The SPIRIT of Jamaican Golf | Adventures in Golf Season 9

The SPIRIT of Jamaican Golf | Adventures in Golf Season 9

Hey everyone, before we start this episode, I just want to take a moment to talk about what’s happening right now in Jamaica. We filmed this episode before Hurricane Melissa hit, and since then, many of the people and places that you’re going to see here have been deeply affected. Jamaica is one of the most welcoming and vibrant places we’ve ever filmed, and right now, they could really use your help. If you’d like to support the ongoing relief efforts, there’s a link in the description or you can scan this QR code. Every bit truly makes a difference. Where are your husbands, Annie? three or they’re sleeping beneath the palm trees near the Caribbean Sea. At night I heard you riding. I can hear your lover’s call and I can still feel your presence around the rose. Great house. The White Witch Golf Course in Montego Bay, Jamaica, sits on the site of an old sugar plantation that dates back to the 18th century. While significant to the island’s history, it’s the story of Annie Palmer that continues to haunt these grounds. After generations of grim and ghastly sightings, we’ve come to play the renowned golf course and bear witness to this Macob story. And while I currently don’t believe in ghosts, I do believe in history. Hi, I’m Eric and this is Adventures in Golf. Whoa, my guy. To avoid a pothole and then hit someone else seems like a real big bird in the hand. Our Jamaican adventure started early. Real intense driving patterns here in Jamaica. They recommended not to rent a car. Once a British colony, Jamaica adopted its lefthand traffic system. That everything’s backwards. Everything’s inverted and inside out. All the instruments are also um mirrored. Okay. Which takes some getting used to. I feel like I’m driving around with a sidecar motorcycle, especially since driving on the left seems to be the only rule drivers here follow. Most people just run red lights and drive a lot faster than the speed limit, but eventually I get the hang of it. We are good for the most part. Look, kids, big bet. First time playing golf in Jamaica. I’ve I’ve been here uh I came to Kingston, which is on the other side of the island, gosh, probably 15 years ago. But I’m excited to be back here and play some golf. I’ve never been to Montego Bay. So, um, it’s a birthplace of Bob Marley. Johnny Cash had a house here. This has been a long time coming. How’s your morning? I’m good. What about you guys? Are you ready for the lecture? Yeah, I’m always ready. This is Navaron Morgan, a math and social studies teacher here at Cornwall College, a public high school for boys, grades 7 to 13. We met Morgan, his preferred name, yesterday as we scouted the White Witch Golf Course. He was on site for a wedding working his other job as a professional photographer. He told us that golf isn’t something most young boys know much about here, but he invited us to come and speak about the game and the benefits it offers beyond just playing the sport. So, you don’t have like a golf team at the school? No, we don’t have the facility to facilitate golfing, right? So, that would be good if um if golfing can be a part of the curriculum. That would be good, dude. They should set that up. Well, it’s something that we can see if we can lobby for. There are only 10 golf courses in Jamaica, but almost all of them welcome visitors. And while tourism, including golf, is the country’s main economic driver, golf is growing here and is becoming more popular amongst the locals. Because of this, an idea starts to form in our minds as we drive out of town to get a real Jamaican breakfast. So in terms of breakfast, locals normally have like yam, bananas, dumplings popularly served with like a saltfish or curry chicken or stew chicken with like kaloo or cabbage. All right, so this is saltfish. Yes, we call it saltfish, but it’s actually codfish. Let me get a piece of it by itself. Are you hungry or am I just eating? I can’t eat all the food by myself. You know, we we came here to see about the haunted golf course. What do you know about this place? Well, we we didn’t grow up hearing that the golf course was haunted. We grew up hearing that the actual house was haunted. Okay. So the there is the story about the white witch of Rosal that would have um done many evil things especially to her partners. So that’s a story that we grew up hearing. Okay. But not really about the golf course itself being haunted. Sure. Cuz this all happened before the golf courses were there. Exactly. Right. Have you heard the story? What do you think of it? I find it quite eerie. It gives you a eerie vibe. However, I don’t feel afraid, per se, you know, right? It’s just weird. It’s just eerie. Yes. So, we finished this amazing food. I can’t let this golf idea go. I would love to see a golf a golf team, a high school golf team happen. Like, I