Day 94 in the Capital - Royal Canberra

Posted by Michael on 5 April 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Royal, Royal Canberra, Canberra, Capital, Bill Torrey

Our brief stop in the capital of Australia has been a goodie. During our whirlwind 36 hours in Canberra we have been treated to some first rate Aussie hospitality by Vicky Cleary and enjoyed one of Australia's finest golf courses. 

Vicky is the mother of Matt Cleary who has previously featured on our blog.  She can relate to what we are doing as she joined Matty for a few days whilst he was on his "Big Lap" adventure. But Vicky is not so much into golf, and more into her singing, storytelling, knitting and shopping.  After just a few moments with Vicky I can see where Matt got his quick wit from - there has clearly been no shortage of humour in this household over the years!  Vicky reached top form whilst taking us on a 3 hour tour of Canberra and providing a running commentary of all things that we should and shouldn't know about the Capital.  Driving through the opulent, palatial high commissions which occupy one inner suburb of Canberra there were accents and jibes coming out left right and centre.  The NZ High Commission had cut-out cows on the lawn - all class.   Vicky also took us up to the Telstra tower to get our bearings and look out across the whole State that is Australia's Capital Territory.  Lastly, we had a wreckie around some of the hot spots including the Australian War Memorial, the High Court and both old and new Parliament House. 

To the golf and our 1:06 tee time at Royal Canberra. We were joined again today by Bill Torrey, the smooth swinging Kiwi / Sydneysider / old friend of the Goldstein clan who we previously hacked around Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne with. Bill was in town for the folk festival, and after the round was back to the festival to soak in the music.   Bill had warned the pro's of our arrival and we were warmly greeted by them upon arrival.  Our round began on the 19th hole. No, not the bar (unfortunately), but the first hole of the new nine holes that was created here, under the watchful eye of Peter Thompson is 1991.  So we played the new 9 first and then the front nine of the traditional layout.

My first impression of this place was the serenity of it. A parkland course quite different in character to any other course we have experienced this year.  The course is lush despite being cut out of a forrest  - we were told that the property used to be home to 40,000 trees but this number has dwindled to a mere 10,000 now� Still, you get the picture - it is "tree-lined".  I was impressed with the grass coverage considering how little light gets through the trees onto the fairways and, in particular, the greens.  Kangaroo's grazed away in the rough quite nonchalantly, leaving the humans to walk around chasing a funny white ball. They seemed so accustomed to the golfers that one old fella, on the first hole stopped patiently and waited for Jamie to hit to the green before slowly hopping across the fairway.

The walk around to our first tee is a cracker, you look down two par fives (the 27th and the 18th) which climb up to the clubhouse.  In a spot of bedtime reading last night, Peter Thompson described the 18th as one of the finest holes in Australia so it was a shame that we didn't get a crack at this one.  PT's nine was a good one and he had embraced the natural features (being 10000 trees) very well.  Holes 22 - 24 are not tree-lined as they are built in the 'back block' and even the great Thompson could not make trees grow this quickly. But the 22nd was still a great hole perched across a ledge where only a very straight tee shot will give you a chance to approach the elevated green with the requisite accuracy. JP and I were both hitting it well here and Jamie's birdie 3 was enough to take the skin and a bonus to boot.  The 25th was a favorite for Bill and I can see why - it is a subtle dogleg right where you need to approach from the left of you are blocked out by tall overhanging trees. The green is set back amongst the trees, almost as if it is an amphitheater and is well guarded by swales to the right and a bunker to the left.  It was a feature of the nine that many holes had undulations around the perimeter of the greens where an OK shot may get a kick right down to the pin, but a Bad shot, will bounce 10m away to a certain bogey. A case in point are the two par threes, 20 and 26.  My ugly thin slice reared it's head on both tees but whilst one bounded away to leave a 30m pitch (it deserved nothing less), the other hit a mound and rebounded back towards the green - albeit the back right corner of it from where I made a 4.

The 27th, is like many holes in that the tee shot is crucial and requires an arrow straight shot.  This spells trouble for me on par fives which are the only holes that I hit driver on. Massive trees on both sides make you feel like there is nowhere to hit it, and they spooked me into hitting the ugliest snap slice of the year right over the trees on the right and onto the 1st fairway.  The green was a real gnarly one with a huge false front (which caught out both Bill and I) and the pin perched on a subtle but acute ridge. All three of us three putted, and even then I was sweating on my third putt.  The greens were generally quite subtle and, obviously, a huge contrast from the sand scrapes of Coolamon. They were quick though, even for grass greens, and we had to get back into the mindset of using some creativity to get down in two. 

We played a split sixes competition today and after nine Jamie and I were separated by a mere point with Bill lagging a wee way behind. Jamie and I halved the stretch of double skins from 7-9, so when me mate blocked his tee shot on the 1st OOB it was an anticlimactic way of taking 7 points.  The front nine was where the wildlife really took over the joint. This place still belongs to the roo's and the birds and golfers are just passing through.  The thing about this place was the distinctive atmosphere, the trees that arch over you and make you feel like you are on a stage. A tranquil stage where all you can hear is the chorus of the birds in the trees above.  At times, when you hit it into the trees it is almost as if you feel the cockatoos are laughing at you!  And as you wind through the trees further away from the clubhouse you catch glimpses of the lake sparkling through the trees.  Each nine is well balanced, par 36 with a couple 3's and 5's and one short, pitch and putt 4. The fours are often doglegs, and I found myself taking 4 iron frequently from the tee, particularly as many went to the left which doesn't fit too well with my cut. 

The highlight for me was on the 4th.  I was cruising along a few over the card and then hit 7 iron from the fairway straight into the sun towards the green.  It felt good off the club but I had no idea where it had gone.  I walked up to the par five green looking both in the bunker and across the shadows only to see my pill less than a foot from the pin in the back right of the green. Stoked.  That got the 'let's-shoot-under-par' juices flowing which is never a good thing for a golfer of my calibre and I duly bogeyed the next to put me squarely in my place!  After a relatively one-sided skins game JP clawed back 7 crucial points on the last, a stunning uphill-dogleg left-bunker guarded par four, with a regulation par to my bogey.  7 points were on the line as we had tied the two previously holes, being the beaut pitch and putt 16th with par fours, and the short 17th in twos. Good golf down the stretch.   The day finished 21-12 on the skins with scores of 74 and 80.  I also slid in with the split sixes despite Bill making a notable comeback.

After the round we ventured to the spike bar where we were also joined by Peter, the member of Royal Canberra who we joined up with at Royal Melbourne. A quality chap and we had a good catch up.  Although our quick beer was disrupted by a cantankerous bar manager who gave his staff a public dressing down for not obeying some protocol in the bar. Not the most professional look.. But all in all Royal Canberra is probably the most tranquil place we have been lucky enough to play at on this journey and a huge thanks to the club for hosting us as part of the story.  Also thanks to Billy for joining up with us and we look forward to our fourth round of this adventure with Bill, at his home track, NSW. Can't wait.