Congratulations to Adam Scott for winning the Byron Nelson Championship on the PGA Tour. He made a 48ft putt on the 3rd playoff hole to win. I have been saying he's going to start winning soon - I think I've been saying it for a few years actually! He remarked "I kind of got away with it, a bit lucky."

A bit lucky?

I think if a bird sh@t on me while I was holding a winning lottery ticket I would be unlikely to hole a 48ft putt.

Except on Playstation!

It is wonderful to see an Australian golfer beating the pack. :-)

technorati tags: golf adam scott byron nelson

I played my fourth game of golf this year over the weekend. I would like to say it was easy, that I hit every shot like Tiger Woods and chipped around the greens like Seve Ballesteros. It was one of those days when I almost felt like golf was conspiring against me to make me quit. There were a number of factors contributing to my experience:

1. Public Holidays = Golf

It was a public holiday. My partner and I assumed everyone would be at the Dawn Service, then the ANZAC Day marches and barbeques and two-up.

WRONG!!

Everyone and their dog was playing golf. Not literally, because dogs aren't allowed on the course.


2. Slow Play


















The people in front of us were S-L-O-W. Unfortunately, the people in front of them were even slower. Which made for quite an interesting bottleneck.

I don't know about you but when the people in front are slow it really irritates me. If they are genuinely trying to hit the ball I don't mind so much but these particular individuals chatted, paused, changed clubs, walked back to their bags, paused and generally fluffed around. GRRRRR!!


3. Bad Etiquette


































The people behind us (a group of 4) hit up on us constantly. My partner and I are fast players, always keeping up with the group in front. Walking after my first shot, I looked up to see a ball whizzing less than a metre from me. I turned back to look at the offenders. My reward was to get another ball whizzing even closer. "Fore" would have been nice.

Later, on the next tee one of the guys yelled out. "Sorry about that before." and I said "no worries."

I was, however thinking if you were actually sorry you would have yelled 'fore' so I didn't get hit.

They continued to pummel people with balls and crowd around the tee while other groups were playing. When I went to tee off the bastards were talking and laughing in my backswing. I was 10 etiquette rules away from swinging the other way and hitting the ball into the centre of their ill-mannered gaggle.


4. Stress

When I get faced with these situations I get uptight and find it hard to relax properly. I think I handled it pretty well but it was only on the 8th tee I realised how beautiful the course is and how I haven't been noticing it at all.


5. Reality Check

It was only when I got to the nineteenth hole that I realised I had got my first bogey. Ever. I remember it happening at the time, congrats from my partner, but we had to hurry off the green and whiz along to the next one.

I also realised that I had hit my longest ever drive on the third hole, leaving just a short chip to the green.

And then I realised the 8th tee had been the staging point for my most spectacular 5-iron shot ever. And my longest.

It's amazing how golf can creep up on you like that. You think you played a certain way (I thought I had played terribly) but the further away you get from the round, the more you realise how well you actually did. I went away thinking I had lost the plot and my partner thought I had played the best game of my life. I just couldn't see it at the time. Which is funny because he thought he had played terribly as well but got a score similar to his average round.

This is an important lesson. Don't ever walk off the course in disgust (I saw two people do this during our round). Don't throw clubs or deliberately mess up because you don't care anymore. Just play the hole and go on to the next one. It is very difficult to judge your own performance while you are in the midst of a round. Trust you are doing okay and just keep going. Luckily, that's what we did on this day and that's why I have my first bogey on my scorecard. :-)


BOGEY: One over par for the hole. The word orginates from a mythical golfer, Colonel Bogey, who was said to play every hole in the standard stroke score.

It was originally used to describe the target score which a good amateur should achieve, in the same way "par" became associated with professionals.

The two terms were interchangeable at one stage, until "par" became the standard term.

- source BBC Sport

technorati tags: golf etiquette colonel bogey

A big congratulations to Trevor Immelman of South Africa on his win at the US Masters at Augusta, 2008.














A big thank you to HDTV broadcasting the event - the coverage was excellent and the picture, as usual, was perfect. Now all I need is a TiVo/HD recorder so I don't need to get up every morning at 4 or 5am to watch it!

Immelman is the second South African to win the Masters. The last South African to win the Masters was the legendary Gary Player in 1978.

















Player was a great inspiration to Immelman and was said to have left a message on Immelman's voice mail during the tournament saying "I know you're going to win." He was right.

Gary Player compared Trevor Immelman's swing to that of the great Ben Hogan.


And yes, I was going for Tiger.

