TravelWorld International Magazine Summer 2024

Chasing Birdies in Galveston
at Moody Gardens Golf Course
Story and Photos by Nancy Besharah
eep your eyes on
the ball," my dad's
voice whispers as I settle
into my stance between
the maroon markers
and look down at the
yellow ball. My dad introduced
me to golf decades ago, and even
though he is no longer with us,
his coaching still guides me on
the course. If I'm nervous on the
first tee, returning to the basics
helps calm the pre-drive jitters,
especially when I play with rental
clubs on a new course.
Moody Gardens on Galveston
Island in Texas, is a public,
non-profit educational
destination featuring a hotel, spa,
theme park, theaters, Rainforest
Pyramid, Aquarium Pyramid, and,
as of 2008, a par-72 Jacobsen Hardy
design golf course. While tourists
and school kids, given the long line
of orange buses in the parking lot,
are experiencing the exotic animals
in the Rainforest Pyramid and the
ocean exhibits in the Aquarium
Pyramid, I'm chasing birdies.
I squint at the target over 350 yards down
the dew-covered paspalum grass fairway
before looking down at the ball and
preparing to take my first swing. Keen
to avoid deep, sand-filled bunkers and a
considerable water hazard, I drive my ball
near a grove of palm trees on the left side
of the fairway. I'm taking the long way to
the first green, but I prefer to play it safe.
Golf course water hazards like ponds and
streams can be magnets for golf balls. At
Moody Gardens Golf Course I discovered
that they are also magnets for something
else—local and migrating birds.
Putting at Moody Gardens Golf Course
Photo courtesy of Moody Gardens
At Moody Gardens Golf Course
Photo courtesy of Moody Gardens
Water hazard alongside a green
at Moody Gardens Golf Course
A few of the hundreds of palms
at Moody Gardens Golf Club
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