On Par – All about golf in Australia

Finally the Australian Masters is underway, after a much less hyped lead-up to the event. Practice days and pro-am crowds were back to normal numbers, lets just play golf! Early starters are already out on the course, with benign conditions providing brilliant scoring conditions, couple of players are already picking off a few birdies, the hunted Tiger is still the hunted and has made a cautious start.

Victoria Golf Club is an excellent layout, Ive been lucky enough to play a few rounds there. The undulating fairways and greens, cavernous bunkers and thick rough is classic sandbelt. Tiger has commented that the Par 3′s are sublime, the short Par 3′s are well gaurded by bunkers and many pin placements make it almost impossible to fire at the hole, even with a lofted club. Probably the downfall is the short Par 5′s, however this makes for exciting golf by tempting the players into attacking the greens for eagle.

The forecast is not pretty, by the weekend storms and torrential rain is expected. So the tournament is going to favour wet weather stayers, can Tiger keep his head above water?

Melbourne’s Herald-Sun are reporting the USPGA are looking to add an Australian event to the tour schedule. Given the tour already has an event in Asia with the HSBC Champions event in China, adding an Australian event shouldnt be impossible. The Australian Masters would be a logical event given the increased hype due to Tiger, and the excellent decision to rotate the Masters through Melbourne’s finest sandbelt courses.

There are still a multitude of if’s, the tour is already starting to wind down after the Fed-Ex Cup, many players are looking to put the feet up or take offers to play in lucrative novelty events, plus many want to be home for Thanksgiving. Prizemoney would need to be very attractive.

Given that next years Presidents Cup is played at Royal Melbourne, a tour event the weekend before on the sandbelt would be a logical option. The Presidents Cup will be a fantastic event, however a fully fledged US PGA stroke event with a world class field that is played every year would be even better.

In the 1970′s Steve Austin was completely rebuilt by scientists after being smashed into hundreds of pieces in an unfortunate training incident, he became the Six Million Dollar Man, bionic arm, legs, eyes etc.

This weekend, Jim Furyk’s swing, which looks like its been rebuilt by some wierd scientists, helped him become the Ten Million Dollar Man. By winning the Tour Championship on a rainsoaked Eastlakes course from a star-studded field, Furyk picked up a winners cheque for $1.4 million. The win also gave him enough points to finish on top of the Fed-Ex Cup, giving him a cheque for $10 million. The result wasnt decided until Furyk’s final par putt on the 18th hole found the bottom of the cup. A miss would have forced a sudden-death playoff with Luke Donald for both the tournament championship and the FedExCup.

My putting has serious issues when trying to tap in a putt at any time, but to face a putt for over $11 million dollars requires the right stuff! Jim will be now be able to afford some bionic implants to help his game, though he probably doesnt need any help right now.

Here’s a few alternative golfing terms to use out on the course.

A Diegio Maradonna – a very nasty five footer

A Salman Rushdie – an impossible read

A Rock Hudson – thought it was straight, but it wasn’t

A Cuban – needs one more revolution

An Elton John – a big bender that lips the rim

An Adolf Hitler – two shots in the bunker

A Yasser Arafat – ugly and in the sand

A Kate Winslett – a bit fat but otherwise perfect

A Kate Moss – bit thin

A Gerry Adams – playing a Provisional

A Rodney King – over-clubbed

An O. J. Simpson – got away with it

A Princess Grace – should have taken a driver

A Princess Di – shouldn’t have taken a driver

A Ladyboy – looks like an easy hole but all is not what it seems

An elephant’s arse – high and sh*tty

A condom – safe but didn’t feel real good

A circus tent – a BIG top

An Anna Kournikova – looks great, but unlikely to get a result

A Vinnie Jones – nasty kick when you’re not expecting it

A Ryanair – flies well but lands a long way from the target

A sister-in-law – up there but I know that I shouldn’t be

Melbourne’s 3AW radio this morning reported a rumour that the Freeway Golf Course (previously known as Camberwell Golf Course) in the Melbourne leafy Eastern suburbs has been sold to a property developer and bulldozed for a housing development.

Freeway Golf wouldn’t be included in any list of Melbourne’s best public access courses, its a standard suburban public course, $25 for 18 holes. The course layout has been redesigned over the last few years, though I remember the Freeway fondly as one of the regular courses I used to play when learning this fine game. The daunting par 3 on the front nine across the lake was always a struggle, as was the drive from the 10th. I remember hitting one of the sweetest fairway woods ever hit at Freeway golf, the elderly lady in the group ahead wasnt too celebratory though as it bounced into her leg! There was also the rare sky hook on the 3rd hole that carried the massive fence onto the adjoining Freeway, and the anxious wait for the sound of ball on car rooftop!

Freeway golf has had increased competition from better suburban public access layouts such as Growling Frog, Kingston Links and Waterford Valley and unfortunately progress and land values look to have won the battle. If the rumour is true, I’ll have to play a final game at Freeway Golf and relive old times!

Whistling Straits is full of bunkers, 967 as per Golf Digests count, yet many have tried to count the bunkers, many gave up, and no two counts have ever been the same. So defining a bunker/hazard on this crazed course isnt easy.

