Monday the 24th of May signaled the last day of our second week in the States. But today was all about kiwiana and the boys from down under taking on the Mountain Gate Golf Course.
Arranged at the 11th hour by Paul Parlane after we learnt that the course we thought we were booked on was actually closed on Mondays. Bugger. Paul saved our bacon and also had the initiative to arrange for us to play with a mate of his called John Mataira and one of his students, Greg Moss.
John is a kiwi guy from the proud town of Raglan in the Waikato. He now lives in LA near Mountain Gate Golf course and has the lofty role of Consul General for New Zealand in Los Angeles. John is tasked with overseeing the NZ consulate for the whole of the western states of the US. Now we know that John is the man to call if anything untoward happens to us during the first part of our road trip!
So we were very fortunate to tee it up with John today, and he started his golf in formidable style calmly slotting a short birdie putt on the first. He had been given a driver by Paul Parlane that resembled an unsightly brick. A blue brick that made an almighty ting when it struck the ball. But this brick featured the revered Nike tick and probably sells for hundreds of dollars. Traditionalists would turn in their graves if they knew this was how golf was played these days..
Making up the four-ball was a young aspiring (local) golfer called Greg who has been trying to crack it as a golfer for a number of years. Greg is a southpaw and the boy could play. Despite being slighter than me he could whack it a fair distance and he had a controlled draw that always seemed to be zero-ing in on the flagstick, a bit like JP??s on a good day. I??m not one of those golfers that has a consistent draw or fade, which makes life difficult on days where you don??t know which way it??s turning. With the new blades I??m finding that its generally going much straighter, so you know within split seconds whether it has started on a decent line or not.
Mountain Gate GC has 27 holes. Some describe it as the poor cousin to Riviera, Bel Air, Wilshire and LACC. Playing our first nine, named ??the Lake? after said feature coming into play on two or three holes, I ??d say they weren??t wrong. Three each of the par fives, fours and threes gave it a funny complexion (like Ocean Shores on day 107).
The course sits right atop a hill on land that was once a landfill. So the fairways aren??t flat and there are some strange undulations. It also looks out over the 405 Motorway, which at any one time has half the population of LA traveling along it (seriously it probably has more people driving along it than there are living in Wellington). It??s quite a sight to look down upon.
Let me get back to Greg who we uncovered, has quite a story to tell. This skinny chap, has stumbled on a new career ?? eating. How he unearthed this talent I??ll never know. But last week he was in a dumpling eating contest - how many could the contestants eat in 2 minutes? Well Greg managed to pack all 50 dumplings away with 30 seconds to go and the contest was declared over. How he did this I??ll never know, it must have doubled his body weight. Check out his feats on his new facebook fan page ?? there are many stories to tell about his efforts with a 6 pound burger and so on.. He might be a bit perturbed by me writing this, he??s been playing golf for years and years and within a few months of his ??eating?? career, he is already nearing top of the game. He said he wouldn??t be the Tiger or Phil of ??eating?? yet, (some little beggar from Japan can eat about 1000 hamburgers in 2 minutes) but he??d be a pretty handy PGA Tour player. If you follow..
Back to the golf? The back nine at Mountain Gate is really good. It winds around the Mountain with a few cracking holes such as the par four 11th which doglegs left about 60 degrees around a ravine. Of course bunkers are on the far corner off the tee. Good design, great views and a quality hole. Reminded me of the inverse version of 7 at the Cal Club. The 12th is also a stunning hole with the green perched on the cliffs with a view of the city in the backdrop ?? well what you can see of it through the haze..
On the 12th we were joined by Paul and his 2 year old daughter, Molly. At this stage the kiwi??s really were taking over at Mountain Gate! Molly was knocking it around the greens, and I??d say with Paul??s tutelage she??ll be something of a child prodigy in a couple of years.
As if to show off to his mate, John then pitched in from about 25 meters on the 12th. Class. And it was always going to happen sooner or later as he??d lipped out on chips on the two prior holes. This consul general could chip.
So we knocked it around the back nine and finished with respectable but not outstanding scores in the high 70??s. It could have been much better, due to the pristine nature of the greens here. You could pick your line and be confident that it would roll smoothly. They do take a lot of borrow up here on the hill and fortunately a couple of locals giving a few reads towards the end of the day helped!
After golf we headed back for an Admin Session to End All Admin Sessions. I think we both sent about 50 odd emails. If you were fortunate enough to get one of these (or even if you just feel like getting in touch with us), feel free to drop us a line! PS Photos to follow
Posting comments has been disabled.
No one has commented on this page yet.
Chisholm Park
12 holes bart cape kidnappers christchurch christmas doak ed bayley hawke's bay heretaunga jane poole napier golf club new zealand puregolf2010 rangiora rarangi gc royal royal wellington the first tee the interislander waiohiki
