Category: Golfing tools

The sand trap is on the green

Sand-scrapes in the country

Path to putting

There are some large golf courses in rural Australia but most are small courses in small regional towns. The local golf club often cannot support the green keeping staff needed to look after grass greens, so they opt for sand-scrapes which are easier and cheaper to maintain.

I have been avoiding playing on sand-scrape courses even though they are closer to my place than the “proper” course complete with real greens that I normally play at. Snobbery I suppose!

Recently I played with these guys in the Twilight Competition at Avoca Golf Club. I am told that the greens are of a high standard for sand-scrapes…unlike my round where I just could not cope with the greens. Putting is not my forte however 3 putts were the rule for me not the exception!

Driving in Brisbane

Playing with legals

Contrast in driving swings

The first two golfers are from the Eagle St legal fraternities so I suppose you could call them Legal Eagles (pardon the very poor pun).

An old friend John Griffin invited self and son Dan to play at Royal Queensland on a weekday in Autumn. The early rapid dusk is typical of tropical areas.

Actually all four of us drove well on this par 5 even though we had totally different swings.

Of course the distances were not equal. Dan’s swing probably indicates plenty of power and this power translates into longer distance. He regularly outdrives me by 80+ metres.

We liked the course except for the tundra between the 3rd and 4th holes.

Playing on the Gold Coast

Trevor plays Greensborough Greens

What fun!

A few days ago I visited the Gold Coast and Brisbane in Queensland, the Sunshine State. Well it was sunny alright in Autumn. A bit hot for me actually.

The state of the course was excellent and Trevor reports on the competition between the many courses resulting in very reasonable green fees for visitors.

However it was the latest golf carts that impressed me most. No need for a GPS finder because it shows distance to the green. It actually stopped when we got too close to the green. You needed to reverse out of the restricted area!