After a long and complicated journey, Jordan is in Bermuda and ready to compete in the AJGA Butterfield Bermuda Junior Championship. (Click for details and pics).

Getting to Bermuda was no easy task for Jordan. The original travel plans were extremely simple thanks to B’s golf buddy and biggest fan Allen who was going to take her to Bermuda on his airplane. Wednesday morning pick up in Orlando at 7:00am, and 1 hour and 45 minutes later land in Bermuda, and on to a practice round at noon. There were 7 going to support Jordan; Allen, David and Juliet Sirkin, Scott Frey, Coach Carl Rabito, and Dad. Sounds way too easy, right?

Well, first Allen’s back blew out on him but he insisted that Jordan and crew still go without him. All plans were on until Tuesday at noon when the plane had a mechanical issue and would not be able to take us. The good news is that before Allen offered to take everyone, Dad had booked tickets on American Airlines for Jordan, Carl and himself and had not cancelled them. On Wednesday is where the odyssey really began…..

Scott who was visiting from NY drove Jordan, Carl and Dad to the airport at 5am for their 8am flight to Charlotte, then on to an 11:05 flight to Bermuda. After checking in all the bags (There were 6 including B’s Clubs, her pushcart, and two suitcases of clothing and shoes) it was announced that because of a computer glitch in the NOTAM (notice to airman) system all flights would be grounded until further notice. The flight to Charlotte would be delayed more than two hours. On landing in Charlotte Jordan would have 15 minutes to make the one and only flight left to Bermuda that day. Of course the captain announced that the gate was taken and it would be 20-30 minutes before passengers could deplane. That flight left while one small anxious 🦖 sat on the runway gate-less .

After deplaning, Jordan’s now team of three found Ann at the American Airlines help desk and threw themselves at her mercy. The problem of course was that there were no more flights to Bermuda on Wednesday and their one flight on Thursday from JFK was sold out, sort of. The “sort of” part was that there were 9 “Blacked out seats” (still have absolutely no clue what that means). Ann had to call three supervisors the last of whom gave her permission to use three of these after Dad pleaded and begged (was not a pretty sight). So, to summarize where everything stood at that particular moment: Team B is in Charlotte, plane that was supposed to take her to Bermuda was in the air without her, and she was booked to Bermuda on the one and only flight Thursday from JFK in New York.

Ann again came through putting the group on a flight one hour later up to Westchester Airport where Super Mom and Amazing Sister Lyla were about to get some unexpected visitors for the night. Ann promised (she said she was 99.9% sure) that the bags would arrive in Westchester on the flight. As Jordan has an AirTag in her golf bag, she was 100% certain that as her plane left Charlotte for the journey north, her clubs did not. That was confirmed when off the carousel came zero of six bags.

At 4pm in NY the mission to both locate and reroute 5 bags with lesser value and 1 golf bag with extremely high value began. The flight to Bermuda from JFK is in 15 hours and Jordan is in White Plains. After almost 3 hours on the phone and in person at the airport with five different representatives there were 4 possible outcomes for the luggage;

First, it would go on the flight that she missed from Charlotte one day later landing in Bermuda at 3pm local time meaning that Jordan would not have her clubs for her first practice round at 12:50 on Thursday.

Second, the luggage would be re-routed from Charlotte to JFK on one of three flights that afternoon/evening and put on Jordan’s Thursday morning flight to Bermuda, the best outcome at that point.

Third, it would come on one of the two flights left on Thursday from Charlotte to Westchester and Super Mom or dad could pick them up.

Fourth, as they now had Jordan’s Bedford address as her permanent address, they could somehow just get delivered to her home “sometime in the next few days” as lost luggage, the very worst possible outcome.

At 12:20AM five of the six bags arrived in Westchester on the last flight of the day from Charlotte including golden ticket, the clubs. It was determined by super sleuth mom that the missing bag had the pushcart, spectator seats, food and snacks, and dad’s toothpaste. Super Mom and dad got back on the phone with American on their way home from the airport run at 1am and the missing bag had been tracked to JFK where it was promised to be on the flight to Bermuda with Jordan six hours from then.

