Let's Go: Course #100 at Miami Beach Golf Club
When the putt dropped I gave it the full Tiger fist pump and yelled “Let’s go!” The two guys I’d been paired with cheered right along with me. It was about 25 feet from just off the green on the par-5 5th at Miami Beach Golf Club, and it went in for birdie on my 100th golf course.
Miami Beach Golf Club, course #100
Not the One I Planned
I had a different course in mind for number 100. I’ll keep that one to myself. Then I happened to be in Miami with an open afternoon, and back home in Pittsburgh it had already turned cold, so I figured why not.
I never set out to play a hundred courses. I noticed the count climbing once I started telling my story here and going back through the data I’ve kept for years. It’s possible I missed a course or two along the way, but I think it’s pretty cool to have experienced that many. Back in May I called Reserve Run one more step toward 100. Every one of them is on the courses map now.
The last time I played golf in Miami was in March, two rounds at Crandon and Miami Springs not long after my dad passed. Golf was how I found my way back on that trip. This time it was a sunny afternoon with two strangers, and we had fun the whole way around.
Offseason Expectations
I’m already in offseason mode. Erik Barzeski and I have been working on closing the clubface properly and rolling the club head over through impact. In the middle of a change like that you don’t expect much from a round, and I didn’t. I was happy to be outside.
Then I got to a hole on the front nine with water down the right. I drove it over the bunkers on the left and had 155 to the pin. I hit 9-iron, which is normally my 145 club, and flew the green.
That’s when I knew something was different. For the rest of the day I was hitting it about 15 yards farther with every club, and some of those strikes were the purest I’ve ever had. The ball flight was amazing.
What got me was how little effort it took. Erik keeps telling me I’m doing too much: too much hip rotation, too much arm path. Do less. That afternoon I finally did less, and the sequencing was still there. I was generating as much speed as before, maybe more.
The misses were hooks and pull hooks, which is about what I expected. I’m rolling the club over now, but I’m not always pushing the path out to the right to go with it, and when I don’t, the ball goes left.
Greens That Rolled
I only needed 32 putts, and the best one of the day doesn’t even count as a putt because it came from off the green. My last round in Pittsburgh was on greens that hadn’t been cut or rolled, and it felt like putting on carpet. These weren’t fast, but they rolled, and I putted great.
I was in the sand a few times too and didn’t do too badly getting out.
Miami Beach Golf Club, Blue Tees
+14| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 35 |
| Score | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 41 |
| Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 37 |
| Score | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 45 |
I shot 86, 41 out and 45 in. The differential was 11.3, a tenth under my index.
Bay Shore, 1923
The course opened on January 10, 1923 as the Bay Shore Golf Course, part of Carl Fisher’s Alton Beach development, built to bring wealthy winter residents down from New York, Indianapolis and Detroit. Willie Park Jr. laid it out, and he and Gene Sarazen played the full 18 together in November 1922, before it opened. The Army leased it during World War II. In the mid-1940s investors wanted to put 650 homes on the land, and local residents pushed the city to buy it and keep it a golf course.
In 2002 the city brought in Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest to rebuild it. They drained every lake, replaced nearly all of the grass and put up a new clubhouse, and it reopened as Miami Beach Golf Club. The Florida Historic Golf Trail has the full story.
Miami Beach Golf Club
Today a lot of the greens sit right up against the lakes with the Miami Beach skyline behind them. The course was in good shape, and it was hot but not terrible.
Nobody Filmed It
My one regret is that nobody was there to record the round. A 25-footer and a Tiger fist pump on course number 100, and all I have to show for it is a scorecard and some photos of empty greens. No complaints about the course, though. I’d come back.
A Long Way From the Worst Golfer I Knew
This fall has had its ups and downs. My index hit 8.8 in September, the closest I’ve been to the 5 by 50 goal, and it’s back up to 11.4 now. I’m excited to spend the offseason on the swing, and Miami showed me what it can look like when it comes together.
There’s more golf coming, too. I have a trip to the Caribbean, and then the Skillest Pro-Am in Cyprus with a layover in Dublin on the way. The last two Skillest Pro-Ams were in Dubai, and this year’s trip taught me a lot.
I used to be the worst golfer I knew, by far. Now I’m a real player. I’m not scratch (yet), but I’m improving, I’m hitting bombs, my short game and putting keep getting better, and I’m learning to enjoy the moment, on the course and in life. I love the growth and the process I’ve committed to, and it’s shown me that you really can do anything.
Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?
Course #100 · Miami Beach Golf Club · Blue tees, 72.2/138 · 86 (41/45) · October 29, 2026
