good god, glorious golf ...

It's one thing to be able to play golf on a weekend, with good golf buddies. It's another thing to play on the finest golf course on the island. The only way that gets better is when you get to play for free. That was my Sunday afternoon.

The above photo is a shot of the back nine of the course, shot from just outside the starter's area. It's cut along the eastern shores of Guam, including a spectacular peninsula hole where you have to hit a scary shot (165 yards from the whites) over crashing waves.

This is a photo of me, the giant ham, on the tee box of that said spectacular hole. That image right behind me is a co-worker and frequent golf buddy, Ryota. He's a thin Japanese man,which explains why he disappears behind me. The actual hole is about 70 degrees to the right, but I wanted a nice, clear Pacific Ocean to serve as the background for this shot.

We got really lucky as it poured for most of Friday and Saturday, and while the course was a little muddy come Sunday, the weather pretty much stayed clear. And even though I crapped out early, due to a combination of no real sleep the night before, the pounding heat and choking humidity, my still-short-of-up-to-snuff physical endurance, and some kind of bug that really hit me full force today (blech). I pretty much didn't play the last four or five holes. But it was free, it was fun and, all in all, was a pretty glorious day. Then I slept, on and off, for about 12 hours.

Random Guam Fact Of The Day:
• The highest ranking male in ancient Chamorro society was called maga'lahi, and he usually was titular head of one tribe; there was no over-chief or king. The maga'lahi's wife was called maga'haga.