At 4:45am Moises our longtime go-to driver (Seriously, if you live in Westchester or the surrounding area and need transportation, happy to share his contact information with you. This guy is as good as they get) picked up Jordan, Carl, dad, and 5 of the six pieces of luggage and took them to JFK. At the airport it was assured once again that the missing bag, now called our “Orphan piece” would be loaded on the aircraft. You can imagine the level of confidence the group now had with that prediction.

At 7:55 the flight to Bermuda took off on time and at 10:50 landed 15 minutes early where off the carousel would come all six pieces of luggage. The orphan was finally reunited with her family and the 30 hour odyssey to transport one junior golfer and her entourage that started at 7, now down to 2 would come to a happy ending.

Jordan left the airport for the 50 minute drive to Port Royal Golf Club 65 minutes before her T time for the first practice round. Somehow by pulling pieces from the cases and unwrapping the clubs in motion she T’d off on time with not even a single warm up swing. She was paired up with two delightful local blokes called John and Tony (older fellows, not part of the tournament). These guys were great and had 3 qualities that were very much appreciated; Local knowledge of the course (John lives two minutes away and Tony 3…I might have got that backwards), they played very fast, and most importantly they could give great restaurant recommendations and those spots that should be avoided. They had fun playing with Jordan and asked to follow her. If you guys are reading this, welcome. B played quite well with the exception of the first time she fell into a Bermuda sand trap and had to learn how to get out. She shot about even with 3🐥’s and loves the course. The views are beyond sensational. Lots of photos to posts but may take a few separate posts with limited WiFi bandwidth.

Today is the official practice round and Jordan has coach Carl watching and following her. Tomorrow’s T time is 9am and it will be a shotgun start. B is T’ing from 11. Weather in Bermuda is calling for sustained winds of 22-40 MPH with gusts to 60+ in driving rain and possible thunder. The tournament would have to suspend play in those conditions and the rumors are flying that they may play 36 holes on Sunday, and the final 18 on Monday. This is very hilly course if that actually does come to pass Jordan’s 4 day a week strength, cardio, and fitness routine and 7 days a week of 4 hours a day playing golf should serve her well. Carl and dad may not fair quite as well. But according to the owner of the hotel where the players are staying who she met at breakfast, “This is a very small island. Storms often miss us.” Stand by on that one.

https://www.ajga.org/tournaments/2023/butterfield-bermuda-junior-championship/leaderboard#girls

Above is the link to the leaderboard for tomorrow. Please remember that Bermuda is 1 hour ahead of NY if you plan to follow meaning Jordan’s T time will be at 8am EST.

Thats all for now. Thank you to everyone who has reached out, sympathized, checked in, offered to help to make sure that Jordan made it to play here in Bermuda. This tournament had 3 to 4 applicants for each available spot. Originally, there were 36 players accepted. With all of the travel messes out there, only 19 are slated to T tomorrow.

Moises and the luggage with Jordan in the background….Still missing piece 6 at this time.

A very happy B when her clubs were in her hands in Bermuda

Reunited with the Orphan piece

First view of the ocean off Bermuda

Dad and his first Dark & Stormy…Well earned in his opinion!

From our strange signs on the golf course collection

The Iguana in the right corner obviously can’t read

Don’t go long on the approach shot on 8

Getting ready to putt

About to become a birdie

How does she concentrate with that background?

This is a steep hill. Between the hill and the wind Coach Carl made B club up an astonishing 4 full clubs!

Another terribly unattractive green

Just a cool pic

The 15th T box

Determined

Jordan and Coach Carl who views the 70 degree temperature as the Arctic

Our new friends from Bermuda, John and Tony. We may see them watching Jordan this week. They seem to be fans.

Sunset last night

Jordan getting ready to go this morning to her practice round…waiting for Carl

Same as above but dad complained until she took her hands out of her pockets. That is a smile combined with a look of irritation