On Friday, I played the Ocean Course at the Westin Rio Del Mar. I had an early tee time and arranged for car service to ferry me to and from the course from San Juan. I played the round with Pete, who owns a golf course outside of Springfield, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it had poured the night before and the course was absolutely drenched, making it difficult to hit a clean shot off of any surface.

This picture fairly depicts the signature 16th hole. The hole is laid out parallel to the beach and, as you can see if you pay attention to the palm trees, the trade winds constantly blow from left to right at over 20mph. The hole is over 200 yards (par 3) and I used my driver in light of the winds. Unfortunately, I sliced the ball, which with the prevailing winds, meant that my drive ended up about 50 yards to the right of the green (and about 10 yards short). I hit one of the palm trees standing between the ball and the hole and then chipped on. Two putts later I took a 5. Not very good. All in all, a very challenging hole on a nice course that was playing tough due to all of the standing water.