Country Cup

Yanchep, Sun City Country Club

Wow... what a spectacular course, with great elevated tees, and huge chasms to drive over, and the gorge of death to lose your ball in .

Plenty of these posing for a snap

And brrr...what a cold, biting wind first thing in the morning, and the drizzle whipping across the first tee, didn't it feel just like playing at St Andrews, and whoops... what fast, glassy greens that you rolled off just as easily as you rolled on.

Feels just like playing golf back home

And didn't we enjoy playing off those blue tees, which were so far back that a slut really wasn't anything to be ashamed of, and those par 4's where, after a decent drive, you were still 220 metres from the pin.

Over the lake? Shouldn't be a problem...

And with no course map, or any interpretative signs at the tee box, meaning that half the time we were hitting blind off the tee, with no idea whether it was a dog-leg left, right, or straight on, and no way of knowing what was on the other side of the green if we overhit.

And in case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, here's what the course says about itself on the web site:

"A major highlight of any round at Sun City has always been the long sweeping breaks on greens which seem to keep their line secret until just after impact of putter on ball.

Another unique fascination of the course is the length of many of its holes, demanding good use of every club in the bag, including the longest irons. This fascination is made even more acute off the tee, where the many dogleg fairways (12 out of 14) demand a perfect line into the outside of the corner."

Tui climbs the tree to retrieve Peter's ball

The time Thomas managed to hit his tee further than the ball

I couldn't agree more. Which all makes it a little hard to understand why the course rating is the same as Wembley, but there you go.

It was still a great round of golf, and a superb choice of venue for the country cup. Well done, Gary, for all your hard work in making it happen.

And now, for the results.

NTP	3rd	Thomas
NTP	8th	Peter M
NTP	14th	Lynne
NTP	17th	Ian

Ian cleans up on the raffle, NTP's and coming second

And a great time was had by all

Ah well, there's always next week...

Player	Score	Birdies
Glen	17
Stan	18
Thomas	21
Earle	23	17
Derek	23
Peter B	24
Greg	25
Vickie	26
Ciaran	26
Malcolm	26
Gary	30
Brett	30
Ian	30
Shelley	32	18

Can't all be winners, Vickie

Gosh, I seem to have won again...

So, congratulations to Shelley. (And isn't there a bit of a female tradition for winning the Country Cup?)

Shelley had bought the prize for today's game, she had picked out a very nice salad bowl - I'm sure it will look great on your sideboard.

Well done. Time we changed that statue on the top for one with a skirt?