I was listening to Masters coverage on XM Satellite radio the other day and heard an ad for the Mirasol Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.  They were offering a whopping $45,000 off the price of a membership at the club “just for mentioning the ad.”  I could not resist calling and mentioning the ad.

        I learned that the 2,300-acre Mirasol, which features two golf courses -– the Sunrise by Tom Fazio and the Sunset by Arthur Hills -– is almost completely sold out.  A total of 1,132 homes have been sold of the 1,170 plotted; since purchasers were required to build right away, you won’t find many patches of dirt at Mirasol.

        Membership is also mandatory when you purchase a home at

You don't have to mention the ad to get the discount.  You just have to purchase a home for $600,000...or $3.5 million.

Mirasol, although you can opt for a $90,000 “sports” membership rather than the full-boat country club membership at $130,000 (the $45K discount applies to both).  The sports membership provides 12 rounds of golf “in season” (essentially the winter months) and unlimited golf during the summer.  The initiation fees put Mirasol squarely in the middle of the local market, even after the $45,000 discount which, by the way, is open to anyone who purchases one of those remaining home packages, whether they mention the ad or not.  PGA National, across the street from Mirasol, offers a less expensive package for its four courses, which are available for resort play; but the ultra-private nearby Old Palm is priced at $250,000, according to Mirasol on-site agent Nancy White.  Mirasol, which is just 10 miles from the ocean, boasts 775 golf members for its two clubs, all residents; outside memberships are unavailable.

        Dues are not cheap at Mirasol; full golf membership runs $15,000 annually, and that is before the 6.5% county tax.  The remaining 38 new home packages are priced from $600,000 to $3.5 million, but the lower end provides a nice 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with almost 3,000 square feet of “air-conditioned space” (a Florida designation that means the same as “heated space” elsewhere).  Each one features a 2 1/2-car garage -– the half for the golf cart – as well as a 12 x 24 foot in-ground pool.

         If you are interested in one of the remaining properties at MIrasol, contact Nancy White at Taylor/Morrison, the developers.  She can be reached at (561) 624-7555.  The Mirasol web site is MirasolClub.com.

        As I watched the Masters coverage on Friday and marveled at my contemporary Tom Watson’s gutty play -– that young whippersnapper Fred Couples wasn’t bad either -– I lapsed into a rich fantasy world in which it is Sunday at Augusta, and Watson is matched in the final pairing with Tiger Woods.  The crowd, of course, is cheering loudly for Woods, but even louder for the 60-year old Watson.

        The two players come to the 18th tied, with both in the fairway.  Watson has a tricky approach shot but manages to sky his four-iron to 35 feet or so of the cup.  Woods has a more routine approach, yet he seems to linger over it longer than usual.  He makes an unusually tentative swing and pulls it into the front left bunker, then hits a mediocre bunker shot to 8 feet.  Those swings on the 18th hole of a major lack the typical force of the Tiger, as if they were played by the more laid-back Ernie Els.

        Watson’s lag putt winds up two feet below the hole and he putts out for par.  Now Woods, who has been putting well all day, lines up his tying putt.  Days later, people who study such things will comment that Woods took about 15% less time to study his putt than he has done for other critical putts in his career.  When he does make his stroke, he opens the clubface ever so slightly as the head of the putter comes through the ball.  He misses the cup by three inches right.

         Tom Watson is shocked, the crowd is shocked, but as it dawns on everyone that a sexagenarian has actually won the Masters, they go nuts as the winner circles the periphery, high-fiving everyone.  A photo in all the sports sections the next day shows a jubilant Watson in the foreground and, beyond him Tiger Woods, not hanging his head but looking straight at Watson, a wry and knowing smile on his face, a look that some will interpret later as the face of redemption.