Oyster Reef

 

After a morning dip in the hot tub with Billy, all four of us grabbed some b’fast and headed over to the Oyster Reef Golf Club in the Plantation area of the island.  The weather was spectacular, bright blue sky and warm sun.  Once again, the COVID-19 effect on staffing was apparent, the usual arrival and bag drop procedure was awkward and provision of practice balls was complicated. We chatted with the pro while checking in about how difficult a time he was having getting his operation operating smoothly, he also mentioned that the island fast food chains had teamed up to organize busses from distant communities to make daily trips bringing in workers.  We had a great round of golf on a beautiful day, except for the golf. I finally got Billy to give me some advice very near the end of our round which made a remarkable difference (tempo).  Not much in the way of birdies today, so we went for net birdies (with bonus strokes!).  Lots of Gators, big and small: Wu, Xavier, Yan, Zack, Aaron, Bob, Cecil.  The cart server made an interesting comment about wages in South Carolina.  She said her employment wage was $1.50/hr and she must make a living wage relying on tips (a bit snarky, but she was good). I had been aware that the states merge employment wage with tips as a rule, but this was a bit shocking, so I looked it up and sure enough South Carolina minimum wage for tipping jobs is $2.13/hour. After golfing, we made our way over to Skull Creek Boathouse for some great seafood served up by the very energetic Charly who confirmed in a deep voice that indeed her base wage was ~$2, but she was very well compensated with tips (she was a very good server and moved around quickly with little wasted motion covering what seemed like a lot of tables - quite a difference front the Crazy Crab previous day).  A bit more shopping after an early dinner and we made our way back to the condo and soaked in the hot tub before taking up positions to watch a movie (or take a nap as the case may be).  We’ll be heading back to San Antonio in the morning so got the luggage organized for an efficient departure.