Grazo - what are the hot Aussie golf topics?

[Bravo]

Grazo:

Glad to have you sign in on the Introduction Sticky...You play much more than I thought.

We are pushing hard for an international board here. While I am proud to be a Yank, I love to hear about the rest of the globe...

(And frankly we need some more Aussies to balance out the excessive number of Canucks )

1) Tell us about Melbourne...What is your weather like now? Late Summer - early Fall? what are the temps like and how do the courses vary with the seasons?

2) Your courses....parkland style?

3) Who do you play with and do you have wagers etc??

[grazo]

Yes I do play a fair bit, much to my wife's chagrin!

Unfortunately my handicap is going the wrong way at the moment but I have been making major changes to my setup and I'm starting to see results (at the range at least).

I play mainly on parkland courses, but there is a new links style course that has opened next to me recently and I love it. It's not a true links because it's far from the coast, but it is a great and demanding course that fits really well with it's surrounding environment - it has won 2 awards from environment agencies for this very reason. There are about 100 or so native Redgum trees around the course, and not one of them was felled when building the course. I'll be getting a digital camera on my trip to the US next week so I'll take photos and post them in the next month or so.

Speaking of a digital camera, I borrowed one and taped myself in the motion of a practice swing. I was surprised by a couple of things - I get in some really good positions at the top and on the way down, and my impact and finish look real nice. BUT my set-up is all wrong - head over the ball, too much bend in the left wrist. I found that I was moving off the ball in the backswing and my head was going back by almost a foot! So now I'm trying to set-up with my head back already and almost a straight-line relationship between my left arm and shaft. It's giving me more consistent contact but now I need to start working on really shaping the ball at will.

Weather at the moment is about 33 celsius (sorry don't know the conversion!). I can play pretty much all year around, although we have had a really wet summer, with flash floodings and major storms.

Big golf topic in today's paper was a lot of (Aussie) players bagging La Costa as a venue because the weather is always terrible. Parry has been trying to tell the other Aussies to play in Australia during January and February because the weather is so much better.

Maybe the European Tour has the right idea by playing their tournaments at this time of the year in the Southern hemisphere. Personally I would love to see the WGC matchplay in Melbourne again, minus the boycott of a few years back because "it was too far and too soon after xmas" for the world's elite. Funny how most of them can make it to the Mercedes and Sony Open's though...

[Slingblade61]

33c = 92f (more or less)

Grazo, get a freaking camera will you? We are waiting on shots from the wondah from down undah, mate.

[Rockford35]

Ya, and some pics of chicks too.

That ski jumper around your neck of the woods yet?

She's so sweet...

R35

[grazo]

Guys,

Did any of you see the Jacob's Creek Open last week? It's a co-sanctioned event on the Australasian Tour and the Nationwide Tour...

Anyway, that guy who won - Steve Bowditch - look out for this guy on the big tour next year. He's only 21 and hits the ball a mile. 350 yards on the weekend on more than one occasion.

A couple of weeks ago someone asked why there were so many Aussies on the PGA tour - well here's the answer. An Aussie wins the co-sanctioned event at the beginning of the year, gives him a good position on the money list and invitations to events throughout the year. If he plays consistently for the rest of the year he'll finish top 15 and hey presto!

[DaveE]

Yep, get that camera going. I plan to make it to your part of world eventually but until then some good pics would be nice.

Golf courses or ski jumpers, your choice.