My holiday itinerary is all set even before I took off from Manila for Australia. Christmas in Melbourne and New year in Sydney. In between will be travel to museums, parks, gardens and zoos, shopping malls and markets, restaurants and cruises. All the dates have been marked and arrangements have been made. It’s got to be a busy vacation holidays. How about golf? Nope, says my daughter Alyanna, the one who planned the Melbourne tour.
So on tour we go, except that what supposed to be a hot summer December turned into a 14 to 16-degree Celsius chilling “summer” in Melbourne. We were prepared for short pants and T-shirts but have to adjust with denims and layered shirts and jackets. But on the day before Christmas we got the break we needed. The ladies had a change of heart and mark the day as relax day for them shopping so we the boys have to adjust ourselves, so golfing here we go.
The only available tee time for December 24th is the Yarra Bend golf club. A 45-minute drive from CBD Melbourne. So we booked a flight, golf clubs and cart rentals for the three of us. Myself with brother in laws Ben Bonador from South Pacific Golf and Longking Lauengco of Shell Philippines from Manila.
Of course we need to have some bets for bragging rights and to have some pressure. We played even with our handicaps using the Tie One Tie all format. No carry for holes tied with a measly 10 dollars wager per hole, in Aussie dollars of course baby, hehehe.
The Australian greens were super-fast and the fairways are hard and rolling. Not tight as Apo but not as open as South Pacific but its fairway terrains remind us of Palos Verdes and the old Matina golf.
Adding challenge to our game was the fact that we will be using a rented unbranded clubs for the first time and what should we expect? The shaft flexes were unpredictable, its length we are not accustomed to but somehow we managed to hit some pars and even a birdie after three holes. Putter? hahaha don’t bother to ask.
Three putts were common and it’s a disaster when it comes to club selection since distance measurements were in meters. Too bad no caddies to guide us so we need to rely on our instincts and learn by ourselves in reading the greens. One good thing though is that we bought one box containing a dozen brand new of Srixon Red balls before we tee off on Hole No 1 and to our surprise, we ended playing using only one ball each after the round. No jabongs around but OBs and hazards abound.
As we putt out on the last hole, we compared our scores and thankfully nobody got a salami on that day. I got 3 holes, Ben had two and Longking had one, with all the rest on ties. Not bad for a quick round of golf.
One more good thing though I realized upon reaching my pocket. I had a pocketful of wooden tees, and additional four Titleist Pro V1 balls. Australians doesn’t pick their tees after hitting and I discovered on occasions when my ball got into the woods, they don’t bother to look for their balls when it went into the woods, hehehe.
And so afterwards we celebrate Christmas eve with our families. The ladies enjoyed their relax day shopping with our kids while we, the dads got what we wish for from Santa. For being so nice and not naughty the whole year round we were gifted with a feel of Australian round of golf.
Fooooooore.