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I got this camera around Christmas and had a ball finding out all the features and putting them to good use. One of my favourite features is the sepia mode, in which you can record a movie in sepia so it looks like one of those old newsreel movies. To do this my partner just walks really fast and blinks a lot. Then he waves and jerkily does a golf swing. He even pulled up his jeans to make plus fours to add to the authenticity. For those of you who aren't familiar with plus fours, here is an example:



The other settings include macro, beach, snow, foliage, nightshot and indoor. Now I am getting the hang of the settings I have realised that "foliage" is the best setting to use at the golf course. I wish I had been able to take it to the MFS Women's Australian Open because I could have got a number of great shots of Karrie Webb - she walked past me once, I watched her doing her practice putts and followed her round until we got tired and went to find a beer. We got tired by the 6th hole at Kingston Heath so I can't imagine how the players must have felt. We ended up sitting under a tree and enjoying the perfect view (4 metres away and in the shade!) of the 15th tee (pictured) and the 16th fairway. In the photo of the 15th tee, I would have been just to the right, a few metres away.





My partner went to get our beers so I sat under this shady tree and watched various players from Australia, Korea, England, Finland, Spain and Italy tee off with nobody else around. It was amazing, like I had my own box seat. When Karrie Webb arrived, so did the crowd, just as I was wondering where all the people had got to. Later I found out that I had been to the 2nd best golf course in Australia, and 21st in the world.

When I think about it, the golf course looked like no course I've ever been to. The greens were like felt and the fairways were like most greens I have putted on.

The light rough was like the fairways at Elsternwick Golf course:



and the rough was almost exactly like the fairways at Studley Park Golf Course.



Hehehe!

One of my favourite features on the camera is the macro setting. I spent a large portion of my holidays bent over small flowers and leaves, testing out the macro. I chose a couple of interesting subjects with which to do my experiments - (click to enlarge):







This flower was actually half the size of my fingernail, maybe smaller



Yes, I did a macro of a VB label. It looks even more refreshing close up.


I would definitely recommend this camera - it's reasonably priced at around $120 and does everything you are likely to be needing, unless of course you are a photography enthusiast, in which case you would have bought a digital SLR with lens attachments.

A great camera for taking holiday snaps, be it landscapes, people or places.


All photos except Kingston Heath taken by Canon Powershot A460

technorati tags: Canon powershot A640 golf

Congratulations to Karrie Webb for winning the MFS Women's Australian Open 2008. Again!!

The tournament was held at Kingston Heath and I WAS THERE!!! Yep. That's right. I was so excited standing not more than a metre from Karrie Webb and her caddy. I could even read his yardage book and see the diagrams. I always wondered what it is that caddies say to the golfer before a shot.

I finally got my answer.

"Trust yourself." he said as Karrie lined up her tee shot.

Very Obi Wan.

And she did just that, winning in a playoff with Shin Ji-Yai. It was described as "tense". Tense!! I wasn't even there on the last day but I would not even get up to go to the loo until the playoff was over.

All I can say is...

Champion.

technorati tags: Karrie Webb MFS Australian Open Kingston Heath

Here are the shots from the Birthday round at Elsternwick. One of my favourite features of the course is the family of ducks that walk across the fairways and swim in the water hazard. They also fertilize the course!

The last photograph features a cockatoo of some description. I know it's not a sulphur-crested cocky because it has a few reddish-pink markings. Love to find out what it was exactly.

(Click to enlarge)

It was my birthday yesterday. My partner took me out to a lunch that ended up lasting all day and we had a brilliant time. We were planning to go to the Zoo but it got rained out. So we had to take a raincheck. (haaaaa!!) I had to make that joke, I'm afraid.

On my partner's birthday (last week), we went for a round of golf and found the most incredible bargain - A Greg Norman "Shark" Tiburon Titanium Driver for $40.00 The price sticker was still on the shaft reading "$249.00".

Incidentally, "Tiburon" means "Shark" in Spanish. Interesting bit of trivia. I couldn't find an exact photograph of this particular driver but here is a newer model:



















For this particular round, the new balls of choice were Maxfli D-Tec (High Launch) - said to be the "longest and straightest" - I can confirm they are definitely straight. It is hard to compare these balls to the Srixon Distance (see Field of Dreams post). There doesn't seem to be a lot between them. I noticed the Maxfli D-Tec were especially good for putting. The prices are comparable so it's really down to personal choice. I'd recommend both balls for those who shoot in the 90s or 80s.



















I will post a couple of pics from the course in 2 days, as soon as I get hold of the cable to download photos.

