Greetings,

I’m writing this with a large smile on my face fresh after a quasi confidence building round of golf here in Ottawa. Tomorrow I’ll be leaving at the break of dawn and making my way to Jacksonville, Florida. The purpose is to check out the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa. There I’ll play The Players Stadium Course at TPC, take a biplane tour over the resort, get a master club fitting at the Taylormade Performance Lab, tour historic St. Augustine, mix in a massage and basically, go to golf heaven for a weekend…

To say I’m somewhat excited about this weekend would be an understatement. I’m eager to see how the weekend transpires and of course, share all of it with you here on SHABL. I’ll be in Florida until Monday enjoying the resort and sampling some of their countless restaurants. Since The Sawgrass Marriott is near the sea, I’ll  find some time to soak up the sun at their beach resort and naturally, mingle with whatever other gregarious characters happen to be on the scene.

In case you’re curious, The Players Stadium Course at TPC is one of the most iconic courses on the PGA Tour. It’s home of THE PLAYERS Championship and the infamous 17th hole aka the island hole. I’ve seen professionals fall apart on this hole and I’m not expecting miracles when I step up to the tee. That said, if I can stick it on the first(or second, third, fourth…) shot and two putt, I’ll be more than happy.. The biplane ride should give a unique perspective of the place and I’ll most certainly gopro the event to give you an idea of what it is like.

I’m also looking forward to touring around historic St. Augustine. In case you didn’t know, it holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously occupied European settlement and port in all of the continental USA. I’m a big fan of old unique places and I know next to nothing about this area so it will all be fresh, despite being really old if that makes sense to you?! It’s a small place with a population of roughly 13,000 that was founded in 1565 by the Spanish. You’ll find out more later, rest assured.

Finally, I’ve had a club fitting  a long time ago but it surely wasn’t a 3 hour session at the Taylormade Performance Lab. This is one of their flagship locations and I’m a big advocate of having custom tailored golf clubs because everyone’s body is different just like their swings. We tailor a pair of pants to get a good fit and they don’t really have that much functionality. Considering golf is a game of precision and measured in inches, even the slightest adjustments can make a big difference. That aside, it’s just time for this golf lover to geek out over all the latest and greatest advancements.

I’d go on but you’ll be hearing much more from me in the next few days. Besides the obvious blog updates, if you’d like to follow along I suggest you tune into my Instagram, Twitter and Faceboo as well as follow the #BloggingFL hashtag on all of those networks.

In closing, I’d like to thank The Sawgrass Marriot Golf Resort & Spa and Diamond PR for making it all happen.

Tips hat,

P.S: Photo credit here.