Opened in 2005, Bayside is located in a well-to-do beach community just a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean.  Like many of the other courses in the region, Bayside follows the private-public model that has served golf clubs in this part of the country very well.

In 2009, Bethpage State Park Black Course became the longest US Open course in the history of the tournament.  If you play Bayside from the ‘Signature’ tee box (the tips) you’ll be playing a course that is 7,545 yards long –almost 500 yards longer than Bethpage.  Did Fear the Fan play from the tips?  Absolutely not – after 8 hours, they would have asked us to leave the course.

If you book a tee time at these public/private courses, you’re better off shooting for an afternoon time.  The members book their AM tee times like 3 ½ years in advance, so just accept that if you want to play in July/August at these types of courses you’re playing in the afternoon.  

Our afternoon happened to be 176 degrees.

We were greeted at the bag drop by some seemingly polite gentleman who took our clubs and told us to ‘get ready to rock and roll,’ without using those exact words.  We put on our soft spikes and strolled to the clubhouse where we enjoyed a pre-round meal in The Cove Bar & Grill, the restaurant found in the brand new 7000 sq. ft. clubhouse.  The clubhouse is smaller than you would think for a course of this caliber, but the ‘club sandwich’ we enjoyed was larger than life and enough food to get through 72 holes.  The club had also added a unique spin on the club (sprouts and avocado) and the ice cold Arnold Palmer at the bar was a great complement.  The extremely reasonably priced menu is an added bonus while you watch groups finish off on the 18th green.  The 18th green is a peninsula with a 45 degree slope into the water, so watching groups finish on 18 tends to be more entertaining than you might think.

The one aspect that makes Bayside especially challenging is the pressure the course puts on your tee shots.  There are only 2-3 holes where you can turn to your buddies and say, “I’m going to let it rip.” Most of the time though its 4 guys standing in a line, arms folded, staring over a lake and 3 bunkers, trying to decide on a site line.  If you aim too long, your ball will go through the fairway into the woods.  If you aim too short, your ball won’t clear the water. If you can’t draw it enough, you’ll hit a fairway bunker.  This is the conversation on every hole.  It’s challenging, but it’s also a welcome challenge; it’s not often that Fear the Fan has a chance to play a course that (thanks to Jack Nicklaus) is designed at such a high level.  It’s not about driving the ball well; it’s about knowing exactly what your driver does.  Your wife says, “Don’t go to bed mad,” we say, “don’t go to Bayside without your driver good shape.”

For $5.00 you get a yardage book of the course, and going out there without it is like watching TV with no sound.  It’s the master blue print on how to beat the course.  Since this is a Nicklaus course, there’s a story about ‘The Golden Bear,’ on every hole.  Trust us – you’ll stop reading them by the turn.  How many stories do we really need about Jack?  By the time you get to the Par 5 6th, you’ll feel like Jack was your grandfather who you got stuck next to at Thanksgiving dinner.  “Yes Grandpa, I know you eagled 15 to take the lead on Sunday.  You told me last year.”  (Did we just take a crack at the Golden Bear?  We did, didn’t we?  As everyone over 40 is slamming their fists on their desks)

The director of Golf is Bill ‘Hammer’ Hamilton.  He was nicknamed ‘Hammerhead’ after he smashed his head into a windshield in high school and to sound more professional he eventually went from ‘hammerhead’ to ‘hammer.’  Fear the Fan will be making a play to shorten it even more.  Let’s go with ‘ham.’  

‘Ham’ said the greens were constructed to USGA specs, giving them a hard feel and a very fast pace.  He wasn’t kidding.  Getting an approach shot to stay on this green harder than getting John Daly to be the DD.  Our same group had played golf at a lesser course the day before and we had 48 GIRs.  At Bayside, we had 29.  Ouch.

The Princeville grass fairways were much softer than you’d expect from that type of grass.  That’s the price you pay for +100 degree temperatures for 3 weeks, but it didn’t matter much – it wasn’t like we were on the fairway all that often anyway.

The course is comprised of meadow holes, tree lined holes, and marsh holes.  It gives you the feeling that you’re jumping from course to course, something that Fear The Fan had never experienced before, and probably the most unique part of the course.  

The front 9 was consumed by one solitary argument.  Who would the coolest foursome in the history of golf be?  Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods were locks, but then personal biases took over.  Theodore Roosevelt was thrown out because he was dead, so that eliminated Lennon too. (But most of us agreed that Lennon probably sucked at golf anyway.  But imagine.)  Bill Murray?  Erin Andrews?  Clinton?  Bill, not George.  Jack Bauer, if he stayed in character?  Once we opened it up to fictional characters, we were doomed to argue forever.

As we were driving up to 18, we saw ‘The Ham’ riding back towards the club house.  He didn’t say goodbye.  He probably never does because it would be too painful.  The Ham knows we want to stay, but we can’t.  He knows we want one more shot at clearing that fairway pot bunker on the par 5 11th, we don’t have to tell him.

The 18th hole is water-lined left.  The hole challenges you, much like #1, to trust your drive.  At 433 yards, if you go too short, your next shot over a ravine onto the peninsula green is near impossible.  

2 kids were fishing on the small dock on the lake, watching us as we hit.  One of the shots faded left past the bunker and into the drink.  The boys didn’t laugh, but looked at us with a face that said, “Stop scaring the fish, and straighten out that drive.”  The rest of us landed safely about 180 yards out.  

A back right pin on this hole left no room for error.  An 7 iron to stay below the hole was the play.  The Pro-V1 sailed through the hot Delaware air on a perfect line, drawing towards the hole.  We drove up quickly to see how close the shot was to the cup.

Four older gentleman, and one woman were seated on the patio behind the clubhouse separated by the water on the 18th.  As we’re walking up, a man in a red Nike polo yells to us, “that last shot went in!”  Excitement consumes the group as we approach and see no ball on the green.

Our four-some looks into the hole, but saw no ball, and we turn to the man in the red polo with question marks on our face.  “Did you say it went in?”

The group all laughs together at a joke that we obviously weren’t informed about.  “It went in the water,” he yells to us as the laughter subsides, “I don’t mean to laugh at you, but no one eagles 18.”    

Before we went to the car, we drove back to the 10th hole to get one more look at the course.  From the 10th hole, you can see all of Ocean City, MD.  The golf paradise of the Mid-Atlantic, right?  Not so much.  It’s like the climax shot of a post-apocalyptic movie.  What should be a vision of beach huts and lifeguard chairs is instead a vision of skyscraping hotels.  The young couples and families have been replaced with beer guzzling college kids and air conditioning.  The innocence of Ocean City, MD is long gone.  Fear The Fan found solace overlooking the now completely commercialized vacation getaway.  From the 10th tee box at Bayside Resort Golf Club, looking out at the big beach town of Ocean City, we were thanking the golf gods we were here and not there.