Dustin Johnson felt the full impact of the subjective definition of a bunker/hazard on the final hole at Whistling Straits during the PGA Championship. This is the shot that confronted Johnson after he had carved his drive right, into the gallery. An exposed dune, sand, grass trodden down by spectators. He played a solid recovery, eventually bogeying the hole to finish in a tie for the lead.

Rule officials however judged that he grounded his club in a hazard and incurred a two shot penalty knocking him out of the playoff. Johnson later said that he had no idea he was in a hazard. Which begs the question as to what is the difference between a sand trap, a waste bunker, exposed sand. This ‘hazard’ had people standing in it, the boundaries defining where it stops and the rough starts are subjective. Ive played lots of golf on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, and there are plenty of lies in sandy waste areas such as this that Ive never defined as a hazard.

Rulings are rulings though and Johnson handled himself professionally. An even bigger drama was avoided though, should Johnson had finished outright winner and celebrated the win only to be told he had been penalised would have been a lot worse!

This definition is always going to be subjective, did the fact that all eyes were on him on his 72nd hole of a Major mean he was overly officiated? I bet he wasnt the only player on the weekend to ground his club in a waste area. This ‘hazard’ may not have existed earlier in the week and was created by foot traffic of the huge galleries. Golf can be a frustrating sport, the rules are meant to make it fair and less frustrating, yet something as subjective as this that leaves a pro perplexed needs to be looked at further by the R&A

What a ‘Major’ difference! The recent British Open was a bit of a yawn for some, mainly due to the dominant display and emphatic win by South Africa’s Oosthuizen. This weekends US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on the other hand had a frantic final round, with numerous lead changes, great shots, recoveries, misses, a playoff, a gutsy winner and a major final hole drama.

Nick Watney started the day in front but dropped 7 shots on the front nine and wasnt heard from again, leaving it up to Martin Kaymer, Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Zac Johnson, Dustin Johnson and the Elk! The final nine was a classic Major finish, a four way playoff didnt look out of the question and Elkington at one stage looked like he could be the second oldest Major winner ever. Alas he dropped shots on the final holes, Rory couldnt land a putt, Zac fell just short, and Dustin Johnson was dealt a cruel penalty for grounding his club in a ‘hazard’ (more on that later).

That left Bubba and Kaymer to fight out a 3 hole playoff, Kaymer kept his nerve as Bubba Watson made a mess of the tough 18th hole and became the first German since Bernhard Langher to win a Major. Kaymer played a great Championship avoiding mistakes and hitting some big clutch putts.

This weekends US PGA Championship returns to Whistling Straits Golf Club near Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The course is a Pete Dye design modelled on Scottish Links layouts, and is remarkable for its 967 bunkers scattered across the course. Yep, thats no typo, 967 bunkers, the satellite view of the course looks like a moon landscape with pot and waste bunkers as far as the eye can see. However this was not Mornington Peninsula like natural landscape, over 800,000 cubic feet of dirt and sand was dumped on the site to create the course!

Whilst the pro’s pinpoint accuracy should remove about 957 bunkers from the equation, if the wind picks up it could get nasty. And this is the type of course that could reduce the club golfer into a sobbing feotal position with nightmares of being eaten by sand monsters.

Enough sand to wear out the grooves on the sand wedge

Vijay Singh won here in 2004, and the field is wide open. Tigers woes a well documented, though he seems to find an extra something in Majors. Lefty Phil should be the one the beat, and whilst he missed an opportunity last week to take the World #1 title from Woods, this could be the week. Would love to see Adam Scott up on top of the leaderboard coming into Sunday. Will the links style suit an Aussie win?

The 17th is the signature hole at Whistling Straits, named the “Pinched Nerve”

Mr 9 and I headed to the Growling Frog Golf Course to hit a couple of buckets of balls at the driving range on the weekend. The carpark was hauntingly empty, sun was out, perfect day for golf, however the course had been closed due to too much rain! Something unheard of over the last few years of drought conditions in Melbourne, but the course was basically unplayable on a dead track. The good news, is that come September and October the course will be perfect, and hopefully the rough will be able to germinate with less awkward shots from dry rutted lies.

Luckily the driving range was still open, so we grabbed a couple of buckets and spent the next hour hitting balls on the range, and working on the short game. The Growling Frog has excellent practice facilities, a fully grassed range (none of this hitting off plastic mats!), plus two chipping greens, practice bunker and putting green. Sams driver was on song, nailing a couple down the middle, mine was good too, though the short game is still in its winter hibernation, hopefully this Summer it wakes up!

Jamie and Mike, the legendary kiwi golfers who are playing a round of golf every day for the whole year are currently working their way through Scotland on their epic adventure. The lads have played 216 rounds through New Zealand, Australia, North America and now UK. Their blog – is a must read documenting every round, the highs, lows and the characters they meet along the way. The guys mentioned that a book could be on the cards, I hope so, it would be a great read.

Not surprisingly, they have been able to generate a lot of media exposure along the way, this recent article in the New York Post is a good one, documenting their travels and the great courses they have played. It also quotes John Sabino, the Top 100 Golfer who I was lucky to play Kingston Links with earlier in the year, and was able to introduce to Jamie and Mike. John hosted the guys in New York, sharing a common bond of the love of golf, and the slightly crazy aspirations and dreams that golfers have worldwide.

Great article on Jamie and Mikes odyssey