Hello From Orlando: Golf In Orlando - Playing Links-style At The Royal St. Cloud - Unpretentious Golf At Its Best

For a real links-style golf experience we discovered the Royal St. Cloud Golf links, located in St. Cloud, about 25 minutes southeast of the Orlando airport or the disney area. The Royal St. Cloud links greet you with a rolling layout of links-style fairways, punctuated by classic links bunkers that feature names such as Hell, Spectacles, Devil's Pocket and Hoofprint. True to its link heritage, every club in the bag will be utilized as the terrain is naturally varied.

Unlike other Orlando golf courses, the Royal St. Cloud is free of any residential developments and offers a pure golf experience. The design features four sets of tees and from the blue tee offers a championship length of 7,111 yards and a 74.6 rating, all on flawless fairways and silky-smooth Tifeagle greens.

Its motto, as printed above the entrance to the club house is "Original Golf Played Here", and indeed the Royal St. Cloud features original style golf at its unpretentious best. I had a chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and since 2002 co-owner of this facility.

Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally studied under some of the top-ranked teaching professionals and brings 12 years of teaching experience that featured beginners to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a top-ranked PGA Professional. The Royal St. Cloud's teaching staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of valuable PGA Tour experience with him and can share advice from the Tour with the students. Associate Professional, Doug Holloway, has 16 years coaching experience.

At the Royal St. Cloud Golf links the commitment to teaching the game of golf commitment includes state-of-the art video equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather. Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for every skill level and requirement. Bill explained that they run very reasonably priced children's clinics at $7.00 per clinic and the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can also learn the sport without embarrassment in a relaxed, comfortable environment. And with every family membership at the club kids play for free.

Bill prides himself on offering one of the greatest values in golf in the Orlando area. For the 2005-2006 season rates vary from $46 to $48 from November 1 to January 10, and $64 from January 11 to April 30, 2006. discounted tee time rates are available after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill went on to say that the fees at the Royal St. Cloud are always reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to exceed the visitors' expectations.

In addition, he offers a very unique proposition: a 100% money-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn't enjoy your playing experience at the Royal St. Clouds. He said in the almost three years since he has run this course only 2 people ever asked for a refund; a phenomenal achievement, considering that several tens of thousands of rounds are played here every year.

one of the very unique features of this course is the handcrafted stonework which is evident in four bridges found throughout the course that have been hand-built by one individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges are even a little bit crooked, just to give them more character. The most famous stone bridge can be found on the 5th hole and many of the British visitors to this golf course come here specifically for this unique feature.

Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market that is composed of local residents, snowbirds escaping the cold northern winters, and British golfers, a very loyal crowd who refer this facility to many of their friends back home.

The Royal St. Cloud Golf links have been rated as one of the top 5 Most Underrated Golf Courses in the Orlando area and they have hosted the 2004 and 2005 British Junior Amateur. With its wide-open fairways the course looks deceptively simple, however, I experienced very quickly the unique challenges offered by the Royal St. Cloud. Traditional links golf is played on the ground, unfortunately I still managed to find water several times, despite the generously open fairways.

The other feature I really enjoyed were a number of the ponds on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a variety of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly enjoyed watching a very rare specimen of wood stork stalking the edges of a pond for food, and a crane standing upright with stretched out wings. The course had a very relaxed, casual and friendly feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog after our game on the beautiful patio outside the clubhouse as a way to cap off a very enjoyable golf experience on a gorgeous day.

driving Directions from the disney area:
Royal St. Cloud Golf links is an easy 25 miles from the Disney area.
(25-35 minute approximate drive time)
* Take Osceola Parkway to the Florida Turnpike
* Take Exit 244 to Hwy 192, turn left.
* Go 4.6 miles to Vermont Ave, turn right.
* Take Vermont 2.1 miles to Creek Woods Road, take a left.
* Go only .7 miles to Michigan Ave, take a right directly into the Golf club.

statistics
Par 72 Yards Rating Slope
Blue 7111 74.6 128
Gold 6680 72.2 125
Green 6083 69.2 115
citrus 5531 66.6 111

For more information please visit Royal St. Cloud Golf website or call them at (407) 891-7010.

This entire article including photos is located at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_royal_stcloud_golf.htm

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our brand new http://www.travelandtransitions.com/ebooks.html FREE ebooks about travel.

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Can Tai Chi Ergo Chair Really Help To Improve Your Health

tai chi Chuan is the Chinese martial art of fluid motion; at its root, it promotes health, balanced energy flows and flexibility. Millions of practitioners have used it as a form of exercise, meditation and even as a soft martial-art.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could practice the forms of tai Chi while sitting down at your office? Well, the tai Chi Ergo chair does exactly that. This chair, designed by June Ekman, a dancer and choreographer, and a certified teach of yoga, tai chi and the Alexander Technique, and Larry Wilson, an ergonomicist inspired by Buckmister Fuller, looks like an office chair base attached to a large vinyl ball replacing the seat cushion.

sitting on the tai Chi Ergo chair is a novel experience; you have to constantly flex your thigh and butt muscles as you sit this causes your body to naturally adjust position, and helps prevent lower back pain and spinal tension; indeed, when you first get the chair, the instructions say to "work into it" slowly only sit in it for an hour on the first day, two on the second and so on by the end of the second week, sitting on the chair using an "active sitting" method will become natural to you.

Because the chair requires that you constantly remain in motion, the tai chi Ergo chair is a toning exercise for the core muscle groups of your body. This helps keep your spine moving fluidly as you go about your office work, as opposed to what normally happens in a conventional chair, where people tend to slump, the hips remain locked in a 90 degree position, and your chi sort of drains out because you aren't using your muscles.

In practice, you should think of your spine as being like a kinetic sculpture. It should always be flexing and moving, so that you don't lock into one position entirely. The tai Chi Ergo chair helps your spine do this, because in order to remain perched on it, your muscles keep locking and unlocking in sequences, as your inner ears control your balance.

People who use the tai Chi Ergo chair notice that their lower back pain eventually goes away, they feel more sexually energized and creative, and they build muscle tone in their thighs, buttocks and abdomen. While it's not the equal to a full on session in the gym, it's likelier that after the end of the day of sitting in one, you'll be less likely to put off going to the gym or working out. Plus, you'll save money on chiropractor bills the tai Chi Ergo chair pays for itself in three or fewer chiropractic visits for most people.

Incidentally, it's also a stylish addition to most office furniture sets, and its quality construction is warrantied for years. It also slides neatly under most desks, making it perfect for a student or dorm room.

For more information and where to get visit Tai Chi Ergo Chair site. Visit http://www.Ergonomic-Review.com for more information of Ergonomic Office Chair

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