A part of enjoying the game of golf for me is watching the pros play on television. For those of you who don’t play golf and don’t bother watching it on TV, the tournaments start on Thursdays and 18 holes are played four days, ending on Sunday (unless the weather doesn’t cooperate).
The most recent tournament I watched was while I typed this column, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which has taken on a new interest for me since it is played about an hour away from where I now live. This tournament has been played at the Bay Hill Club, near Orlando, since 1979. I doubt I’ll ever go to the course to watch since walking long distances isn’t currently possible, because of damage done to my knee nearly four years ago when I was struck by a car.
Even more interesting to me is that there is a golf course just a few miles from my home that Arnold Palmer helped design in 2004. That course has 27 holes available for play, and is among 18 courses with at least 18 holes. We also have about 43 9-hole courses within The Villages, so since I love the silly game called golf, this is the perfect place for me to be.
Being a part of a “retirement” community means I live amongst a lot of “older” people, and during the wintertime, the population here swells by more than a third – I’m giving this a good guess when I say nearly 200,000 people are living in The Villages during the wintertime. What that means is it’s more difficult to get tee times and restaurant reservations, and there is a lot more traffic.
The snowbird season here runs from October through April, and most of us full-time residents will admit that the more enjoyable time for us to live here is from May through September, and we have learned to tolerate the heat of the summer months.
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Oddly enough, our area in Florida has been under a burning ban and watering restrictions for nearly a month. It has been much, much drier than normal, and parts of the state are experiencing severe drought conditions. Since it normally rains here nearly every day in the summer months, and the state sits on top of so much water that there are no basements, you wouldn’t think it would ever be so dry, but we experienced a drier and colder winter than normal.
Spring is definitely here now. Tree’s leaves are popping out, many flowering bushes are in full bloom, and the sound of lawn mowers and weed trimmers can be heard everywhere.
Have A Good Week!
