Heading To The Gold Coast ?
Check The Weather
On a glorious spring Dunedin morning, the golfing tourists set out to make their way across the Tasman for 6 days of golf on the Gold Coast. The flight up to Auckland was spectacular; glorious mountain views, smooth flying conditions, just the perfect day for travelling.
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After a long layover in the Koru Club, we eventually set sail for the Coolangatta Airport just a tiny bit behind schedule. The flight was smooth all except for the arrival into Straya. "Passing showers and a temperature of 16 degrees" the man in the cockpit said, "enjoy your time on the GC" he added. When we landed it was fair hosing it down.
Anyway, we all arrived safe and sound, had a wee nightcap, and most had an early night.
Just about everyone had been on their phones checking every weather website and app looking for the best outlook for our new vicinity. It had rained overnight and passing showers were indeed passing by as we boarded the bus for Lakelands, just 15 minutes away.
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When we got there the heavens opened. Fairways were waterlogged, it didn't bode well at all. Then it stopped, the clouds lifted and away we went. Here is the first group who had the privilege of opening the tour.
Here's the second group away. I've never seen Nick Nicolson with so many layers on ready for golf and this is the winterless Gold Coast !! He looks ready to climb Mt Everest.
Here we see Group 3 ready to have a bash and already the clouds are lifting. Fingers crossed ....
By the time Group 4 teed off it was positively tropical. Now in fairness during the round we had one rain squall of about 5 minutes but apart from that it was all good and a good test of golf.
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Lakelands Golf Club is the first golf club in Australia designed by Jack Nicklaus. It's not bad and works as a fun layout. The fairways are reasonably generous and as the name suggests, there's a bit of water about. The greenside bunkers were tricky as the recent rain had compacted all the sand. And the greens themselves were ordinary at best. But we all got round dry and happy, the beer was cold in the clubhouse, and it was time to collate the results.
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We played the usual 2,3,4 and the scores were about as low as they get. 25 won the first set, 34 the middle, and 37 the last. The names shall remain a secret to protect the innocent.
The Other Stuff
No real stories to share on day 1
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Lefty 1 and lefty 2 both have the same set of Ping irons. Today Lefty 1 was playing with Lefty 2. Half way through the round it was all a bit of a mess.
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Lefty 1 had 16 clubs in his bag and Lefty 2 was down to 12. If you're playing on carts and wandering across fairways with armfuls of irons these things can happen. They sorted it out.
Here is hole 14 at Lakelands - a Jack Nicklaus signature hole. 110 metre par 3, trouble left, right and centre. All good if you can land it on the green.