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A linksman's tropical paradise at Key West Golf Club

Golfers like to escape to to this laid-back course, where scoring a tee time usually is easy, but look out for that par-3 8th

BY J. STEPHEN SMITH | Newsday Staff Writer

August 7, 2005

"Changes in latitude; changes in attitude."

So writes one of Key West, Fla.'s most recognizable bohemians, Jimmy Buffett, about life in that most southerly of East Coast resort towns. But did he ever play golf?

That was the question I pondered while driving up the windy lane to Key West Golf Club. Buffet may be the beachcombing bard of Margaritaville, but what does an aging parrothead know about hitting a 7-iron?

The answer is: plenty. Buffett is quite accomplished in the infuriating art of the putted ball. At least so say the locals at the final golf stop before Cuba, where the singer, songwriter and lately novelist has been known to spank a few.

"He hasn't been here lately," said Doug Carter, director of golf at the nation's only truly Caribbean golf resort, where mangrove trees serve as waste bunkers and coconuts as tee markers. "But his [business] partner's here all the time."

Teeing off in paradise

Who thinks of golf when taking the pulse of life in the Lower Keys? Opened in 1924, Key West Golf Club was very much a part of the island scene when Ernest Hemingway moved into his home on Whitehead Street. But his love of sport fishing, Key West's prime recreation, gave us the aging Santiago, the youthful Manolin and not some "Old Man and the Tee."

In truth, golf is something of an afterthought in Key West, falling in line behind the sea, the sun, spring break, street theater and the madness of Duval Street. How many even know that a mere four miles from the heart of the Old Town, exists a tropical links redesigned by the celebrated course architect Rees Jones back before he was, well, Rees Jones.

"It was his first [big] project," Carter said of the man who has fashioned a legacy upgrading U.S. Open-caliber courses and whose other projects include Medinah Country Club in Illinois and the Black Course at Bethpage State Park. Key West Golf Club, actually on Stock Island, a few miles north, was one of Jones' earliest redesigns (1983) and plays to 6,500 yards from the back tees with a 71.2 rating. On the first tee, I met a pair of Long Islanders, one of whom was escaping his law practice for a few days and couldn't resist the lure of the Key West links.

I was escaping something, too. After four days on Florida tracts, my 8 handicap had taken a pounding. A half-week of instruction had left me so perplexed, the only solution was to leave the Treasure Coast and head farther south through Miami and the Everglades; south to where the sunsets over Mallory Square draw tourists from every ZIP code in the lower 48; south to where the golf clubs could be stowed in the trunk of the car my wife and I wouldn't need.

Who was I kidding? We have been to Key West many times, and each time we cross the bridge from Stock Island, I glance out the window and see men with white beards teeing it up just to the right of mile marker 4. I wonder, what must it be like to play golf in paradise? What must it be like to play all year and not fret over the Northeast winter, the chilling wind, the driving rain and all of Mother Nature's nuisances that make golf on Long Island so onerous at times?

"There are worse places to play ... and work," Carter said, slyly.

Costly, but accessible

There are less costly places to play. But nothing is cheap in Key West, and in-season (late October to late May) greens fees fall in line. A round with cart is $150 with discounts for early birds, twilight players and juniors. Off-season fees are $85 with similar discounts. The course is a bargain for residents of the city of Key West, who are offered membership opportunities at a fraction of what tourists would pay.

That's the bad news for vacationers. The good news is the four-hour drive south from Miami, while beautiful, is a substantial deterrent for those who might otherwise seek out a round in the Lower Keys. Indeed, Carter's pro shop stocks a host of rental sets for tourists who stumble on the idea of 18 holes while in paradise.

So getting a tee time usually is not a problem. Neither is tension between the islanders and the tourists, evident in other parts of Key West. Key West Golf Club really is the game at its laid-back best; low-handicapper or high, the locals don't seem to mind sharing a round (or a pint) with an out-of-towner. One even offered me a few tips on the par-3 8th, which the locals call the "mangrove hole."

On this unique hole, the tip of the flagstick is the only clue to the landing area. The green is completely hidden by an immense strand of low-lying mangroves. "They don't kick too many balls out," said one of the locals, waiting at the tee to sell me an extra sleeve of Titleists.

I didn't need them on that hole, but could have used a few on 16, another par-3, near the newly developed Key West Golf Club residential area. At 140 yards, it's the second-shortest hole on the course, but it's all carry, over a tropical bird sanctuary. Anything short is in there with the pelicans.

Besides course management, one lesson the Key West locals have learned is the necessity of an early tee time, or a late one. Only the most ignorant tourist would think of starting play on this course between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. It's just too hot, humid and mosquito-prone.

But bring the sunscreen, the insect repellent and a few extra golf balls, and you might find Key West Golf Club offers something for those who, unlike Hemingway, prefer their tropical recreation on dry land.

IF YOU GO

Key West Golf Club is situated off mile marker 4 on U.S. 1, about a four-hour drive south from Miami. Visitors also can fly into Key West International Airport. Delta, U.S. Airways and American Eagle serve Key West. For information on tee times and greens fees, see www.keywestgolf.com or call 305-294-5232.