We have reached day 3 of golf and we are at Cougar Point. It’s a stunning clubhouse…Wow! Of course Brian picked up breakfast at the Hemingway. I think we can officially be called ‘regulars’ there now😉. This course is where the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance was filmed.
We are paired up with Steve who is originally from Ohio but retired here and has a home on the course. He quickly noticed Jake’s AJGA tag on his bag and asked if he was a competitive player. His son played college golf for 3 years for the University of Cincinnati. As he saw me riding along and taking pictures, he mentioned his wife was his son’s biggest cheerleader and his only regret in life was being too hard on his son and critical of his play. Jake said (I can’t remember the exact words), my dad does a really good job being positive with me. It was a great moment and it made me think most of the day about the way we handle our kids sports. It also took me most of the day to figure out who Steve reminded me of—his voice was just like Brian’s uncle Scott Graham. He gently gave advice about the course along the way.
Jake spent a little bit of time in trouble areas but seemed to get himself out without a problem. At one point he was in this ladies yard and she was meditating! Oops!
Steve told us they get a weekly report on the number of alligators in the community. They keep very close tabs on them and the transport them to different areas of need be. It’s apparently a full time job managing the alligator population here. He also told us that deaths occur here every year of stupid people who get to close to the water and fall in or get dragged in by gators. Oh my goodness, if I wasn’t scared before, I certainly am now! This explains why our caddies at Ocean Course were freaking out when Jake went into a marsh to get his ball.
Steve was similar to Kevin from yesterday when he would make a bad shot he would say “oh Steven what are you doing!?” 😂 and similarly said his 2 year old grandson is the love of his life. This grand parenting gig seems like it’s going to be the best thing ever according to these fellas.
Somehow Jake managed to miss a 4 ft putt on 18 to lose the round to Brian (they have a running bet that I don’t really understand). I just know that Jake has to give Brian strokes on certain holes and he is determined to make up his deficit tomorrow.
We decided to head straight back to the villa and eat our snacks because we bought so many and have yet to even open them.
We left Jake to watch the Ryder Cup and nap on the couch with his snacks while we hit the beach.
In the meantime both of our littles have made it to their championship games!! Way to go kiddos!! But the timing did not work out well and we had to scramble around to send Reece home from Minneapolis with a teammate and Shauna caught the flight. Options were so limited on getting out after the timing on the Final game. Both ended up losing which was a bummer but we’re so proud of them making it to the finalist position.
This might be my favorite pic that Shauna sent—Reece in a shower cap🤣 
I think Drew has had a lot of fun living the bachelor life at home and Jake isn’t far off. Look at his room here at the villa…
We’ve been keeping up with a Morgan too and she had her first Pi Phi flag football game today. She has a little bit of work to do to improve her game but love the effort! She’s the cutest and a little banged up🤪)
This evening we were so excited to go back to our favorite pizza place and it was closed! So sad. We decided to head back to Cougar Point to get the cheeseburger on Steve’s recommendation then quickly back to the village for ice cream. Jake has been asking for ice cream since we arrived and it’s always closed. He’s so tired of everything being closed so early! We made it with 10 minutes to spare before 9pm.
Final post will be coming tomorrow when we wrap up our 16th birthday adventure!!
conleycrew 