All posts by Cary

Events

Tocumwal 2006

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The weekend begun with three groups of people making their way up to the caravan park in Cobram. Stan & Michael travelled up & played the Presidents course on Friday. Myself & Mick drove up together in the morning & Neil, Ian & Trevor followed in the afternoon. Friday night was spent with a BBQ for tea & just sitting around chatting. Neil & Trevor had a kick of the footy in the dark with varying degrees of accuracy.

Saturday started at 5:45. Everyone got up to the smell of bacon & eggs cooking on the BBQ. The day was just perfect for golf. A nice crisp morning with not a cloud in the sky & not a breath of wind.

The course itself was fantastic. The fairways were lush & great underfoot. The greens were in good nick & quick. The groups for the first day were, off first Mick, Trevor & Ian. Following were Stan, Michael, Neil & myself. I’m not sure who I’ve pissed off to always get lumped in the same group as Neil 😉

We played the Captains course on Saturday & what a gorgeous course. As I mentioned earlier the fairways were lush, they were also quite open. The bunkers are well positioned on the fairways to catch tees shots & around the greens to catch anything that is slightly off line. One downside of the course would be the sand in the bunkers. It was quite heavy making it difficult to get out.

The day was perfect for low scoring golf, it’s a shame that none of us took advantage. Trevor was the best of the bunch with a 96. The it was back to the 19th for a couple of beevies. I got stitched up on 4th tee where Neil managed to get Stan to agree that my ball wasn’t past the ladies tee. I still maintain that was past & Stan did agree originally, that was when he thought that the penalty for not get past was dropping my pants. We he was told the penalty was a shout at the bar he quickly changed his mind. So I was first cab off the ranks with a “Not past the Ladies tee” shout but I wasn’t alone. If I remember rightly I was closely followed by Ian & then Neil. I still protest my innocence 🙁 This was were Stan & Michael left us, they had had enough of our crap & headed back home. After a couple of beers & some tucker for some, I had to stop by a fish & chip shop to get my Pluto Pup fix (can someone tell me why we can’t get these in Melbourne???). The it was back to the caravan for a game of backyard cricket minus the running.

The second day started simlair to the first except a little bit slower. Up at 5:45 for showers & breakfast then back on the road to the golf course. I love to tell you Stan that your prophecy came true & we all shot record scores in the 70’s & 80’s… but it would be a lie. The day was slighly mared by the wind. It was blowing a gale. On Sunday we played the Presidents Course which was in just as good shape as the Captains course from the previous day. Mick had to pull the pin after 9 holes, his tired old body couldn’t quite take two full days of golf 😉 The golf of the day was slightly worse than Saturday & I blame the wind….. & my slice…….& my tee shots…….& my crappy bunker shots. Trevor once again led the way, he cleaned up over the weekend. In fact he probably made money. He took the two big purses for closest the pin & he also got the chockies for the low total score for the two rounds. Stan made a valid point, we should take handicaps into account when it comes to the low rounds & that was my fault for not bringing up the handicap info, sorry guys. I’m sure Trevor is glad that I didn’t.

All in all, the weekend was great success. I has an absolute ball, great golf & great company. For those of you who didn’t come along, & for those of you who did & would like to relive a few memories, you can check out the photos here

Plans have already begun for next year. Yarrawonga is the destination.

 

Miscellaneous

Storm go down in the Grand Final

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The Melbourne Storm went down to the Brisbane Broncos in slightly disappointing fashion on Sunday night. The referee played a big part in the game & unfortunately most of the bad calls went against the Storm 🙁

But let’s not dwell on what didn’t happen. Winning the minor premiership by 8 points is a fantastic effort but I’m sure this is of little consequence without the trophy at the end of the year.

 

 

Miscellaneous

Well done Liam!!!!!

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Micks young son Liam scored his first birdie the other day on the par 3 17th at Bundoora. He drove the ball to the edge of the green & one putted for his bird. It is a fantastic effort by Liam & his dad is understandably very proud. Well done Liam, if you keep going at this rate you’ll be beating your old man sooner rather than later 🙂

Miscellaneous

Go Storm!!!!!!!!!

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The Melbourne Storm have just beaten the Dragons to make it into their second grand finall. The score was 24 to 10 (good call Stuart). This make the first match up of two interstate clubs playing off for the NRL championship. Brisbane V Melbourne.

GolfinMelbourne.com is behind the Melbourne Strom 100%!!!! We would love to have any or all of the Storm boys to come out & have a hit with us, drop me an email if you are interested at Cary@golfinmelbourne.com 😉

For any one that is interested I will be watching the Grand Final here with a few friends, any one that would like to join us leave a comment here or send me an email.

Cheers

Cary 

Reviews, Updates

A beautiful day at Bundoora

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Neil & I went out to Bundoora for a bit a of tune up for our end of season trip. Nobody else was interested & Trevor had to work. Shane gets a left off because he wife just gave birth, as far as excuses go that one is pretty good. GolfinMelbourne & all it’s members would like to wish Shane & Steph & little Tyson all the best.

