Every 12 months or so my golfing friends and I head to a fancy golf course for the Blue Jacket Masters. Previous winners have been Adrian, Jon (The Dunes), Adrian again, then Matt. I can’t remember the courses that Adrian and Matt won on. Maybe they’re reading this and will record their past glories in the comments.
Anyway, this year we were on the 13th Beach beach course (not a typo, it’s called the beach course), which is a tough layout and is rated the 17th best course in Australia. Here’s one of the holes. Scary when there’s a four club breeze blowing across from the sea.
We had yet another great day and this year John triumphed - his 36 stableford points off a handicap of 27 just beating me on 34 (off 20). Nice one John! Here he is in front of the 13th clubhouse, proudly wearing the Blue Jacket.
P.S. That’s a cameraphone pic. Takes a nice shot, does the new phone.
I’ve been slack with the jayneandmarty.com posts over the last few weeks. No excuse other than I was on holidays and didn’t really feel like sitting in front of the computer. But I’m back now, so here’s a round up of what we’ve been up to.
Wakeboarding day trip to Eildon, 29 Dec 07
On Sat 29th Jayne, me, Jon B and Iao went to Eildon for a day’s wakeboarding. Jayne and I left Geelong at 6.30am with Georgia and Lindsay, who had stayed an extra night with us. Paul and Catherine (and Nicki) were at Eildon for the day too, so the plan was to drive the girls up there and hand them back to their owners before meeting up with Jon and Iao and heading for the water. The drive up took us just under 3 hours (we went the Princes Freeway/Ring Road/Hume Freeway/Seymour/Yea/Alexandra route, which was smooth and easy) and after a bit of stuffing around at the Eildon shops and a wait at the busy Jerusalem Creek boat ramp we were on the water by 11am.
The lake’s at about 23%, which is around 20m below full, but there’s still plenty of water there. We tooled out of the Jerusalem Creek inlet at the obligatory 5 knots and headed right towards the Big River arm looking for some flat water. There were heaps of boats out on the water (understandable, as it was at least 35 degrees, Christmas week and a Saturday) but we managed to find a reasonably sheltered bay and shared it with only three or four other boats, one of which was a Pride Cheetah like ours called Herbie.
On Jon’s second run he had a big stack and ripped his boardies up the side. The rip got progressively worse as the day went on and by 3pm we were keeping an eye out for the water cops in case they busted him for indecent exposure. You can see the rip in the photo just before the “I’m the King of the World” one in the slideshow. At about 3pm we met up with Paul and Catherine. I had a go on their biscuit behind Nicki’s boat and Lindsay had a board behind our boat (video below). We finally pulled the boat out at about 4.30, all of us stuffed. After a quick feed from the Eildon bakery we cruised home, arriving just before 9pm.
It was a big day, and I’d do it like that again, but even better would be staying up there for the night. It was a bit like driving to the snow for the day - by 5pm all you want to do is relax in the pub and talk about the day over a beer or two. The last thing on your mind is driving home.
Picasa slideshow
Lindsay’s wakeboarding video
Golf with Peter and Christine
On Jan 2 Peter and I went for a hit of golf at Queenscliff, and Christine came too to drive the cart. Apparently she’d never been to a golf course before, let alone driven a cart, so it’s no wonder that she was VERY cautious on the throttle for the first three holes. By the fourth, though, she’d got the hang of it and was tearing around like a veteran with a big smile on her face (witness Peter holding on for dear life in the last two pics).
More wakeboarding
On Saturday we went for another board, this time on Corio Bay with Iao, Jed and Gita. The wind was up a bit but we zoomed over to the northern part of the bay to look for shelter and managed to find some reasonably flat water. Jayne won’t go in the bay (sharks) and Gita was just along for the ride but Iao, Jed and I all had a crack. It was Jed’s first time and he (a) managed to get out of the water first go, and (b) looked very comfortable on both edges. He was all smiles whenever he pulled off a decent carve.
Unfortunately I hurt myself on my second run - I caught the front edge, overstretched and then faceplanted. Before my face had even hit the water I knew I’d ripped one of the muscles in my abdomen but I also must have smacked my head around a bit because for the rest of the day and through Sunday I was nauseous and dizzy. This morning I went to the doctor and she confirmed a muscle tear and some ear trauma. Nothing too serious though so I’ll be at work tomorrow.
All in all it was a great couple of weeks off. Having Greg and Donna with us meant that the house was full and busy most of the time (sometimes a bit too busy!) but we all managed to find our own space.
Jayne and I spent plenty of time with each other at the beach, on the boat, with friends and family and just enjoying the hot weather … summer’s great!
Got a surprise in the mail today - a Golf Link card.
I’m a member up at Howlong on the Murray, but to be honest I thought they’d forgotten about me. I haven’t played there for at least a year and was sure that my handicap would be struck from their records as punishment for being a bad member and not spending enough money on the pokies/in the pro shop.
But no. Howlong still love me.
Golf Link is an online system where I can swipe my card (I think) at any course and have my round entered into the system. Great idea. I had a whole bunch of cards to submit for handicap purposes to Howlong but never bothered because I had to post them in the mail.
Anyway, my handicap remains at 14.4, which was accurate in April 2005 but is quite inaccurate now. I went round Waldara’s front nine 11-over on Saturday and that was flattering, to be honest. Enjoyed the round and great to be out there in the sunshine again but I was a bit wild. 20 or 21 is probably a bit closer to the mark, but as your handicap only moves out by 0.1 every bad round you play it’ll take me more than 60 rounds to get back to that, by which time I’ll be quite good again.
So I’m stuck with 14.4 for now. Sounds good when you tell people but not when they see you top your tee shot off the 1st into the bushes.
P.S. A short story about when I joined Howlong: it was 2003, I think, and Johnboy and I had been talking about joining up there for a while, primarily to get a cheap handicap - $55 a year with reciprocal rights at a few courses an hour or two from Melbourne.
Anyway, we played up there one morning and after our round headed to the office to sign up. The office lady presented us with an official-looking form to sign and near the bottom we noticed that we were required to be proposed and seconded by current members. Not knowing anyone at the club at all, we could see our well-laid plans coming unstuck by this piece of blah-blah red tape.
Office lady soon allayed our fears.
Office lady: "Right then - I’ll propose you and we’ll see who’s around to second you. Oh look, there’s Bazza. BAAZZZAAAAAAA!"
(Bazza exits pokies with schooner of beer. It is 10.30am.)
Office lady: "Bazza, these young gentlemen would like to join our club."
Bazza: "No problem. Known them for years, eh boys?"
John and Marty: "Er … yep. Thanks."
And that’s pretty much how Howlong works. Good on ‘em. Hope to get up there again soon - it’s a beautiful little course, particularly when you get a cart.
