to where you are really supposed to go. The service entry gets you to the golf course/pro shop, but the actual entry has parking and they shuttle you and your clubs to the golf course, or Hall of Fame if that is your destination.

Got it figured out (eventually) and I'm glad I don't try to get to places at the last moment, I'm more of an early bird. Unfortunately, they did not have anybody for me to play with so I played the first six holes by myself. A father / son did not want me to join them on #7 (a short par 3), but they had me play through so I wouldn't be pushing them. It was on the next hole that I caught up with a couple, Eric & Francis, and they allowed me to join them since they were waiting behind a foursome ahead of them. 

What are the chances you travel all the way across the United States of America and end up playing golf with a guy from Yakima, WA? I DID! Eric graduated from (Yakima?) high school in 1979 and he also thought it funny to be playing with someone from his home state. Francis is from Oregon.

I had a great time with these two and I definitely played better with them than I did before I joined them. This is a fun, well maintained golf course. The carts had no GPS so I'm glad I have a GPS golf watch for getting distances (to the center of the green). I paid $ 79 for green fees with cart and remember, this is their off season so in season is probably more than $ 100 to play here. There are five sets of tees and I played the blended tees (blue/white) at 5944 yards with a rating of 68.1 and a slope of 121 on this par 72 golf course. I highly recommend this golf course. It's not a cupcake (too easy), but it won't make you lose all your golf balls either. It has some challenging holes, but all of them are fair. The other golf course at this venue is The King & Bear Course, name for Arnold Palmer & Jack Nicklaus. The Slammer & Squire is named for Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. Thi is a place I would love to go back to.

After golf I still had a LONG drive to get to my motel in Sarasota, Florida, and unfortunately that meant driving through Orlando. Gordon had warned me that traffic through Orlando was a bear and it was worth the toll to use the expressway. I was going to do that, BUT the expressway was closed! Orlando is ALL ABOUT Disney World and the off ramps and on ramps are thick with Disney hotel traffic. I have never had any desire to go there and after this drive I still don't. It was nice to get past it and over to the west side of Florida.

I made some phone calls trying to get Don McCormack's telephone number. I would have gone well out of my way to see him, even added a day to my trip, but he did not return my calls and I don't know if he even listened to my voicemails. A lot of times if the message is NOT from a number in my phone I just delete them myself. I haven't seen him in a long time and for some reason Don seems to have no use for his old hometown or friends. I just don't know why.

I will see a buddy tomorrow I haven't seen since he left Coeur d'Alene in 2004. I will meet up with Mr.  David Cooley at the Fort Myers Country Club in the morning and I'm looking forward to it!


          Randy’s golf course             ratings          play again               could recommend           Price

Prairieview GC (Byron, IL)               5                  YES                           YES                            $

The Boulder Course (Winchester, VA)    5            YES                           YES                            $$

Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA)         5                  YES                          YES                           $$$

The Walker Course (Clemson, SC)    5                  YES                          YES                            $$

Dakota Winds (Hankinson, ND)        5                   YES                          YES                            $$

The Links at Greystone (Walworth, NY)   4.5        YES                         YES                            $$

Slammer & Squire GC                   4.5                 YES                          YES                            $$$      (St. Augustine, FL)   

Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO)         4.5                 YES                          YES                            $$

Brooks Golf (Okoboji, IA)                 4                   YES                          YES                            $$

The Legacy (Springfield, TN)            4                   YES                          YES                            $

Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE)              4                   YES                          YES                            $$

Chicopee CC (Chicopee, MA)           4                    YES                          YES                            $ 

The Architects Club (Phillipsburg, NJ)   4               YES                          YES                            $$

Lake Panorama Nat. (Panora, IA)      4                   no*1                           YES                           $$

Heritage Shores (Bridgeville, DE)      4                   YES                           YES                           $$

Houston Oaks (Paris, KY)                  4                   YES                           YES                            $  

Eagles Landing (Ocean City, MD)     4                   YES                            YES                          $$    

Brandon GC (Brandon, SD)               4                   YES                             YES                         $

Viroqua Hills GC (Viroqua, WI)        4                   YES                             YES                         $

Portland GC (Portland, CT)               4                    YES                             YES                         $

Green Valley CC (Portsmouth, RI)    4                    YES                             YES                         $$

Snow Hill CC (New Vienna, OH)      4                    YES                            YES                         $

Links at Union Vale (Lagrangeville, NY)   4           YES*2                         YES                        $$$

Bear Slide GC (Cicero, IN)                 4                    no                               YES                        $$

Pilgrim's Oak (Peach Bottom, PA)    3.5                  YES                             YES                        $

Lochmere G & CC (Tilton, NH)       3.5                  YES                             YES                        $$

Rivers Edge (Burley, ID)                  3.5                  YES ?                          YES                         $

Eastern Hills (Kalamazoo, MI)         3.5                  YES                              YES                        $

Brattleboro CC (Brattleboro, VT)     3.5                  YES  ?                          YES                        $$          

Monroe CC (Monroe, NC)                3.5                  YES                              YES                        $

Martindale CC (Auburn, ME)           3.5                  YES   ?                         YES                        $$$       

Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT)             3.5                    no                       good golfers only           $

Kimball Golf Club (Kimball, MN)     3                      no                                 no                         $

Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY)       3                      no                                 no                         $$

Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT)                 3                      no                                 no                         $        Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)

The Brookside Club (Bourne, MA)    2                      no                                 no                         $$

Crosswinds Championship GC           1.5                   no                                 no                         $  (Savannah, GA)

Jones Course (Wheeling, WV)            1                      no                                 no                        $$$

Langston GC (Washington D.C.)        1                      no                                 no                        $$

*1 = would play again if a different yardage was offered, with slope and course ratings

*2 = would move up a tee and NOT pay weekend green fee. M-Th fee is $ 77 and $ 61 after 2 p.m.

I like the sunset in this one. The last picture is about the same shot without the sunset!


An aerial view of the World Golf Hall of Fame Complex!





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