I visited Albert Park Driving Range for the first time last week. I didn't know what to expect, as I am not a particularly sports-oriented person by nature. But I love golf. It's strange how much I love golf, yet the most I have played is a number of rounds at Studley Park Golf Course (par 3 pitch & putt). Still, I have this sense of certainty that I have a natural ability at golf. I, just as many people have done before me, first started playing Tiger Woods on Playstation and recently ended up with an Obi-Wan Kenobi sense of knowing that I could play in the Ladies' Masters in 2008. All this without doing more than a couple of practice shots in the park and hitting a few putting strokes on the kitchen linoleum.

So when I arrived at Albert Park Driving Range I expected to be sitting back watching my partner hit 100 balls, acting out my role as a "Butch Harmon" type figure, pointing out diversions from the swing plane and the like. I have watched many golf videos by Seve Ballesteros, Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman, and consider myself to be a combination of caddy / coach and professional motivator, only without the requisite golf playing ability necessary to facilitate such a role.

So it caught be particularly off guard when he turned around and said "do you want a go?" I didn't even stop to consider anything, I just jumped up and said "yeah!"
Not realising that this "yeah" conveyed no actual underlying idea of what I was going to do when I got to the tee. Without thinking I grabbed the 1-wood, did the grip (I know that much at least!) and whacked the ball. To my amazement, it went up and straight towards one of the yellow flag markers. My partner was equally amazed, and encouraging. "Hit a few more!" he said. So I did, and to my surprise I actually got some good ones. Later on when I started thinking about it too much, I topped the ball, sending a 150 metre worm-burner down through the thick sea of other balls dotting the landscape.

Then I did what I am pretty sure has never been done in the Ladies' Masters, nor any other professional tournament. I hit the ball down and into the tee, sending it sproinging back like a boomerang 3 metres behind me and rolling rather pathetically towards my partner's feet. He stood there open-mouthed for a moment, trying to take in the situation, then burst into fits of giggles. Red faced I walked the longest 3 metres I have walked in my life, picked up the offending ball of shame and muttered "I'll just try that again."

Overally, I was pretty happy with the shots I made, aside from that backwards shot, the worm-burners (there were more than one of these!) and my spectacular sideways shot hit directly into the tightly-packed foliage of a conifer tree, never to be seen again. The range will have to strike that ball off their inventory until a strong gale is forecast.

Value for money was good: -
$7.70 for 50 balls
$14.30 for 100 balls
$2.20 clubs
$3.30 putting

I will be back "fore" more. Haahahahaha! So sorry about that one, it's just that I was trying to type "for" and I did "fore" as a typo. So I thought I'd keep it in. I know. Even my typos do bad jokes.

Technorati Tags: Golf Albert Park Driving Range

Photos in Order of Appearance (click to enlarge):

1. The Apollo Bay Clubhouse, 9th green. The first tee is around the corner
2. The spectacular 3rd hole, overlooking the ocean
3. The view from the 6th tee if you look behind you!
4. The 8th tee
5. The 9th tee with horses riding off into the sunset!

Witnessing the beauty of Apollo Bay Golf Course was a pretty amazing experience. I tried to compare it to another golf course but all I could come up with was Tiger Woods 2o03 on Playstation. It looks a bit like Torrey Pines with a bit of Pebble Beach thrown in. For those of you who don't know, Apollo Bay is in South Western Victoria, Australia (see map)















Firstly, the green fees for Apollo Bay Golf Course are reasonable. $20 for 18 holes - or $12 for 9 holes.

Secondly, the views are incredible. It is hard to concentrate on anything else. Fortunately, I was caddying so I didn't have to actually make the shots. I gave a couple of suggestions about club selection and I clicked for each shot.

My partner hit some truly beautiful shots and a number of pars. The dudes (locals) on the first tee were impressed by the seemingly effortless '3' on the first hole.

The conditions on the first day were gusty - a course like this gets a lot of wind, especially on the exposed seaside parts and any part of the course without a tree. The greens, well that was a different thing altogether. I saw balls skid and fly across greens like a dog on a tiled floor. There was no way this was going to be easy.

And... there are some moments where it is difficult to be a caddy. Like when my partner shot the ball into the trees and rather than taking a deep breath, walking around and doing a setup, he whacked the ball once.

I clicked.

And another.

I clicked, my mouth falling open but saying nothing.

Another whack and the ball was out. Finally.

I clicked again.

He looked at me and said "did you get all that?"

I nodded. And said nothing. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a caddy is say nothing. That's what I think anyway. I wouldn't want someone telling me what I already know I did wrong. We certainly had a big laugh about it at the hotel that night.

One of the shots landed in the ocean, so the next Srixon came out.

