So, I am playing every golf course in Melbourne Australia, and people have started recommending good courses in the comments sections. If you leave a recommendation below and tell me why I should play the course, I will play whatever one gets the most likes.
Stéph recommended Goonwarra because a pro-am was played here recently, and I have to say this is probably the best course I have played to date. It’s about 45mins from the city but the tee-boxes, fairways, the greens, the quality of the grass, everything was excellent. Now I found it to be very challenging and in particular a lengthily course when you play it from the black tees, if you watch the video you’ll see. There’s plenty of water hazards, sand traps, and tree lined fairways. I teed off at 12pm and was back around at 4pm, now I was walking it, but I must say a cart would have been a real benefit here.
Today I wanted to practice driving straight, and my way to hit it straight is to hit a low stringer. I call it the fairway finder. It’s not a long as my usual drive but it keeps me out of the trees and hopefully that will keep big scores off my card.
Hole 1 is a Par 4 320m. I unintentionally hit a daisy cutter here, but it finds the fairway and leaves me with 120m to the hole. I used the Golf+ app on my apple watch for this round and while the distances were on point, the club recommendations you see in the top right-hand corner are way off for some reason. I hit a 9-iron which lands to the right of the green. My chip goes close and I tap in a par to start the day.
Hole 2 is a Par 4 383m. I hit a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway. I hit a 7-iron to the middle of the green. The pins are in tough positions today because they were prepping for a tournament the following day. My first putt goes well and I take another par.
Hole 3 is a Par 3 175m. I hit a 5-iron, I catch it a bit thin and bounces of the right side of the green. I love a good greenside chip and this one gets me as close to the hole as I could hope for. It looks like a straight forward tap in, but it veers left at the last second and I miss my par.
Hole 4 is a Par 4 413m Index 1, the hardest hole on the course. My new drive strategy is working well and the stringer runs along the centre of the fairway. I take the Golf+ apps recommendation and hit a 4-iron. It comes up a bit short and I am chipping from a pocket of heavy sunlight. Again, I had a decent chip, with a relatively straightforward putt that just veers off course and the last moment.
Hole 5 is a Par 3 134m. My app reads 145m to the centre, it was into a slight breeze, with three bunkers across the front. I preferred to go long here, and long it went, straight over the back of the green. I had a tough chip here onto an uneven surface, it has a good pace but the accuracy was off. My par putt went agonisingly close and left me with a third bogey in row.
Hole 6 was a Par 4 267m. I showed some decent gameplay management here, deciding not to hit a driver, and to take the water and sand out of play by hitting a 5-iron off the tee. Thankfully it worked as planned and came up short of the bunker. My sand wedge hit the green, leaving me with a long putt for birdie. It came close and I tapped in a par to get me back on track.
Hole 7 is a Par 3 156m. I hit a 6-iron off the tee, I caught the edge of hill to the right of the green and just managed to roll on. I had a long putt form here which caught the cover of the previous hole placement and I’m not sure if it helped or hindered me, but it came up just short of the hole and I tapped in a par.
Hole 8 is a Par 5 529m. I hit a good drive down the middle of the fairway and lay up to the green with a 5-iron. It caught a bad hop and rolled towards the trees which left me on sparse enough ground for a 70m pitch at the hole. I barely made it over the bunker, but it got there and just caught the fringe of the green. My birdie putt was on the wrong line completely, but the pace was good and I tapped in a par.
Hole 9 is a 354m Par 4. It’s a slight dog-leg-right with bunkers at 200ish. I went straight over the bunkers and had a 100m pitch to the flag at the front of the green. I was right on top of the flag but just a bit too much juice on it. I had a long downhill putt for birdie and for a moment I was really excited about it, only for it to just roll on by. I tap in a par and finish out the front nine.
I was happy enough with my display here. Par for the front nine is 34 and I shot three over, with three bogeys and six pars. My main focus today was to try and keep my drives on the fairway and I was managing to do that so I was happy.
22 май 2024
