Racing This Time .....
Well despite nervousness that all the golf clubs wouldn't fit on the aeroplane, that cars would break down going up Kilmog Hill, and that general bad things would happen, everyone made it on time, without incident, without delay. So by midday all 22 golfers had arrived at Harewood Golf Club to kick off the 2022 tour.
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The day wasn't bad but little did we know the easterly would blow later in the day, and it got decidedly cold.
If you have never played Harewood before, then by the time you walk off the 18th green your lasting memory will be of the greens. Designed by Greg Turner, they are typical of his genre with humps and hollows and swales and borrows everywhere. The 5th green is either famous or infamous depending if you're a glass half-full or half-empty person. It has a massive hole at the front which our group christened as "The Toilet". Hubby flushed one in there and it took him 2 to get out and onto the green. His first attempt almost made it to the top of the bowl, but just like water flushing down a toilet bowl, his ball seemed to roll down to the bottom in ever decreasing circles. Here is a picture of Neil Cameron attempting a similar shot on the 18th green.
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History will record that in The Eliminator 44 points was enough to claim the spoils. I can't remember who the victors were but they will know.
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Before heading out for a feed, a number of the tourists went back to their room and stood in the shower for 15 minutes just to thaw out. It was a cold, cold afternoon.
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For fine dining we went to an American diner - surely Christchurch's only Michelin starred restaurant. Who knew ?
Day 2 - Let's All Remember The Queen
Day 2 and it was off to Russley Golf Club on the other side of the airport from yesterday. After a hearty breakfast we jumped on the bus for a relatively short trip to Russley.
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Today was a public holiday in memory of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II so The Wagglers did the decent thing and stood for a minute of silence before teeing off. The tees and greens were a weird yellow colour as can be seen from the picture.
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We played a strange competition invented by Yatesy where you added the hole number to your stableford score for the hole. This meant the deeper into the round you went you didn't want to get an outer. On hole 18 an outer became mighty expensive.
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Nobody knew what a good score might be. Anyway, David Peart avoided any of the dreaded zero pointers and his score of 206 took home the chocolates.
The Naughty Boys ....
Here's a crestfallen good doctor who is buying whisky after one of his tee shots failed to go the required distance. Apparently he said a rude word on the tee ..... For the record I owe Deano, Hubby and Neil something alcoholic after a similar misdemeanour on 18 yesterday. I will buy something soon ....
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The sheriff has been surprisingly quiet but no doubt things will get busy in that department.
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People are doing the decent thing and asking RUOK after some people only scored 19 points today. It's genuine concern honestly !!
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For some reason in the results read out Hamish got called Nigel and that name might just stick.
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The boys have been discussing very important issues. Like if you don't make the forward tees hitting a provisional ball do you still buy a whisky.
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We're eating Burmese tonight so there might be some red faces tomorrow morning before our outing to Pegasus.