Another Srixon was lost in what looked like an old fishing hut from "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Either way, it was out of bounds and it would not have been the best idea to look for it, considering the high grass and rusty things lying around. Plus, I don't like snakes. I don't even care if they're actually there or not, it's just the thought of one lying in wait at the bottom of long grass...waiting for you to step on them.

There were some more great shots, and then disaster struck on the 2nd hole.

My partner sliced (?) - the one that goes to the left, anyway - the ball off the tee on the second hole into a shrubbery of wrong.

I thought that the last Srixon had left the building.

After much rummaging around and bending down to look at anything that appeared white, I suddenly heard my partner call out "here it is!"

I was relieved. The last Srixon saved. I looked up to see what looked like a frighteningly bad shot. It was like a chopping motion down into the ground and the club didn't seem to go anywhere at all. I went from relieved to horrified. But suddenly, the ball trickled out of the underbrush, down the massive hill and onto the fairway again. Go figure. I have a lot to learn about golf. These 3 days of golf were so much fun and very relaxing. The sea air is very good for the health.

Anyway, these are the Srixon balls (around $15)


















They certainly performed well on the 3 consecutive days of golf. They are designed for high wind conditions and they certainly did what they were supposed to do.

Technorati Tags: Golf course 18 holes Apollo Bay Srixon

For the first time in my life (or a long time!), I actually bought an accessory.
Yes, that's right. Me.
I fell in love with it at the Elsternwick Golf Course because it was so cute!!!

Wilson Staff Cap $14.95









...and because it was a hot day (35 degrees celsius)
...and in Australia we have UV levels and conditions similar to futuristic movies like Total Recall..















...and if you don't cover your head you get bright red even if you are olive skinned like me!!

I thought this cap was pretty appropriate because I was at a golf course, and the Wilson Staff label denotes my role as caddy. This is a role I am very proud of - I can click that golf stroke counter like nobody's business!!!

After 2 games of golf and 4 days of walking with hand weights, my head has not been 'touched by the sun'.

My arms, however are a different story.

I got one layer of tan from the first day of golf, right up to near my shoulder. I got the next
layer wearing 3/4 length sleeves...and the next layer with full length sleeves.

I call it my "Neapolitan tan".










Now for the verdict:.....

Success!!! Not only is the cap cute and a perfect colour, but it keeps the sun of my noggin' as well.

This is the Q-Link pendant. (RRP$199)

What does it do? How does it work? I'm not going to bore you with the details that can be easily found on the Q-Link website.

I'll tell you what it does, though.... it stops you in your tracks when you are doing your 'nana. Or chucking a wobbly. Or throwing a tantrum, spitting the dummy. You get the idea.

For those of you scratching your head, go to Australian Slang for the translation.

I'll give you an example. The test subject has been wearing the pendant for a couple of months. The story begins at Elsternwick Golf Course - my partner was having a good round. A great round, in fact.

Around the 17th hole (also known as the 8th!) my partner stood at the tee, surveying the green. Three teenaged guys muddled about on the green, taking their time, goofing around, playing with the flag. I could sense my partner was getting annoyed.

Or maybe it was the stream of muttered expletives I kept hearing.

On top of this, another fellow from the hole behind us smacked the ball right onto our tee off point, narrowly missing my partner's head.

He was so caught up in getting annoyed at the three guys on the green that he missed this event. He did not however miss the guy from the hole behind us running up in front of him and striking the ball across his line of sight.

Tired of waiting for the 3 guys on the green, he teed off.

The ball did a majestically horrible boomerang to the right, ending up in the reeds.

Reeds that were in the water. A lost ball.

He got out another ball, teed off and to my amazement, perfectly replicated the one-in-a-million horrible shot. Another lost ball in the reeds.

The next new ball swooped to the right, and landed about 5 metres away, near the reeds. He said calmly "I'll take that one" and started off towards the ball.

He set up the shot and hit the ball. It swerved towards the water like a heat seeking missile, then incredibly hit a pile of rocks in the water, and bounced back to very near its original starting point.

I stared, open mouthed as I watched for what he would do next. After hooking the ball (or was it slicing? I don't know) the ball came to rest behind a very large bunch of reeds. You could barely see over them...

Faced with this situation, I know many people who would have broken a club, jumped in the water, climbed a tree or stormed off the golf course, vowing never to play this f$%@ing game again.

My partner, on the other hand suddenly stopped getting annoyed. He took a deep breath and hit a majestic towering shot OVER the reeds, UP the hill and landing to rest at the lip of the green.

One more chip and a close putt and the ball was in.

In this round, he broke 100 for the first time.

The Q-Link claims to shave at least 3 shots off your score.