feel like that would just be so fun, you know? Like, I think I think um you know, golf is such an international game and such a social game and and if it’s introduced, you would be a part of history. Education is not just about the classroom. A lot of it takes place outside of the classroom. This is Mrs. Licia Allen, the vice principal for the upper school here at Cornwall College. Morgan says she’s the one to talk to about introducing golf to their students. Of the 1,380 boys, do you think there’s 12 that want to play golf? Definitely. Definitely. We can find more than 12. You you’ll have a lot of children. just just the um the fact that it’s something new. So even if they know nothing about it, they don’t want to go and try it to see what it’s all about. And some of them will excel. I tell you, this is a school of excellence. Students excel. Cornwall’s roots can be traced as far back as 1841. A proud heritage that is only surpassed by its reputation for excellence, which is visible everywhere on campus. It’s something taken very seriously, as seen in the school’s motto, learn or leave. That’s so crazy because D and D said are almost the same word. You get the result having walked through the process. Anything that comes too easily, you’re going to lose it. They have to work for it. I love to do is to watch children’s progress starting point up to where they see, okay, this is what I was working for all along. Excited for the prospect of golf here at Cornwall, Morgan has agreed to be the staff adviser for the future program. This is something that vice principal Allen believes that they can get approval for once the logistics are hammered out. But will there be enough interest in golf to make it happen? For the answers, we go straight to the source. When I was 29, I tried golf for the first time. And now I’ve been making golf films and playing golf for the last 10 years. I’ve This is why we came to Jamaica. Would you ever want to try something like that? Yeah. Yeah. My dad plays golf. Your dad plays golf? Really? Have you ever played with him? Uh, no. Is he good at golf? Does he play a lot? He plays a lot, but I don’t think he’s good. So, that’s nice though cuz all the sports that are here is like tracks, uh, basketball, football. So, golf will be something, you know, introduce something new. Well, cool. It was nice to talk to you guys. It was time for Morgan to start his lecture and introduce me to his students. I never really thought I would be here in Jamaica talking to a bunch of kids that have never played golf. But at the end of the day, this crazy game is truly fascinating when you look at it with an open mind. For the last 13 years, I’ve been going around the world making films in different countries that have golf courses. And so I’m so delighted to be here and talk to you guys because I think Can I Can I say what I think is going to happen? It’s my understanding that Cornwall College doesn’t have a golf program or a golf team. Is that true? Would anybody want to join that if we were going to go play golf together? Two hands, three, four. Okay, couple more. So, I was thinking in the beginning we would practice here in the field. Maybe we could bring in a putting green and learn putting and chipping. And maybe I could bring a net and we could hit balls into that. And then after we do that for a little bit of time, we could go to the golf course and play a game. Good. You approve. What else? When do we start? When do we start? That’s up to Mrs. Allen. So, I hope pretty soon, but I don’t want to say a date and be wrong. As soon as possible. You never know. The next most famous golfer will come from Jamaica. You never know. That’s what I was thinking in there. Thank you. No problem. We’ll see you soon. Good to meet you. All right. All right. See you guys. Have a great day. Enjoy the weekend. Bye. See you. Welcome to Cinnamon Hill, home of Johnny Cash. It’s a beautiful place. Hi, Eric. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Eric. I’m fine, thank you. Great. Come, come on inside. Absolutely. Our next stop is a small house perched just off of the 14th hole of Cinnamon Hill Golf Course. It was originally built in 1734 as a part of the Rose Hall estate. This house was one of few to survive the 1831 slave revolt. It’s had many owners over the years, including the man in black himself, Johnny Cash. This is the main living room where they would have all their parties and stuff like that. And there were people that were loved in in even in the in the neighborhood. They supported a lot of the artisans. Okay, this is a real historical place. Surrounded by cinema trees and populated with artifacts, this place is brimming with history. And while Johnny didn’t play golf himself, his biography tells us he would drive around in his golf cart collecting balls he would later give to Jamaican children to sell back to the golfers. I learned pretty much probably everything