The day couldn’t have been any better. Perfect blue skies no wind & around 20 odd degrees. Golf weather at it’s best.

To the game. Today would have to the best I have seen Neil chip ever!!!! He had one chip in & three or four that went with in a bees dick. He’s short game was looking fantastic, not good news for those of us playing up at Tocumwal in a couple of weeks.

My game was a little hit & miss. Thankfully I only three putted 2 or three times which a vast improvement over the last time I played. My drives still don’t like the fairways, the have a tendency to get as far away from the middle as possible.

The course was in fantastic condition. The new fairways at Bundoora have come in quite nicely. There are a few bare patches & a couple of spots were the weeds are coming through but all in all the place is starting to come good. The greens were a little hard to read at times but they run pretty true if you got them on the right line.

The cost of the day was $22 for the 18 holes was isn’t too bad at all. There were quite a few people about today, one thing that was a bit annoying was the when we finished the 9th there was 4 groups starting off the 10th. The groups in front of us were more than happy for us to play through. The whole point of them starting off the 10th pissed me off a bit.

Today was a fantastic day, it’s days like this that make you really enjoy getting out & playing golf. Bring on summer 😉

Events, Updates

Trip to Tocumwal

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The deposit has been paid so we are locked in. There is still one place left so if you want to come it not too late. We have two groups of four booked for the Saturday & two groups of three booked for the Sunday. If you are coming & haven’t given me your deposit, drop me a line & we will work something out. I’m really looking forward to this trip, lets hope the weather is like it is today.

Reviews

Lancefeild on Sunday the 27th of August

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The day didn’t start well, an early morning start after going out for Stuarts birthday wasn’t a good combination. I felt 100% better after I saw Shane. The day before was the last game of footy for the year & they had a win. He stumbled home at 5ish in the morning & was in a sorry state 😉

Lancefield Golf Course is a small country course so don’t go there expecting Royal Melbourne, but having said that it is a very challenging & enjoyable round of golf. On this day we had 5 of us, Shane, Tod, John, Stuart & myself. I know it’s supposed to be a no-no but we played as one group & with not another soul in site it wasn’t a problem. I was surprised how few people there were, Sunday at most metro courses is just chockers. This is something I hate about playing on the weekends, the waiting. Not so here at Lancefield.

The course it’s self has open fairways but very tricky greens. Most of the holes here are pretty straight forward but what makes it interesting are the greens. Some of them are just tiny. If that wasn’t bad enough a lot of them slope back toward the front. So if you do manage to hit the small target there is still a chance your ball will roll of the green anyway. A comment that was made during our round was that the greens were pretty quick. We played at the end of winter, in summer, especially towards the end, these greens will be like glass. They are tough enough at the moment, in February they will be near impossible.

My favourite hole here is the par 5 15th. It is a most unusual hole. It is shaped similar to a Z on it’s side. You tee off straight then the hole doglegs 90 degrees to the left. Your second shot has out of bounds on your left & a small forest of pines trees on your right. Your third shot (if you get it past the trees) is a dog leg right up the hill to the green. It is a really cool hole.

I’m glad to say that Shane managed to finish the round in one piece, how I’m not sure. We all had a most enjoyable day & it is a great course to come to for a quite round. Lancefield would be perfect place to learn how to play. You don’t have the problem of impatient people rushing the beginner.

I’ve now added the photos from the day. Some of them are a little dark but you can have a look at them here

Reviews

Review – Keilor Public Golf Course

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Address: Calder Highway, Keilor North

Number of Holes: 18

Carts available: Yes

19th hole: They sell beer at the Pro shop that you can drink at tables out the front.

First time we player here was in August of 2006. I was impresssed with this course, nice fairways & fantastic greens, Not only are the greens in good condition they are challenging. Some of them slope from back to front, some of them have undulations & some of them are quite small. To me this is one of the best parts of this course. Each green can be different & a lot of the time, depending on where you are in relation to the hole, you have to really think about your putt.

Another thing of note. On the back nine there are back to back par 3’s. I haven’t seen this any where before. On the back nine it begins 4,3,4,3,3. All of the 3’s on the back half are 150 metres or more. On the front both of the 3’s are around 125 metres each.

Keilor is quite a hacker friendly course. Three of us played, none of us are what you would call brilliant golfers, but nobody lost a ball all day. That’s gotta count for something 😉 Keilor is also only a par 69 which means only one par 5 on each 9.

The majority of the holes are pretty straight but this can be counter acted by the wind. The day we played out here was pretty calm but if the wind got up I can imgine this would change the course dramatically. What was an easy par 4 with no wind could turn into a nightmare into a head wind.

None of the holes at Keilor are very long, the longest hole on the course is the par 5 3rd. At 435 metres it is not an overly long hole. Three of the par 4’s are under 300 metres, all of them only just. The 1st is 290 from the back, the 5th is 297 & the 17th is 298. None of them really drivable to your average golfer unless you had a decent tail wind 😉

In conclusion. I’m really glad that Stan recomeded playing here. I really enjoyed playing here & will be going back again soon.