Shell Bay Club Golfing Experience

[Golf2Much]

In early July, MGS had an article on the Shell Bay Club in Hollandale Beach, Florida.  It's a private, invitation only club with a membership fee of $1.35M.  What's the chance that an average guy could get a chance to play such a facility?  Well, I got a chance to play it this week and thought I'd share my experience.

How did I get a chance to play such a course?  I volunteer with the Florida State Golf Association as a course rater.  About a year or so ago, I was part of the team that measured and then a few months later we rated it.  One of the perks of being a rater is that you get a chance to play the course.  Given the course was not open when we rated it, we had to wait.  Well, the wait was over this week!

I arrived over an hour before my tee time so I could reacquaint myself with the course, get some range time in and more importantly get used to real green speeds.  Once past the guarded gates, I was met by a valet who welcomed me by name, extracted my clubs and instructed me to head into the pro shot and grab a coffee, muffin or anything else I wanted.  Here's the view over the tennis courts as the sun rose.

Immediately, I knew this was going to be a special experience!  

As I was driven to the practice area, the course looked much more impressive than I remembered it.  The grass was all in, the construction equipment was gone and there were a few trees added since our first measurement visit.  My home course practice facilities include a five or six bay net about 60 yards long, two small practice greens and on small chipping area.  This is what I was greeted with:

  

As we approached, my driver asked what type of balls I hit?  White?  As we walked up there were bags of Taylor Made, Titleist and Callaway balls in their own respective bags.  I said Callaway and the driver immediately picked up a bag and created a golf ball pyramid.   Each stand had a range finder so we could pick up the distances to the posts scattered through the huge driving area.   During my time on the range, each of the caddies for the eight players we had came up and introduced themselves.  As I finished hitting practice shots, I couldn't even get my club back in the bag before one of them came up, took it from my hand and cleaned it before replacing it in the bag.  One interesting thing they had were robotic range ball pickers roaming the practice area.

Across from the range was the practice green.  I spent about 30 minutes on it and took advantage of the significant up and down hill putts as I remembered the course greens were pretty undulating.   Right next to the putting green was a nine-hole short course.   It was well laid out and had some challenging holes.  At the first hole, there were several Sunday bags set up so that members could pick up one and only add the clubs they needed for the short course.   No need to carry a bunch of clubs around!

They also had a practice sand trap that I took advantage of.  My home course tends to be somewhere between sand and rock, so playing from the soft sand was rather new for me!

As we got ready to go to the first tee, we found our cart had plush seats, coolers filled with water, two Bluetooth speakers and gps tracking screen.  Our caddie jumped on the back of the cart and we made our way to the first tee.  We did have to stop at the obligatory box that had scorecards, pencils, tees, green repair tools and ball makers.  I'd never seen this before, but it also had a slot for single dose packages of aspirin, ibuprofen, and other anti-inflammatory medications.  Nice touch, especially for an old guy.

As I remembered it, the fairways were very generous, there was water hazards scattered through the course and plenty of bunkers.   When we measured it, the staff were crossing their fingers that the overall lengths from the tips would be over 7100 yards.   It turned out to be 7254 yards.   When we rated the course, the staff was hoping for course rating over 75 and slope approaching the maximum of 155.  They got their wish as we got a rating of 76.1 for the pare 72 course and a slope of 148!  That was way above my capability!  I ended up playing the navy tees which played just over 6000 yards (a little longer than I play at home) which had a rating of 69.1 and slope of 128.  So, we were off!

The fairways were cut very tight.  Even a former college player said the grass was so short that hitting a three wood would be like hitting off a wood floor!  The greens were running a little slower as they were verti-cut only a few days before.  Even with that, the still ran pretty true.   Here's a shot looking back from the first green to the tee box.

Overall, I didn't play too bad.  I shot 41 on the front with 3 three putts.  The back, let's just say it wasn't my best.  Having only had caddies a few times, I wasn't always the best golfer.  It took me several holes to get over the fact he would give me the yardage, pull my clubs out, clean them after a shot and put them back in the bag.   Hey, I wasn't trying to take the caddie's job away and get in trouble with the International Caddie's Union.  Since he rode on the back of the cart and I have two plates and six screws holding my neck together, I couldn't tell if he was on or not as I pulled away on the cart.   I should have had the other guy drive.

At one point we had a twosome coming up behind us, so the caddies indicated we should wait in the comfort station while they played through.  The comfort station was beyond expectations!  Coolers lined half the room with windows looking out on the course the other half.  In the coolers were ever brand of soda, beer, water, energy drink or other drink you could think of.   The middle table had just about every kind of candy you could think of with bags so we could take what we needed or wanted.  It was also air conditioned which was actually a nice touch given it was already in the 90's out there!  Throw in a few bottles of high end liquor for shots and it made the comfort station pretty impressive!

The caddies were constantly asking if we needed ANYTHING!  At one point someone wanted a water.  A quick call and a staff member was out with several ice cold waters!

My best hole was the fifth.  A par 3 that on the card was 195 yards long.  Now, my normal drive is about 180, so I was a bit intimidated when my playing partners stepped up with irons and hybrids.  Here I was with my driver on the tee!  The water on the left of the green just added to the challenge.  When it was my turn I stepped up, hit my best drive of the day and made the green pin high!  Two putts later and I walked out with a very satisfying par!

At the turn, a staff member met up with ice water drenched towels to help us cool off and wash away the remnants of the front nine.  This was a very nice touch.

Shell Bay has three double greens.  Here's a picture of one of them.

That's the second pin over the hump on the left side of the green. 

As we finished the round, the staff member was there again with cold wet towels to cool off with.  That's such a nice touch.   Here's a quick picture of the club house.

We drove back to the practice area for lunch, but I had to start home as I had a 4.5-hour drive back down the Keys to get home.  I know I missed out on an incredible lunch!

As I drove home, I had a chance to reflect on my incredible golf experience.  Myt first thought was "it's good to be the king (or queen)!"  Not only were the course and practice facilities top notch, but the service was also impeccable.   I was a member of a private course and played several higher end clubs in the past, but the way we were treated may the total experience something very special!  Under normal circumstances, there's no way I'd be playing this course.   Thank you, Shell Bay, for an incredible experience!  Hopefully, I'm alive and still rating courses when Shell Bay gets a rating update in ten years!

[Rob Person]

That is awesome!  The course and services sound unimaginable!

Were you responsible for any out of pocket costs?  I assume valet, bag attendants, caddies?  I wouldn't even begin to know how to research how much and for which persons.

[Golf2Much]

2 hours ago, Rob Person said:

That is awesome!  The course and services sound unimaginable!

Were you responsible for any out of pocket costs?  I assume valet, bag attendants, caddies?  I wouldn't even begin to know how to research how much and for which persons.

I tipped the car valet both ways.   All the drinks, candy, snacks, etc. were no cost as there wasn't even a cash register.  I did tip the comfort station attendant as she got me ice and a drink.  When we finished the round, even the teaching pro I played with wasn't quite sure how much to tip the caddies, so we asked.  Our caddy responded that the course was picking EVERYTHING up including his tip.  We still tried to give him at least something and he refused.  He said they were very well taken care of!  I have to assume he was correct, especially since tomorrow the course closes for three weeks.  So, I imagine a total of $20. 

The cost to get there were much more.  It was about 400 miles round trip, a night in a hotel and since I was in America, trips to Golf Galaxy (to demo some irons), Trader Joe's and Costco.