I know about Jamaica through music. Yes. Johnny Cash is a great example of that. It’s so interesting that he chose this place. That’s right. To come and live. Do you know why he chose Jamaica? Cinnamon Hill to live. He came to Jamaica and he fell in love with the island. He fell in love with the music, you know, that they used to hear back then would have been the mento and the calypso and the early regga music that we had the scar and all of that. And then um he lived here for 40 years. He would come every year and he would vacation here for couple of weeks to a couple of months depending on you know what their time frame was like for their music abroad. And people did not know that this is where he was. Was he was his music well known in Jamaica? His music is well known in Jamaica. Absolutely. Did he ever do any concerts in Jamaica? Absolutely he did. He did a lot of concerts at the Rose Hall Great House and he would have his friends come and play and he would sing and and that’s how he would raise money for the children’s home. Known for his philanthropy, Cash supported the SOS Children’s Villages organization providing family- based care and support to children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care. Did he record any music here? Um, he wrote music. This is where he would write a lot of the music. This is where he had the space and the time and he would go over to his area over by the gazebo above the pool area and he would sit down and write his music and he wrote a song about Rose Hall. Yes. About Rose Hall. It’s a ballad of Annie Palmer. It is said that she killed three of her husbands that lived there. She had an affair with one of the slaves, Taco. Was it proved that she murdered them? Um, well, that is what the legend is all about. But I can tell you that most Jamaicans who even live in this area will tell you that yes, most Jamaicans will also tell you that Annie’s spirit still haunts the estate. Something that Cash was very familiar with. On numerous occasions, he’s recalled seeing apparitions of a woman and a young boy throughout their vacation home. Perhaps that’s what drew him to write the song about Annie Palmer. In his song, he would say, “So Annie, where are your husbands buried? Where are your husbands one, two, and three? Are they buried beneath the palm trees by the Caribbean Sea?” The golf course is named White Witch. Is that related to Annie Palmer? Yes, it was named um after the White Witch of Rose Hall, which is what they called Annie. Yes, it was said that she had a voodoo priestess as her nanny. So that’s where she learned a lot of her her stuff, her craft. before I came to Rose Hall. You know, I was always thought there’s no such thing as ghost until one day we opened up the great house down at Rose Hall and u it was just myself and one of the um the housemen and I’m like we we hear footsteps on upstairs and I’m like go upstairs and check make sure that nobody’s inside of the house. And he went upstairs cuz I wasn’t moving you know I was like he was kind of frozen and then he went up there and ran back down and says nobody’s up there. And I’m like, you know, that was so eerie. And then one of my supervisors just last year, she came and opened up the house was herself and and the houseman and she heard the same thing. I was like, “Okay, so there’s no ghost, but what was that?” Yeah. What was that? You know, that had all the hairs on my hand standing up, right? I’m like, “Absolutely not.” Has anyone ever seen her? Does she ever make her way to the golf court? I mean they named the course after her. Um the on the Cinnamon Hill golf course there is a burial ground that belonged to the Barrett and Molton family that built this house. Yes. So I have heard you know people have said that oh they’re not walking past that graveyard in the night because dppy sit on the fence. Dppy. That’s like a Jamaican word for ghost. Ghost. Yes. Dopey sit on the fence. Yeah. So, I’m not going to walk through there in the night. In all truth, the spirits do seem to be everywhere on the estate, and I’m not looking to cross paths with any of them. So, with a little light left, we head out to the Cinnamon Hill course. Okay. Closest to the pin. What are you striking? I got a pitching wedge. That’s where you’re hitting. 