The Hooked On Golf Blog World Tour spent most of the week last week at the fabulous Sandals Resorts Emerald Bay property on the island of Exuma in the Bahamas. I’ve now added a large batch of photos of the resort and its many offerings, even some photos from my drone (see picture below).
There is no way I could capture photographically everything Sandals Emerald Bay offers, but the gallery should give you a good idea if you are planning a caribbean trip, or a Bahamas trip. There are even photos of the awesome caribbean drinks!
Enjoy the Sandals Emerald Bay photos for now, and stay tuned for my full review soon.
Related Links
Sandals Emerald Reef Golf Course, a Greg Norman design.
Greetings from the beautiful Sandals Emerald Bay on the island of Exuma in the Bahamas. I’m here to review the resort, the on-site Greg Norman designed golf course, and to play in a two day tournament. Internet connectivity here is as consistent as my short game, meaning it works only about 25% of the time and even then it is sketchy.
Cue the cue the Pink Floyd
Yesterday marked an activity I’ve never done before and will never forget, swimming with the pigs. There’s an island here where pigs roam, and when traveling boats come by the pigs jump into the water hoping to get fed. Very fun, and entertaining experience. I’m uploading a video to YouTube now, but with the bad internet here, it could take 247 years to finish. So enjoy the photo above and tune back into this post for the video later.
Video
I’ve been happy with the performance of my Golf Pride CP2 Wrap grips, but due to my tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow I have to switch to a softer grip. Thanks to the kind folks at UST Mamiya I’m going to test out their Soft Touch line of golf grips. These grips limit vibration through the use of advanced technology and polyurethane materials. Polyurethane is the same material found on the cover of high performance golf balls which makes them softer and produces more spin.
UST Mamiya Soft Touch Golf Grips
It will take a month or so of on-course playing and testing before I’m ready for a full review of these grips. I’ve gone with a mid-size on these, as it seems to be a consensus that the bigger size helps with the tendonitis as well. I hope to report that they keep the tennis and golfer’s elbow at bay, and perform well. I have confidence that they will. Stay tuned.
I bring to you something you may never see again in your lifetime, the #1 golfer in the world four-putting the SAME hole twice in one weekend on the PGA Tour. This is the 12th hole at this past weekend’s BMW Championship:
Saturday:
Sunday:
No need to feel sorry for the young chap though. He still made it into the field of 30 at the Tour Championship, where he will have a shot at winning $10,000,000. The final 30 field is below, minus some big notables like returning champion Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson.
2014 Tour Championship Field
Day, Jason
Fowler, Rickie
Furyk, Jim
Garcia, Sergio
Haas, Bill
Henley, Russell
Hoffmann, Morgan
Horschel, Billy
Johnson, Zach
Kaymer, Martin
Kirk, Chris
Kuchar, Matt
Mahan, Hunter
Matsuyama, Hideki
McIlroy, Rory
Na, Kevin
Ogilvy, Geoff
Palmer, Ryan
Reed, Patrick
Rose, Justin
Scott, Adam
Senden, John
Simpson, Webb
Spieth, Jordan
Todd, Brendon
Tringale, Cameron
Walker, Jimmy
Watson, Bubba
Woodland, Gary
This week’s BMW Championship marks the third of four events in the PGA Tour’s season ending FedEx Cup. The FedEx Cup is the PGA Tour “playoffs” which awards its winner a nice payout of $10,000,000 and $5,000,000 for second. The origination of this playoff series came as a result of the PGA Tour trying to entice the big named players to compete in late season events. This is an effort to keep fan interest (and of course revenue) up longer in the season. It has worked for the most part, but not as well as they’d hoped as many players still take an event off.
I find my interest in the FedEx Cup is not terribly high, perhaps slightly higher than an upper end Tour event like THE PLAYERS (always spell that in ALL CAPS, it is what they do). I may watch some of the final round of the Tour Championship out of curiosity to see who wins the big money and who chokes it away, but my interest is not near that of a major championship like the Masters, U.S. Open, or Open Championship.
Events
I’m curious to know what your level of interest is. Does a player who has won the Cup mean anything more to you than one who has captured a regular Tour event? Can you name the player who won it last year, or perhaps the year before without searching in Google?