My Winter Getaway: Lindon Garron

Being from St. Andrews, N.B., Canadian PGA president Lindon Garron says he is partial to the east for his winter golf getaway even if it considerably south of his location in Atlantic Canada.

I’m partial to the east, only because of familiarity.

I was in Phoenix last year for the PGA meetings and it’s an extremely nice destination, no question, but I’m rather partial to Orlando, to be quite honest.

I’ve been going there for a number of years and what we do is rent homes down there. It builds camaraderie because we get a number of people, we play some golf, then come back home and relax around the pool and fire up the barbeque.

For those who want to go out, there are lots of good restaurants and there are also other great accommodations in the area with all of the hotels and resorts in the area.

We’ve actually done that trip from a business standpoint too. The Atlantic Zone started that back in the mid-to-late ‘90s and we found it was a really good way for the board members to get to really know each other.

We typically make the trip around the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando at the end of January. We can go down and go to the show and then stay and play some golf afterwards.

That’s not always the case. We’ve done it as late as the third week of February, but typically, we do it around the show. That way, people can get together with other Canadian PGA members, particularly at the show and at the Canadian night and so on.

I really like the Southern Dunes golf course. It’s not Florida-like – very little water on it. Obviously, by the sounds of it, there are a lot of dunes and there are also a lot of topography changes.

It’s always in good condition. At that time of year in Florida, it’s a challenge to get good conditions, but I’ve never played Southern Dunes when it’s not in good condition. It’s probably about a half-hour from the show in the Haines City area.

The nice thing about Orlando is that there are so many good golf courses popping up on a regular basis. It’s not a challenge to find a good one.