167 pitching wedge. Man’s is long. I don’t know. Looks like a twopiece. Joining me today is Keith Stein. He’s the director of golf operations for both of the courses here at Rose Hall. I’m going to whip her out to the to the right side, Chico, and see if I can move her in. Need more. And our third is Chickeny, Keith’s friend and Caddyy, who goes by many names. And you call him Chica? Chicken. Yeah. Chone. I call him Chico. And then Chica. Yeah. What does Chicone mean? Beats me. Ask mom. Uh growing up everybody say chicken. I was cool with chicken. Then a guest say why don’t you call yourself Chico? And I said that’s pretty cool. What does it mean? Say it mean boy. Baby face works for me. So I just say all right with it. I love it. Now what you do is you hit you hope you pray. It works on me. Juice left. Good swing. Down, baby. Sit, baby. Lands off. Sit. Lands off. Oh, jeez. You had a little uh All right. Everything goes. Nice. Little tour sauce on that one. Eight parts. How long have you been a caddy here? 20 years. What’s that like? Let’s say it’s like you come on vacation and I’m here just chilling with you, enjoying your vacation. I love it. That’s uh that’s kind of ideal. And you get paid. Oh, hell yeah. I would love that. You’re doing this for free? That’s great. Tell me about the culture of golf. The business of golf on on the island of Jamaica. Well, um, you know, the country is driven by by tourism. So, local play is isn’t as much as, you know, I think six and a half, 7% of our revenues is locals, okay? Like members and stuff like that. And the rest is tourists. So, um, you know, Jamaica is a can be a polarizing uh country for tourists. Uh, I find that you either really like it here or you just don’t. Keith gets closest to the pin. I guess he’s been playing here the long going to bring one up. Oh, yeah. I want to make this baby right now. All right. Is that there? That is there. Whoa. Ball running like crazy. My experience is that golf brings people, you know, and and also but also even just in terms of um you know the the local culture, right? It might not golf might not be part of its history, right? Wherever you are um baby, you know, but uh but it can be part of its future in terms of social experience, education, um you know, even just uh the values of golf and and postcoid, you know, the numbers are are quite supportive that you know, rounds are up. Yeah, that’s good enough, right? Yeah. Okay. Third in the woods. This is a really spectacular part three. This is neat. Got that waterfall in the background. This is where they had the the James Bond movie was filmed here. Live that die. The cemetery scene. They have the snake scene where they throw a guy into the coffin full of snakes and all that was filmed right down here. That’s all here. Yeah. So that was filmed in 73. The golf course was built in ‘ 69. Oh yeah, nice ball. Feel like drinking, buy some drinks. Feel like drinking. Too much. Hey, good swing. What a swing. Get down. Ball. Cut ball. Oh yeah, baby. ASV nature calls. If you were in a caddy, what do you think you’d be? Farming. I got to be outside. Honestly, I got to be outside. Farming is a solo sport. It’s a good point. You’re so good with people. People gravitate to you, you know. I don’t know. My mom put me into this. You’re going to cut one in this time. So, it’s all fun for me cuz I’m outside and in the slow season, I can do a little farming. Still get to do what I want. This one down here, I have a it has a cemetery, like a grave down there from a guy named William. So, I have this guest who always comes and say, “Hey, I’m going to say hi to William.” When I get down there, we can say hi to William, too. The aqueduct is sick. Good guy. Don’t know him, but here lies William. What do you think it would take to maybe grow golf amongst the local Jamaican community? Well, I I I have to admit that um you know, finance is is a is part of that. the cost of the playing golf, the cost of playing golf, you know, the cost of maintaining golf courses. You know, you’ve been around the industry a long time. It’s and it’s expensive to to maintain a golf course. Laser, there’s no municipal golf courses in correct. That’s kind of where I’m going where you could, you know, maybe you have a a golf course with a maintenance budget of $300,000 and that kind of fits that market, but we don’t really have that market. So, we have to have a golf courses that are at least in decent enough shape to attract Oh, baby. Come on. Oh, catch the knuckling. It’s knuckling. It’s in the middle of the green. Wait, what? Where’ it hit when I hit one of the rocks on the right side? Amazing. Right back in the middle. The golf ghost of Rose Hall seem to be on chicken side for this match. What’s on your bucket list in golf? Like what do you what do you like? Okay. So, for this year, I need to shoot in the 60s. Okay. In the 60s. Oh, yeah. What’s your current PB personal best? Okay. 72. 72. Yeah. So I’m always mid-70s, low 70s. So you want to shoot 69 or better? 