Sure enough, with a quick look out the window, the sun was shining, blue sky and I was scampering around to get my clubs and shoes ready to go. Although the temperature still said 50 something it certainly felt much warmer.

At the clubhouse Omar and I hook up for lunch with our playing partners for the day, Romina the female head pro and Mario Carso a former club Capitan who is better known as being the club's joker. Mario was the only one of the three that did not speak English but with the little Spanish that I have learned and the help of Omar and Romina I was able to partake in the joker's antics. In fact when the day on the links was over with Mario took me back to my hotel and gave me a little tour to the ski resort close by. We made out OK with the language situation.

If you are ever being hosted for lunch in Argentina, be prepared to eat a lot, don't be in a hurry…and it's not really a place for vegetarians and for that matter abstainers. Plenty of meat and vino! In fact the Ushuaia Golf Club has its own brand of vino tinto (red wine).

The Ushuaia Golf Club is a 9-hole golf course that was established in 1992 and playing it twice gives you a 5,400 yard (par 70) routing alongside a pretty little trout stream called Rio Pipo. So different than the most northern golf course in the world at Ulukhaktok in Canada's Northwest Territories where you are playing above the tree line on tundra, the Ushuaia Golf Club has trees, real grass and real greens set with the backdrop of the snow capped Andes Mountains.

The teams were set and we were ready to play. Both Mario and Omar are 20 handicappers. Omar lost the toss so he was my partner. Omar and I got out to an early and substantial lead that we were able to maintain through the first 5 holes. By the end of 7 Romina and Mario made it close but then the tight par 5, 8th, 508 yards into a very strong wind with two crosses of the Rio Pipo got the best of them. Omar and I closed them out. Nine holes were enough on this day. Although we started out with moderate winds and sunny blue sky we could see rain coming over the mountains. The sixth and 7th holes were very wet and windy but by eight and nine the clouds and rain were gone and the sun was back but the wind was howling. No matter, it was about time for some vino and a visit to Ushuaia's downtown.

The City of Ushuaia is on the southern tip of an island land mass known as Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The most southern city in the world is the gateway to the Antarctic and is considered the capital of Antarctica.

Ushuaia is a tax free island and the only thing more spectacular than the sun setting on the shores of the Beagle Channel and the Martial Mountains are the deals available the downtown shops. There is plenty to see and do in the area from hiking to horseback riding and mountain biking and fishing. I did go on a short 7 km train ride into the Tierra del Fuego National Park, at the end of the train ride we were met by a motor coach that extended our tour through the park and before it was all over we visited the southern-most point of the Pan American Highway. Only 17,848 km straight north and I could be in Alaska!