What an incredible week I have had in one of my favourite places in the world, Queenstown. If you haven't been to Queenstown before, do yourself a favour and take a trip here, it is amazing, the scenery is truly breathtaking and it has it all, great food, coffee shops, amazing golf courses, adrenaline packed adventure activities and more. I love this place!!
I haven't played too well in practice on course this week but on the range it has been steadily improving. My practice rounds were two that I will never forget however. The two guys in front of me on Tuesday morning on the first tee turned around and asked if we would join them as there was a group of four in front. Those two guys happened to be Sir Ian Botham and Sir Viv Richards!!
Two days with two cricketing legends was a great thrill for a sports but like myself. No end of chatter either as after I gave Sir Viv a lesson on the fifth tee which helped him immensely he started calling me his mentor and the chatting flowed. Some great stories from their cricketing lives and some from my life of travelling around playing golf! Just an awesome time with both of them and to have Beefy pass on his details and tell me if I am ever in England to shout out and he will help me out is a very kind gesture.
On the golf front today in round one, I was paired with my amateur, a Japanese baseball pitcher who played in the Japanese league for many years!! He was a great guy and we had a lot of fun out there and when he connected it really went!! He was a pitcher and I didn't get him to throw a ball at me but judging by his size there is no doubt he would be able to seriously pitch!
My golf was solid today, I only missed two greens in reg and had loads of good chances for birdie. On the front nine I only made one of the 8 chances but things turned on the back nine with birdies on 10, 11, 14 and 15 with an eagle on 13 as well. I parred in from 16 to finish at 7 under and a very solid start to the tournament. Looking forward to enjoying myself again on tour tomorrow and hopefully make a few putts whilst I'm at it!