60s. All right. This is the money hole. Yeah. Money on the line. We have pay for $1,000 Jamaican dollar. Keith, Eric, me. So we go pay for thousand hole number seven. So make sure watch this win already know this just come right up one. All right. Come on baby slice. Good shot. All right. Yeah. Good ball. My uh bank balance at the ATM. Turns out I have like uh 80 million Jamaican dollars in my bank account. That was cool. Yeah. If we could get one, you know, like current Jamaican player on the PGA tour, it would be cool. Like all of a sudden golf would boom here. You’d see municipal golf courses. You’d see uh golf programs in in schools. Yeah. It feels like such an opportunity. There is some really good Jamaican golfers. There are Okay. There just haven’t got that far. We tied the hole. We chopped, which I’ve never heard that phrase. And uh we’re gonna go chipping chipping contest next T last green. No run out. Terrible. Congratulations, Keith. Thank you. That’s yours. Thank you. Thank you. Keep trying. Keep keep working on it. You’ll get to that 69 soon, you know. telling you this. I don’t see a better job. I don’t have to be rich. I’m comfortable. I’m all right. And I can enjoy myself till I die. And you see, I’m young. It’s like that Benjamin Button is I’m telling you about, bro. I’m growing young. So, I’m tell I think I got another 30 years in me. Solid. Oh, you got a little uh you got a little thousand in there. There you go. Thank you. Oh, lovely. Come on. Monopoly money. Just steps away from the 19th hole, Chico shows us the small cemetery that Angelie told us about. And even though it’s getting late, Chico has no fear. I could fall asleep right here. I don’t worry about no ghost. I know what in Jamaica they got the thing called rolling calf. We got Dopey. They got goose. Don’t bother me. Not one bit. I’m afraid of evil woman, but ghost be real. After hearing about Annie Palmer and her hauntings all day long, we decide to return to the great hall at night for a ghost tour. What comes next is just a sample of what we were able to capture that evening. I think we all had our own expectations, but none of us were truly ready for what went down. I certainly came out with a new perspective on life and death. You are now on the property of Alifama. the 11 years that she lived here, nine of those years she took to murder three husbands and countless slave lovers. She was eventually violently killed by her freed slave lover named Taku. And please remember his name. He’s very important to the story. Now, if you do happen to have the vision and are able to see ghosts or spirits, please ignore them. Yeah, they’re usually harmless. Now, right here is a fourpiece pedestal shirton banquet table. It is an original piece to the house as well as that portrait on the wall. Requires whenever serving food or beverage to the man who But now we’ll be moving on to the lower gallery. Come on. Lower. Now, right here is a portrait dated back to the early 19th century. But there’s something quite strange and we tend to call it creepy here as well. If you don’t mind backing up a bit and I’ll demonstrate. If you want to follow along, you can. I knew it. Now, this door, I call it the door that led to Annie’s death. Taku used the secret passageway to gain entrance to the house, and then he strangled her to death. That’s how she met her demise. Now, let’s head to the morning room. Okay. But now we’ll be going on the upstairs to where all the loving and killing happened. Where did they go? Back to the gift shop. They didn’t even say goodbye. Okay, we’re all doing this, guys. We’re all in. You’re not leaving, Caleb. Fair warning. If you are on the upstairs, please stay close together because these slaves don’t like crowds in their spaces. Okay. You would have a door just opened. Unfortunately, that’s where we’re heading tonight. Just closed. It was just closed, man. They actually both took turns strangling the man until he was dead. In this room is where Annie killed her second husband by stabbing him repeatedly in his sleep. What? Caleb, you’re alive. I found Redsh. Caleb left tour early. No explanation required. After getting as much sleep as I could after experiencing the realest haunted house I’ve ever been to, I decided before the flight, a leisurely round on the White Witch is the best way to start the day. The warm Jamaican breeze, rolling green hills, and a course carved out amongst an incredible landscape. There’s golf everywhere in the world. All you have to do is get out there and play it. And while this is a Jamaican ghost story, the fact remains golf is very much alive and well on this beautiful island.

Jamaica has an undeniable spirit… Literally. Earlier this year before the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, Erik Anders Lang (@RandomGolfClubFilms) traveled to the Caribbean island to tell a supernatural story that includes golf, Johnny Cash, and the infamous Annie Palmer.

Find out how you can help Jamaica rebuild here: https://www.skratch.golf/shows/adventures-in-golf/adventures-in-golf-season-9-jamaica

The intersection of golf and culture.

Behind every drained putt or hosel rocket into the stands is a human being with complex emotions—among them, an insatiable appetite for golf. That’s what we’re after. Golf’s humanity is what makes it so special to us. There have never been more reasons to love this game, and we’re endeavoring to explore them all.

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