What a great month that was in Australia! A lot of sunshine, beaching, sailing, snorkeling, relaxing, hanging loose and experiencing so many new down under sides of things. It was an excellent time I had there and I really can’t wait to come back at some point.
Golf-wise I had some nice moments as well; I missed however the action at the Australian PGA Championship in Gold Coast but instead (or way better) played some Queensland beauties on my own on Hamilton Island and up north in Port Douglas. Unfortunately. I didn’t manage to play a round in Sydney but I did get to do some other cool stuff: during my stay in Australia there were some very interesting tournaments played: the already mentioned Australian PGA Championship in Gold Coast, the Australian Masters in Melbourne and last but not least the Australian Open in Sydney.
My schedule had room for watching a round so in Sydney I took my girlfriend on the event’s Sunday to see the action at Royal Sydney Golf Club in Rose Bay, Sydney. I also tried to watch some golf TV broadcasting during the days before, but apparently the majority of Aussies is mainly interested in cricket rather than in golf these days of the year – although golf is of much more interest than in most other parts of the world. So the sports channels either showed the Ashes (the famous cricket battle between Australia and England) or, very surprisingly, the European Tour’s Dunhill Championship in South Africa. I figured the Aussie tourneys were broadcasted in Pay TV which I unfortunately had no access to.
On the tournament’s Sunday we jumped on a ferry to cross Sydney Harbour, passed the Sydney Opera House in direction to Rose Bay. From this sophisticated neighbourhood it’s just a short walk to the private and exclusive RSGC, which hosted the event quite often already. After a short but expensive shopping frenzy in the merchandise tent we headed towards the course, followed Robert Allenby and some others before we decided to walk on strategically. It was not over-crowded by the time but would most likely be later on when Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott would make their appearance in the last group. And yes it became much more packed around the fairways but it was still possible to get some nice places to see the action.
First we saw the guys on the 5th with a nice elevated green and had good views on the following holes, too. Most amazingly to mention the approach shots on the 8, a par 5, which both reached in two shots. Rory scored an eagle whereas Scotty three-putted. On the next hole both impressively drove the reachable par 4 (275m) and again Scotty carded one putt more than Rory – and gone was his three stroke lead. Bad luck for Adam Scott. In the course of the next holes he lost his cool and you probably have already seen the results – Rory won the Australian Open with one shot over Adam. I really like the Aussie, he’s one of my favourite golf players and I was keeping fingers crossed for him to win this event as this would have made him only the second person winning the three Aussie tournaments in one stretch. Unfortunately he has to try again next year, but hats off for his committment and the strong will to win important tournaments – as he is obviously a very strong player currently.
So Rory won the pot in the end, his first title in 2013 which is good for him. His form shows potential again after his big switch to NIKE clubs and the resulted fallback in the world ranking – and I’m sure a very famous female tennis player was kind of partly responsible for the lack of winning skills, too… It was a very nice golf day which was perfected by the fact that we went for a rest to Bondi Beach afterwards and then strolled along the beautiful coastal beach walk from Bondi via Tamarama to Bronte.
Really a very nice piece of land over there… my heart is broken I had to leave Australia in the end.
If you want some more information, please refer to these websites:
Golficiency 