Queenstown has to be one of the best places in the world! What incredible scenery and spectacular back drops for the two courses we are playing this week, The Hills and Millbrook.
Both courses are in great condition and are simply majestic settings to play golf. They are both par 72 true tests of golf and if the wind blows then that test becomes very tough indeed.
Today in round one I played in the afternoon and that wind certainly got up and played a significant part in the afternoon. The challenge of the wind today was that it was swirling around the place changing direction all the time. For example on the tenth hole today we teed off into the wind from the right side and by the time we started walking down the fairway it was blowing twice as hard straight downwind! The group behind had the down wind benefit on that hole and hit their drives some 40-50m further up that hole. It was a very tough afternoon trying to judge the wind direction.
I played well today shooting 1 under and despite the difficult conditions we had a very enjoyable day. In the pro am format that this tournament holds, I am playing with Nick Farr-Jones again and we played with Peter O'Malley and his partner. It is always fun mixing with the amateurs this week and I love catching up with Nick. He is a quality human being and despite his golf being very erratic we always have fun anyway.
I also got the chance to see what sort of a golfer Ricky Ponting is too, having a practice round with him on Tuesday. He can certainly play, that's for sure even though on Tuesday him and his partner went down to the all Qld connection of myself and Scotty Hend. It has been cool chatting with Ricky this week about sport and also awesome to catch up with his brother Drew whom I played some amateur golf with years ago.
All in all it's been a great week but it would be made better by me playing all four days this week. I am playing well so hoping to put it all together tomorrow despite the poor weather forecast for the morning and shoot a low one and get into the mix!!
Have fun and happy golfing people!!