The White Witch
So I used to be in this pretty high buy-in Fantasy Football League with the winning pot being in the $4K range. So I won it twice and chopped the pot another time and would usually give my wife the winnings and say plan a trip to the Caribbean. Jamaica was one of those trips. My buddy Mike also has a great connection at the Ritz so I stayed at the Ritz here pretty reasonably. I think this is now a Hyatt Resort but not 100% sure.
I’ve never played at Mid-Ocean (though have been to Bermuda twice) so the gold standard of courses in the Caribbean for me is the White Witch. It has fantastic views from pretty much every hole. Private club conditioning. Every hole is distinct and well isolated from other holes and golfers. We started on ten and that is a bear of a par five to start. I think I was in the linen still 150-yards out on this one. When you think of a lot of the Caribbean courses you think flat. Not the case here at all. There were wild elevation changes (both here and Cinnamon Hill) – making them more like Kapalua than other Caribbean courses I’ve played. In fact, it started raining a little when we played and the bald cart tires on the slippery rock finish of the cart path put us into a slide on the cart, brakes on and off, that almost took us into the pond on one of the steep drop par threes
The White Witch never plays up to the water-front, you get views of it from throughout the course. Clubhouse is nice and sits atop the hill overlooking the course. I don’t remember grabbing beers here but of course I did on the course, Red Stripes.
While I am a fan of Ritz hotels and I’m usually not a fan of Ritz dining. I remember they had a jerk shack out by the beach here and that was great for casual, outdoor jerk. Not me the jerk but jerk flavoring. You had to know that dad joke was well overplayed during this trip. We actually watched the Super Bowl from here – if your team’s not in it, having a little get-away to watch it isn’t a bad thing.
If you are doing the Montego Bay, Jamaica thing, do yourself a favor and take one night out of the resort and try the Houseboat Grille. There’s a little cage in the water that you can pick your lobster from. This was neat and a nice change of pace from the resort fare. Also, do the White Witch Plantation Ghost Tour. Pretty fun and they had a bar in the house where you can get drinks and chill.
Golf Scrapbook 