Six weeks later, I was set to be back in Massachusetts to play in a member/guest tournament at a friend's club outside of Boston. Eventually, after an agonizing wait in this quaint neighborhood of vacation homes, we waived the white flag and turned around, conceding that getting a round in before dark would not be possible.
We didn't have loads of time to spare before the sun set, and the online maps were telling us we still had about 45 minutes to drive, even if every car in front of us disappeared.
As time continued to pass, and the time we were supposed to arrive at Eastward Ho! came and went, we started to worry about whether this round would even happen. That wall of cars essentially would stay put all afternoon. It seemed brilliant for about a block or two, until we ran into a wall of cars, ironically, on Cranberry Rd. Our friends at Google Maps had an idea though.they said there was a shorter way, which was to turn left off of the main road and cut through some residential neighborhoods. However, it wasn't until we hit the first traffic circle in Buzzard's Bay that things started to get really hairy. As we got closer to the Cape, things only got worse. The drive from Yale to Eastward Ho! was supposed to be about 3:15, and after a quick stop to get a fast food lunch, we were right on track, though Google Maps was telling us that trouble was up ahead.maybe it will clear out by the time we get to it, we thought. Needless to say, this wasn't going to be an easy trip. However, what I'm not saying is that the day this was scheduled to happen was Friday, July 1, and we'd be attempting to make this drive on the afternoon leading into July 4th weekend. So, New Haven to Cape Cod didn't sound like that big of a deal. The next day, we played in Westchester, and then drove out to East Hampton and back. A couple days before, we traveled from Newport, to Boston, to Westchester. Earlier in the day, I played The Course at Yale, and the plan was to drive from New Haven, Connecticut to Chatham, Massachusetts to check out Eastward Ho! While that sounds fairly aggressive on the surface, we had already done three days of substantial drives between courses. We had already played eight rounds in four days, across four states, and Eastward Ho! was supposed to be the ninth and final round. My round at Eastward Ho! was scheduled to be the anchor leg in a long distance relay of golf. It was just that since I live in Michigan and knew I'd be back in the area, I decided to wait for a better day. However, in that case, I could have played the original round if I had wanted to.the course was open and the rain wasn't THAT bad. Forest Dunes had presented some hurdles for me because I cancelled a round due to weather, only to play it the following summer. Sure, I had faced some weather delays (three of them at Crystal Downs alone), but weather had only stopped me from completing a round once, and that was at Lost Dunes in Southwest Michigan, when an apocalyptic thunderstorm rolled in over Lake Michigan in the late afternoon that ended our day after 12 holes. Almost all of those rounds had gone off without a hitch.
To this point, I have played around 80 courses that were on one list or another, across 25 US States. You can't play golf (an outdoor game, I might add) at a bucket list of nearly 200 courses (counting all of the public and private lists) across the United States without running into some road blocks along the way.pun intended, but more on that in a bit. Thanks so much to the club in being so flexible to let me out for a "do-over," and for the hosts that took me around and showed me such a great experience! I'd be super happy to play Eastward Ho! every day, which is another thing that makes a golf course great to me. The land is so good that it's an awesome experience working your way through it, and watching your ball carom here and there between hills, dales, valleys, and plateaus. Put it all together, and I think it's very appropriate to call it a course in the second 50 of American golf courses. It's got some great holes and some holes that just didn't wow me. My second thought after reflecting on the experience is that the front nine is fabulous-just a world class collection of holes.
Wind is part of what makes the course challenging, even though it's less than 6,400 yards. First off, expect wind when playing Eastward Ho! It was blowing around 15-20 mph on this day, which we were told was pretty average. After finishing up the round, we went upstairs in the clubhouse and enjoyed a couple cocktails while reflecting on this perfect day on the Cape.
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