Puregolf2010 just took to the skies for the first time and we are now in Christchurch.
Tee off was 630am at Miramar golf course. Early stuff, definitely in JP??s favour (he is a morning person). The course was Miramar, handily waited right next to Wellington airport where our 737 awaited impending it??s 1040am departure. Miramar is a links course, and quite possibly the windiest golf course I have ever set foot on. So it was with delight that the weather today did not disappoint and we had a ??real Miramar experience??. It was blowing an absolute gale with sideways rain throughout most of the round. Most (sane) golfers would roll over in bed and settle in for a relaxing brunch and a spot of newspaper reading. But Jamie and I were stoked (not that we had any choice about the matter).
We were joined today by a few mates from our hockey team (that we have bailed on for 2010). Bart and Corky are golfing with us for the entire weekend, and our coaches Dave and Teaguey joined us for the round this morning.
When you arrive at the car park and struggle to stand up it is pretty tough to get into the golfing mindset. Thankfully the balls were not rolling off the greens so the course remained playable. The front 9 at Miramar plays East to West and therefore always played in a cross breeze ?? more fuel for JP??s draw I thought to myself... Miramar looks like many a links with rolling undulations and some pretty nasty pot bunkers. I managed to duff a 3 iron into one such bunker on the second hole and struggled to advance the next 10m from the gnarly downhill lie I was greeted with. Miramar has been known to be rather scruffy at times, but today the fairways and greens were pure. The back nine is only a par 34, and probably lacks a couple of tough ??two shot?? holes. The first time I played it I tried to hit driver all the time and got into all kinds of trouble, but when you know your way around (particularly the short par 4??s, 10, 12 and 14) scoring can be very agreeable. I guess the main defense for Miramar, like most links courses, is the wind.
Fortunately Jamie and I are both ??glass-half-full? wind golfers and put our heads down and took up the challenge today. Wind like we faced today requires creativity and that is much more fun that the standard target golf played most days. I find the wind also concentrates the mind, so that when you finally make it near the green you don??t want to throw away all your hard work on stupid putting and chipping. It is almost with desperation to get the thing in the hole before you face the music again on the next hole.. Full shots were a no no, particularly for me as I hit the ball very high ?? so we resorted to punches, jabs and generally fudging the ball low and out of the wind. The odd hole played downwind which gave us some reprieve. Today??s round was the first I have been happy with this year and was stoked to shoot 7 over par, 77. Jamie (82) also hit the ball pretty damn well and our match was tightly fought finishing 2 and 1. The (sideways) rain had set it pretty badly by the 15th and the last few played as a sprint to the clubhouse. Once there ?? we had a quick shower (good facilities at Miramar) and checked in just in time to make our flight with Pacific Blue.
M
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Chisholm Park
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