Sea Island, GA

The Wards and The Snyders left for Sea Island on Wednesday morning, Feb 3rd. Dr. Bill Snyder (Brent's Dad) picked us up and dropped us off at the airport, which was very nice. We had a layover in St. Louis for 1 hour and arrived in Jacksonville, FL around 3:30 p.m. We got our rental car (picture to come) and headed northwest 1 hour to Sea Island.
The Snyder's are Sea Island regulars with their favorite aunt Ellen Dunn living on the island and Brent used to work for Sea Island. Brent moved to Sea Island after college for his first job and worked for them for 4 years in the golf business. Sea Island is home to many PGA tour players and they have 4 of the top 100 teachers in the US employed at Sea Island. It is very close if not "the" golf capital of the US.

We were hosted by Ellen at her beautiful beachfront home and we played the 3 golf courses at Sea Island, Plantation, Retreat, and Seaside. Seaside just landed a deal with McGladery for a PGA tournament stop this coming October. The tournament will be held at Sea Island for the next 3 years. Sea Island has also hosted the G-8 Summit in 2004.
The weather was just ok, we saw highs in the low 60's and only rained one day, but our golf round was finished before the rain came.


Our schedule was pretty open except each morning at 10:00 a.m. we played 18 holes. After golf we had lunch at Ellen's and then would tour around the island seeing the sights. We went out to Ellen's "River" project where they purchased land and are now building a home. Ellen loves to entertain at her house so we had many great dinners at her house but we ate out one night at the Cloister Hotel, a 5-star Hotel. It was amazing. The woodwork, the furniture, the restaurants, it is like the St. Paul hotel on steroids. For $550/night we were happy to be staying with Ellen. Jason and Brent sat in George W. Bush's chair for the 2004 G-8 Convention, which was held at Sea Island.

Things were quiet on Sea Island so the effects of the economy are reaching this part of the US as well. Many days we were one of few groups on the golf course and the hotels were also quiet. The amenities at Sea Island were top notch, spa, tennis club, beach club, you name it, you can do it there. We were only interested in the golf and it was very good.

Our toughest round was Seaside, the PGA tour stop this coming fall. Not only was the course tough, the weather was tougher. We saw winds up to 40 mph which made each shot perilous, especially for the higher handicappers. We took a lot of great pictures of the 4 of us on the golf courses and of the beautiful scenery. We will definitely be returning to Sea Island.