Since wearing the Q-Link, my partner has dropped 9 shots. And counting.....

At the 19th hole (the pub) he told me the Q-Link definitely did something. It didn't stop him getting annoyed, but it did make him quickly recover to take control of the game again.

Note: In scoring the penalty shots, we used the Playstation 2 Tiger Woods scoring system.

Congratulations to John Senden, the winner of the 2006 Australian Open at Royal Sydney.



You can find my tips on golf gear here.

The Huntingdale Masters is next, at Huntingdale Golf Course (Melway Ref 69 / H12)
Tickets available online from Ticketmaster.

Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th November 2006

If you want to go but don't have the cash, bring your Mastercard and you can get free admission to the Masters.

If that's not a saving, I don't know what is!!!

Happy Golfing!!

Technorati Tags: John+Senden Australian+Open Golf 2006 Winner Congrats Masters Huntingdale Mastercard

Golf! Golf! Golf!



To celebrate the start of the MFS Australian Open at Royal Sydney (16-19 November 11:30am-4:30pm Ch7), I thought I'd explore golf clubs.

I always thought you needed the latest titanium whizz-bang set of clubs to play golf. But if you are just learning how to play, these entry-level clubs will serve you just as well.

Went to Elsternwick Golf Course with the following equipment

PGF Clubs (RRP $30-35 approx)



The Wilson Green Machine Putter (RRP$30-35)



And the trusty Sunday bag (RRP$25)



The bag & clubs were easy to carry without all the clutter.

Saw 2 guys on the next tee with titanium sets, buggies, amazingly expensive equipment, the whole deal.

Still, they both sliced the ball into the trees, hacking their way down the fairway.

Meanwhile, my partner used the PGFs and got 2 pars!!!!

Hehehehe!!

As far as the open goes, I don't really mind who wins. I'm just glad to see golf back on the TV again!!!

Technorati Tags: golf australian+open royal sydney pgf clubs green+machine putter elsternwick+golf course

It's funny how Playstation keeps bringing out "New and Improved" versions of this game.

I first discovered this game waaaaaaaay back in my early Ebay bidding days. In fact, it was the second thing I ever bought.

I got PS2's Tiger Woods 2003 for around $15 - a bargain.



The game has incredible playability - the action is easy to get used to and the analog shock controllers add excitement to the whole experience.

The graphics are pretty amazing - the game really draws you in - thunder in the background, rain falling, birds hooting or strange sounds in the distance make it an all-encompassing experience.

The game can be played for years if you ask me - I'm still not sick of it, and I wasn't even much of a golf fan when I started!!

The commentary is hilarious - David Feherty and Bill Macatee have a riotous banter which often had me giggling out loud.

Eg. "This putt is like hot snot out of a chrome nostril..."

It's sometimes hard not to laugh while taking a shot.

The music is great as well - Silverchair(Australian! Thank you), Ra (I had never heard of this band before but they are pretty good) and other heavier rock acts.

Some people have complained about playing a conservative game with a rock soundtrack but I think why not?

Tiger Woods 2004 has added various rap stuff and quite frankly it's nowhere near as good.

The courses in 2003 are beautiful too: Pebble Beach, Black Rock Cove, Spyglass Hill, The Highlands and don't forget the Royal and Ancient St Andrews - to name a few.


The Predator (complete with elephant noises and running waterfalls)



Black Rock Cove


The characters are just that - characters! Many have a legend behind them.

Hamish "Mulligan" McGregor - named due to his incessant cheating.


Or Domenic "The Don" Donatello - named because he makes his opponents "disappear"

You get the idea.

It's a game for those with a sense of humour.

Tiger Woods 2004 is all flash and dazzle and the graphics are supposed to be better but they actually come across as lame. The soundtrack is infuriating and the commentary is flat. Even the characters seem to have less personality.

The new additions for 2004 include "Game Face" - a feature where you can fashion your own likeness on to the screen and play as "yourself"

Seriously. This is creepy. It's very unnerving to see a quasi "You" on the screen. Kind of Voodoo-ish. Don't go there.

Tiger Woods 2003 is the best version of this classic game. The other versions are just the same game with extra fluff around the edges.

technorati tags: Tiger Woods, PS2, Playstation, Playstation 2, video games, ps2 game, ea sports,playstation games

This is a good example of the old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure":...
A person buys some videos in the 1980s. They watch them once and store them on a shelf for a long time. In 2006, when ebay is the place to sell your old wares, a golf nut discovers these two titles and puts on a bid. The seller gets money and some shelf space, and the golf nut gets two indispensible instructional videos.

And they all lived happily ever after.

VERDICT - SUCCESS!!