Golf on America's Riviera

Visit Miami Beach in the United States, live the lavish Riviera life and try to master the "blue monster" – the championship course, The Blue Monster.

Miami is America's southernmost city. Miami Beach is known as America's Riviera. The sun shines on the evil and the good, the sea is blue and the water warm. Today, millions of tourists come to the narrow little sandy island, about 15 kilometres long. The pulse is Ocean Drive, the street that runs parallel to the white beach, filled with eating-places.

Street life is super trendy, but also relaxed rustic. Here famous and unknown people crowd together who hope to become famous - and rich. You need money, nowhere else in Florida is it more expensive.

The day dawns late in Miami Beach, especially in South Beach where the famous Art Deco houses in pastel shades from the 1920's and 30's are located. The nightlife is intense. For those with fat wallets the night begins late after shopping on exclusive Collins Avenue with shops like Armani and Versace. It’s on Washington Avenue that the late night life pulsates. If you have seen the MTV series The Real World and Miami Vice then you recognize the restaurant The Diner which is located at the corner of 11th St. and Washington Avenue.

The nightclub Bed is also located here. That’s right, bed. You lie down at the table; Super expensive wine, super trendy. The smoke is thick in the room but smoke doesn’t come from regular cigarettes, if you know what I mean...

For less well-filled wallets, you are well provided for when it comes to shopping. At the Sawgrass Mills shopping centre, you can overspend. There are 400 shops under one roof! Prices are relatively low.

What about golf then? Stay calm. Just a stone's throw from the highway is Doral Golf Resort & Spa from 1955. There are five courses within the area…among them the Blue Monster. Since 1962 the PGA Tour Championship has settled on the "Blue Monster". Green fee: from approximately 221 euros if you come "from the street" on a weekend. If you live at the hotel it’s a bit cheaper. Sure, the course is good but not that good for the price.

The course is superb with the largest golf shop I have seen. Everything is tip-top. From 1998 and three years onward the owners spent about 74 million euros on buildings and courses so that everything would be in super condition.

For example, the rate was over 10 million euros in the construction of the last course, Great White Course, opened in 2000. An 18-hole course is considered expensive in Sweden to a fifth of the price. Great White ... Yeah, that's what Greg Norman has designed. He also has his own shop on site.

During our hike on the Blue Monster we find Schevlee Marcel, who asks for a light for his cigar.
" I have a high handicap so I play from the white tees (shorter than the corresponding Swedish yellow tee but longer than red). The pin placements are tough. The green fee is really expensive but I want to play the "Monster" once my a lifetime, "he said.

Text Göran Söderlund. Photo Christer Höglund.