This morning I had a much needed sleep in as there was no tee time booked for Lakes Entrance golf club - we were on holiday mode. But as is the case with many a holiday the rain spoiled the party. In retrospect this was a blessing in disguise as we quickly realised the misery that a wet (and costly) round in the rain would inflict and after a couple of quick calls our plans for 1 March had changed. So we flagged the Lakes Entrance golf club (after a quick drive out to see the spectacular fourth tee sitting a top the sand dunes and overlooking the ferocious ocean) and instead boosted straight through to Melbourne to play at Eagle Ridge GC later this afternoon. Result.
The weather in Melbourne was a huge improvement on East Gippsland although I was tempted to don a jersey for the first time in Australia. But then I pictured myself in Wellington where a day like today would have been considered sparkling and left colonel mustard in the golf bag.
Today was our first game of golf for March. If puregolf2010 was a round of golf, we would have just teed off on the 4th hole. It is almost going too quickly. We will be based in and around Melbourne for most of the next month and that excites me. This is the golfing capital of Australia and there are more great courses than you can poke a stick at.
The challenge for this month is made up of a series of micro challenges. Each day Jamie and I are keeping statistics of 1) our fairways hit; 2) our greens in regulation and 3) our putts. The winner of the day and the writer of the blog is the person who wins two out of the three categories. Over the course of the month there are 93 points up for grabs (three per day). Today I came out on top to record 2.5 points for the day ?? I hit a measly 6/14 fairways (tied with Jamie), 5/18 greens (JP ?? 4) and 27 putts (JP 29). Final scores were 81 and 83 so a continuation of the uninspiring but not disgraceful form to date in Aussie.
The punishments for each day are still TBC and we would love your feedback and suggestions! The only confirmed punishment is that the person who has the most putts must sink 10 straight four footers at the end of the day before they can go home. JP sank his first 10 today right off the bat. Shame he couldn??t do that out on the course. Banter.
The last wee golf challenge that we started today is the crab. The crab is a title passed between Jamie and I for the poor schmuck that can??t get up and down from a bunker. It has taken form from a game we played in the field during a cricket for the person who last misfielded the ball ?? namely the ??Wizza?. So adapted for PG2010, the person who fails to make a sand save is donned the crab, until we either redeem ourselves by making a sand save, or the other one of us fails to in which case the title reverts. We both scrurried around in the sand all day today and as it happened I ended up the crab after a poor bunker shot on 18.
So what about Eagle Ridge?? What a fun course! And entirely surprising how good it was considering neither of us had heard much about the course. It had great shaping that make good shots great, and average shots really bad. We both played like locals at times today getting the odd bounce into prime position ?? particularly around the fairways which have some considerable sideways slopes on them. But off the fairways is scrub, bush, snakes and a number of signs saying beware of the snakes? Just what you need after slicing one into the scrub. Fortunately today I hit it either straight, or a long long way offline onto another fairway and escaped relatively unscathed. That was except for the gnarly par four third which played as long as any hole on the course today and I walked off with a triple bogey 7 and my tail between my legs. Most holes on this course are great fun because they require some thought. Like the second which has a lateral water hazard across the fairway about 200m out from the tee which results in a lay up (read JP and I both hitting a rare fairway). The par threes are special as well because of their varying lengths, distinctiveness and the epic bunkering ?? see the picture below for the signature 6th.
The greens were smooth (although some had elephants in them) and rolled very true. The course was pristine and the newish couch fairways were a dream to hit off. My criticism is a frequent one for me, and that is that three of the par fives played the same direction which meant that on a day like today these holes all played very short and were merely a driver and 6 iron meaning that we ??missed?? their intricacies. For the second day straight Jamie played the par fives really well and was 2 under.
After golf we have headed north to stay the night with Colin and Anne Douglas who are old family friends of Jamie. Will be another good nights sleep.
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Chisholm Park
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