Port St. Lucie, Florida will never be confused with South Beach. Even if a number of dancers - who are no doubt working their way through college - will likely show up when the New York Mets do for spring training.

Still, it turns out this largely sleepy town may be an even better spot for spring break for the golf obsessed young man than BTuck’s suggested storied St. Andrews.

That’s because little Port St. Lucie is crawling with Swedish babes, Korean babes, maybe even a few Polish babes. These young women can play golf better than 95 percent of the adult male population easily.

And did I mention they’re bored out of their minds? That they’re just looking for any fool to hang out with who doesn’t have a beat up pickup track with a gun rack? (In other words, non-townsfolk).

The PGA Learning Center draws these women with long legs and sweet swings. This 35-acre shrine to practice that includes bunkers with nine different types of sand has started to become a winter refuge for college-aged golfers from countries like Sweden where it’s too cold to play year round.

So their coaches send them here with training programs to follow. Luckily, rents are still cheap enough in Port St. Luice that those American-dollar-crushing Euros go a long way. Heck, you can hang out at the Learning Center from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day for only $75 per week (believe that’s 25 cents in Sweden).

The result is an almost unheard of vibrant young person’s golf scene. There are so many golfers swinging with iPods in their ears, that your first thought is the PGA started mandating them.

It’s a completely different feel from your average on course experience. Most of my random playing partners on review trips turn to be out old enough to be the sons of our own Tim McDonald. Which means they’re at least 65.

The average age at the PGA Learning Center looks to be about half that - and that’s stilted upward by the retirees getting their swings in.

Better hurry if you want to make an impressive entrance though. The Mets arrive in seven days.

And you wondered why Tom Glavine golfs?

Permalink 1 comment